Clever ploy or misstep?

Senate campaign may benefit from candor

Friday, July 28, 2006

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by C. Benjamin Ford

Staff Writer

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Susan Whitney-Wilkerson⁄The Gazette

Cheered and blasted for his anonymous comments about the president and the GOP earlier this week, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (shown here at a 2004 budget briefing) says speaking his mind will attract crossover voters to his U.S. Senate campaign. The controversy ‘‘gets out more of Michael Steele’s message that he has criticized the president,” says analyst Larry Sabato. ‘‘I can’t say he’s doing it for that reason. ... But that’s how it works.”

The flap over Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele’s attempt to distance himself from President George W. Bush and the Republican Party might actually help him with Maryland’s more moderate and independent voters — so says a leading national political analyst.

‘‘I don’t think he’s going to lose a single Republican vote,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center of Politics. ‘‘Plenty of moderate Republicans will identify with what he said. There’s a lot of disquiet about Bush and about his GOP strategies. It could attract some moderate Republicans that Steele needs. It could attract the independent voters Steele needs.”

For Steele to win in November against the Democratic candidate, he will need to attract the same voters who put him and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in office in 2002, Sabato said. ‘‘If Steele wins, it’ll be the same way, winning almost all the Republicans, 60 percent of the independents and a tiny slice of Democrats,” he said.

Steele would have been better off just coming out against Bush in speeches than leaking criticisms anonymously, said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington.

‘‘If he wanted to identify his independence, he could have said so,” Rothenberg said. ‘‘All of his political criticisms were correct. He’s got to run as an independent.”

Using a lunch Monday with reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time was not the way to do it, he said.

‘‘It made no sense to invite national people who may be well-read or write well, but who really aren’t important for the campaign,” Rothenberg said. ‘‘You don’t get elected senator of Maryland by getting written up by Dana Milbank [of The Washington Post] or U.S. News or ABC News.

‘‘It seemed to me this was more about vanity — Steele or people involved wanting to be around some big movers and shakers. If you want to deliver a message that Steele criticizes Bush, you don’t do it with national media, you do it in The Gazette or do it in The Sun or do it in The Post, but with the reporter covering the campaign.”

State Democrats and spokesmen for the two leading Democratic candidates quickly decried Steele’s tactic of praising Bush in public and criticizing him anonymously as a political stunt.

‘‘The real Steele thinks George Bush is doing a great job managing the war in Iraq and vetoing stem cell research,” said Democratic Party Chairman Terry L. Lierman in a statement. ‘‘He’s speaking with a forked tongue about this political stunt and trying to play the victim when in fact he and his campaign knew that The Washington Post would print this story and what it would print.”

Not surprisingly, the GOP had a different point of view.

‘‘Michael is and always has been an independent-minded leader for Maryland. He really should be lauded for his open and honest approach,” said Maryland Republican Party spokeswoman Audra Miller. ‘‘Our base knows that Michael Steele is running for U.S. Senate in a heavily Democratic state, [and] they know he is with them on issues they care about such as job creation and economic development.”

Miller said Steele’s stance will not diminish Steele’s support from national Republicans.

Asked for comment, the Steele campaign attacked the Democrats for criticizing Steele’s character. ‘‘Once again Democratic Party bosses are attacking Michael Steele’s character because they are terrified of his broad following of supporters that bridges Republicans, Independents and even their own Democrats,” campaign manager Michael Leavitt said in the statement.

The controversy began Tuesday morning when Milbank quoted an unnamed Republican as critical of the Iraq war, the ‘‘monumental failure of government” in response to Hurricane Katrina and who described the Republican Party as having ‘‘lost our way.”

Milbank quoted the candidate as saying his party affiliation was an obstacle in his state: ‘‘I’ve got an ‘R’ here, a scarlet letter.”

By Tuesday afternoon, the Steele campaign admitted Michael Steele was the unnamed candidate.

On Wednesday afternoon, Steele went on Republican-friendly WBAL radio to criticize Milbank, claiming that his remarks were taken out of context and that the interview had been off the record.

‘‘[Milbank] got his nose out of joint, and he really wanted to stick it to us,” Steele told WBAL. ‘‘He thought this was a great time to stick a finger in my eye and the president’s eye by going public with that conversation.”

Milbank denied having any agenda. ‘‘I’d never met him before in my life,” he said. ‘‘I went for a free lunch.”

In an interview with The Gazette after Steele’s comments to WBAL, Milbank said he tape-recorded Monday’s interview and the ground rules on quoting Steele as an unnamed Republican candidate. He also forwarded an e-mail from Steele’s spokesman showing the campaign knew Steele would be quoted.

‘‘The things he was saying help him,” Milbank said. ‘‘That’s why we had this debate all day [by e-mail] about whether he goes on the record with his name attached to it. In Maryland, it’s good politics to disparage the president.”

Even the additional controversy of whether Steele told the truth about Milbank’s reporting only helps his campaign, Sabato said.

‘‘No one gives a damn about the rules of reporting,” he said. ‘‘So who does it benefit? It gets out more of Michael Steele’s message that he has criticized the president. I can’t say he’s doing it for that reason. I can’t read his mind. But that’s how it works. Either this has no effect at all because it’ll be forgotten in November or it’ll have a little effect in helping him.”

It was only smart for Steele to distance himself from Bush, Sabato said. ‘‘As the election approaches and the polls continue to turn south for Republicans in some areas, party discipline will break down for Republican candidates because it’ll be every man or woman for himself or herself.”

Rothenberg said the issue may not matter, come November.

‘‘Ultimately other factors are going to decide whether [Steele] wins or loses,” he said. ‘‘It depends on whether Democrats nominate Ben Cardin, because if they do, nothing Steele does matters, because he loses.”

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. reiterated his support for Steele on Wednesday, calling him a ‘‘real independent guy.”

‘‘He’s always one to speak his mind, which is why we have such a great friendship,” said Ehrlich, who declined to address whether he agreed with Steele’s comments on the GOP.

However, on WBAL, Steele played down the differences between himself and the president and the Republican Party. He said he would be happy for Bush to campaign for him in Maryland.

Steele claimed Milbank did not use several positive remarks he made; Milbank said he listened to the tape again and found only one positive comment.

‘‘I’ve been quoted as calling the president my homeboy,” Steele told WBAL. ‘‘I’m not trying to diss the president. I’m not trying to distance myself from the president.

‘‘The president doesn’t want a sycophant in the U.S. Senate.”

Staff Writers Alan Brody and Margie Hyslop contributed to this report.