Strip Club Enthusiast Joins Sarah Palin In Defense Of Michael Steele

Since his arrival on the national scene, Michael Steele has been an inscrutable riddle to his colleagues. He tells party members to “shut up” and “get a life.” He fundraises at bondage-themed nightclubs. And when he wins, he wins big– see New Jersey and Massachusetts. Now, finally, some on the right are piping up in his defense, including Sarah Palin and Big Government “video technology start-up guy” Morgan Warstler.

Palin, the most socially authoritarian member of the right-wing elite this side of Pat Robertson, announced yesterday on a special edition of Hannity that she is ready to forgive Steele and stands behind him 100%. After all, Steele is a maverick “outsider” just like her, and birds of a feather stick together:

“Michael Steele is an outsider. The machine, I think, is tough to penetrate,” said Palin, who also fancies herself an outsider. “I think it’s been good to have an independent outsider trying to create some change in the Republican Party.”

Amazingly, this puts her on the same team as Warstler, who includes in his defense of Steele’s performance:

I like strippers.  Not so much strippers themselves, or even strip clubs anymore (I’m getting old), but I like living in a country unafraid of pole dancing. And in my youth, I was certainly comfy with two drink minimums and single moms working their way through college. In 1996, I picked up a truck load of surfers in Newport Beach, drove them to go vote for Bob Dole, and then we high tailed it to Mermaids next to the John Wayne Airport.

To be fair, Warstler is using the anecdote to clarify his solid position on the right as a social libertarian. He explains he doesn’t really mind social conservatism until it creeps up behind him and nags him to go to church and shower. To him, the only problem with Steele’s behavior was “optical.” A “lesbian bondage club” is not the image conservatives enthusiastically seek out. But for him, “it isn’t [a problem].  And not for an army of liberty loving guys (and gals) who do not spend Sunday mornings in church. The only problem we have with optics, is moralist types acting like the GOP joined them and not the other way around. [emphasis his]”

In other words, Warstler argues that if Steele is leading the GOP to victory and raising tremendous amounts of money, how he does it– as long as it’s legal– shouldn’t matter, and Republicans shouldn’t let it matter when such a large percentage of the party is libertarian and doesn’t mind.

His position highlights just how completely incoherent Sarah Palin’s ideas are. Everyone who believes anything remotely close to what she claims to believe in (family, huntin’, “you betcha,” etc.) wants Steele’s head on a stake, but she sticks with him because he’s an “outsider” to the Republican machine, the one she has major influence over. Granted, if she’s as smart as her supporters pray she is, she knows how damaging her endorsement can be to a moderate right-winger like Steele. That said, it’s nice to finally see at least one person on the right genuinely stand up for a man who has done so much to put them back into power.

[Image via Wonkette]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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