GOP chairman Michael Steele says talking to God keeps him from hurting
critics

By David Saltonstall
DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has been having
some interesting conversations with God about the criticism he's gotten
lately from his fellow GOPers.

"I just pray on it," he told GQ Magazine about the flak, some of it
inspired by his comment that the GOP needs to go in a more urban,
"hip-hop" direction. "And I ask God, ‘Hey, let me show just a little bit
of love, so I absolutely don't go out and kick this person's ass.'"

Steele, a former seminarian, may soon be praying to keep his job, too,
after other comments he made in the interview seemed to challenge
Republican orthodoxy on several issues.

Asked if he thought women had a right to an abortion, he said, "Yeah.
Absolutely."

And while he said he was personally opposed to gay marriage, he came out
forcefully against a Constitutional amendment banning it — as the
Republican Party platform recommends for both gay marriage and abortion.

"Just as a general principle, I don't like mucking around with the
Constitution. I'm sorry, I just don't," he told the magazine.

The comment drew a stern response from Tony Perkins, president of the
conservative Family Research Council, who said he had already talked
with Steele earlier this week about similar comments.

"It is very difficult to reconcile the GQ interview with the chairman's
pledge" to uphold the Republican Party platform on abortion and gay
marriage, said Perkins, adding that the comment "could impact social
conservative support for the RNC."

Other Republicans will certainly find much to chew on in Steele's interview.

He stood by his earlier comments that the GOP convention was "a sea of
white people," saying it's "‘cause we have offered [minorities] nothing."

He said he left the seminary because, "I loved to party — still do — and
have a good time."

He said he has voted for Democrats "lots of times" and that conservative
talk king Rush Limbaugh "is a bomb-thrower extraordinaire" — but one the
party needs because he "stimulates debate."

He said homosexuality is not a "choice" and proclaimed himself unworried
about gay priests who are celibate. "No, it's your nature," Steele
explained.

He said he felt pride, excitement and "honor" at the election of
Democratic President Barack Obama, "because he and I are part of a small
family, if you will, of black leaders who dared the system."

But he expressed regret that for years he hasn't been able to get a
meeting with Obama. "I reached out to him brother to brother," Steele
said of his first overture in 2006.

These days, his advice to Obama is mostly sartorial — especially the
president's Inauguration Night choice of a standard tuxedo jacket with
white tie.

"Sor-ry! Wear the tails, bro," said the always sharply dressed Steele.

As for Michelle Obama's mostly celebrated white chiffon dress from the
same night, "I wasn't feelin' that.... It was not flattering to her," he
added.

For now, however, Steele proclaimed himself happy — and maybe a bit
surprised — to be atop the GOP.

"I mean, who'da thunk it in 1963 that in 2009 two black men would sit on
top of the political world of this country?" he said. "How friggin'
awesome is that?"

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Anyone who gives the 'Christian' social cons as much apoplexy as Steele is
can't be all bad.

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