<font size="6">With</font size>
<font size="5"> in Mouth Disease</font size>
<font size="3">Speaking at a Connecticut fundraiser, Steele said of the war in Afghanistan:</font size>
<font size="4">"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Michael Steele said at the event. "This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."</font size>
<font size="3">Some conservatives fumed and Democrats pounced:</font size>
<font size="3">Speaking at a Connecticut fundraiser, Steele said of the war in Afghanistan:</font size>
<font size="4">"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Michael Steele said at the event. "This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."</font size>
<font size="3">Some conservatives fumed and Democrats pounced:</font size>
- <font size="3">William Kristol, editor of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard, wrote, in a piece on his magazine's Web site: "There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they're certainly entitled to make their case. But one of them shouldn't be the chairman of the Republican party."
"The war in Afghanistan was not 'a war of Obama's choosing,' " he added. "It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort."</font size>
- <font size="3">Brad Woodhouse, Democratic National Committee spokesman: "Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and his words have consequences." </font size>
- <font size="3">Erick Erickson, who runs the influential conservative blog Red State said: "Michael Steele must resign. He has lost all moral authority to lead the GOP." </font size>
- <font size="3">Former South Carolina GOP chair Katon Dawson, who finished second to Steele in the race for the chairman's post early last year, said: "Steele should now be ousted." "The RNC should do the responsible thing and show Steele the door," Dawson told CNN. "Enough is enough."</font size>
- <font size="3">Senator Lindsey Graham,R-South Carolina, when asked for his reaction to Steele's comments stated: "Dismayed, angry, upset. It was an uninformed, unnecessary, unwise, untimely comment. If you’re a student of history, you would know that America cannot afford to allow Afghanistan to go back into Taliban control. We’re not here fighting a ground war to occupy this country. We’re here to help Afghans who could live in peace with us. <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">This is not President Obama’s war. This is America’s war.</span> The deadline of July 2011 in terms of withdrawal has to be clarified but I want to separate myself from that statement. And the good news is Michael Steele is backtracking so fast, he’s going to be in Kabul fighting here pretty soon."</font size>
- <font size="3">Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said on ABC's This Week: <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">"I think those statements are wildly inaccurate</span>, and there's no excuse for them," “I think that Mr. Steele is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee,”</font size>

You know me better than that.