Steele vows to bring GOP together, sidesteps controversial remarks

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele backed off controversial comments he made about the war in Afghanistan, but stopped short of apologizing to a roomful of GOP faithful at the Nevada Republican Party convention Friday night.

Steele was in town to bolster enthusiasm among Republicans for Senate candidate Sharron Angle, who is running against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

But Steele also was working to pull Republicans together and to rebuild bridges he had burned with recent remarks calling into question America's chances for success in Afghanistan.

"We don't need the fight inside our own house," Steele told the cheering audience of about 300 people. "I'm tired of it. End it tonight."

His call for unity at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson followed Steele's effort to clarify his Afghanistan remarks.

"I know that my remarks may have been a little bit confusing or misunderstood," Steele said. "Afghanistan is a war we can win.

"It is perhaps the hardest place in the world to win a war but this is America, and with the right leadership, and with the right resources and the right rules of engagement on the ground, we not only can win, we must win. We will win and we will not leave our soldiers alone in the battle."

Steele has been controversial since he became the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2009.

He touched off the latest firestorm with remarks he made at a Connecticut fundraiser last week.

The event was closed to the press, but Steele was captured on video making inaccurate statements about the Afghanistan war, including misstating that President Barack Obama launched the war, not President George W. Bush in 2001.

"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's tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed," Steele said of Obama last week. "And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.

"This was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."

Even though he had backtracked on a portion of his comments Thursday during a speech in Colorado, Steele drew a crowd of national media to Henderson.

Angle also addressed the Nevada audience and sought to reaffirm her status as a staunch conservative.

She identified the Department of Education as an example of wasteful spending and called for nuclear energy research at the Nevada Test Site, an area Reid has fought to prevent from becoming a nuclear waste storage repository.

"We need not be afraid," Angle said. "People understand that we need to bolster our economy here in Nevada. One of the ways is to take something Harry Reid has demonized for years and years and years and explore the potential."

She also spent some time on stage blaming Reid for policies such as health care reform and other legislation unpopular among Republicans.

"I hold him personally responsible for what is happening in our nation," Angle said. "He is the one who brought one of those policies into fruition."

Between Angle and Steele, impressionist Rich Little entertained the crowd with an act that included a George Burns impersonation, lots of Harry Reid jokes and a gag with a punch line that referred to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay, as a "queen."

With the attention focused on Angle because of her race against Reid and on Steele's penchant for controversy, the convention highlighted efforts by the Republican party to get past internal rancor and focus on returning to power.

"Everybody makes misstatements, from Obama saying, 'Don't go to Las Vegas,' to Harry Reid saying, 'The war is lost,' ... to saying people might consider bartering," said former Nevada Gov. Robert List, a Republican National Committeeman, referencing some prominent gaffes by Nevada politicians.

Steele "has certainly taken his share of criticism, but it will pass," List said.

Other Republicans were less forgiving of Steele.

Steve Sanson, a state convention delegate in 2008 and host of the Internet radio show Veterans in Politics, said Steele hasn't succeeded in the mission of uniting the Republican party.

Sanson, who is black, said Steele has failed to diversify the party ranks.

"Being a black man you would think he would do something to bring minorities to the party. He hasn't done that," said Sanson, who has publicly clashed with Clark County Republican Party officials.

Clark County Republican Kamau Bakari, 52, said Steele and other Republican leaders have their work cut out for them when it comes to uniting the party, particularly in Nevada.

National attention focused on the Reid-Angle race has put in-state party disputes, particularly among Republicans, in the spotlight.

"Reid is the reason this town is on the map. This is ground zero," Bakari said.

If Angle wins, "you've got David beating Goliath."

Bakari and other Nevada Republicans acknowledged the issue of unity is playing out at the top of the ticket in the state, with gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval appealing more to centrist or "establishment" Republicans and Angle gleaning much of her energy from further right or "Tea Party" Republicans.

Contact Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.