Peace activists sent a letter of protest to the Democratic National Committee in response to Brad Woodhouse’s attack on Michael Steele over Steele’s criticism of the Afghanistan war. A key effect of Woodhouse’s attack is the chilling of Republican dissent on the Afghanistan war – Republican dissent that war critics need in order to end it. The letter attempts to counteract that effect and to pressure the DNC to not engage in this sort of attack on war critics in the future.

Several Top Conservatives Demand GOP Chairman Resign Over Remarks Made at Party Fundraiser That ‘The One Thing You Don’t Do Is Engage in a Land War in Afghanistan’ Even As He Criticizes Obama — Ignoring the Fact That the President Inherited the War From Bush and That Steele’s Own Party Pushed for More Troops to be Sent There in the First Place

In November, I made a prediction:

I believe that Republicans are poised to cement their complete opposition to everything Obama and reap a huge political win by twisting their political principles to oppose further escalation of troops in Afghanistan. Unless, of course, Obama can be convinced not to send more troops.

Obama decided to escalate in Afghanistan and send more troops. And so, Republicans are moving closer to flipping their position and coming out as a group against the war.

By raising the possibility that the Afghan war is unwinnable, Steele creates an opening for news media to explore that possibility.

We all know Afghanistan is unwinnable, and that, as a consequence of that fact at the very least (I could think of better reasons), the foreign occupiers need to leave as soon as practical. Michael Steele, GOP Chairman, spoke the truth about Afghanistan and held his ground for, like, one day. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Chairman of the Republican Party Michael Steele made some awkward comments about Obama’s policy in Afghanistan, irking the right wing. With reaction from the left no better, we see that the War in Afghanistan is simply not a left/right issue at all.

While the GOP has denied the fact that they have been using the “southern strategy” Michael Steele has finally admitted what many of us have known about them: they are race-baiters.

Fact-checking Michele Bachmann and commenting on Michael Steele’s fall from power

One of the frustrating things about politics is there is a lot of conventional wisdom associated with it. This is frustrating in two ways, one it tends to tell folks who want to buck the system that they are going to lose in their efforts. The other is the fact the problem with all conventional wisdom, namely for a predictable outcome all the extraneous factors have to be similar to previous elections

The conventional wisdom is says that the party which holds the White House loses seats in the House and the Senate during the mid-term elections. This has been true most of the time, with most recent notable exception of 2002, when the Republicans rode a wave of fear from the 9/11 attacks to a larger majority.

The question becomes is the 2010 election cycle similar enough to previous cycles for the CW from folks like Charlie Cook of the Cook Report to be accurate or is this an outlier year where there are so many factors in play that the CW is not really an accurate model to predict the outcome.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Michael Steele, the hapless chairman of the Republican National Committee, was asked a while back by Fox News how he would stop health care reform. “I will be the cow on the track,” he answered.