When Steve Schmidt, former senior strategist to John McCain, was in Little Rock a few weeks speaking at the Clinton School of Public Service I had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes after his speech.In that speech, which you can view here, he discussed the importance of the Republican Party setting a positive tone and embracing messages that we not laced with anger. He played a clip from conservative talk radio host Mark Levin who was shouting at a caller about President Barack Obama. Mr. Schmidt then asked, “Does this resonate with you?”
One of the things I’ve been concerned about (and I’ve written a lot about in this space) is the anger represented by the TEA party members (shouters is my term; yes, they shout a lot. They also engage in hate speech.) I asked Mr. Schmidt whether the GOP ran the risk of being too closely identified with this group. He said, “No.”
I’d like to ask him the question again after the rally this week on Capitol Hill where House minority leader John Boehner and House Republican whip Eric Cantor, two of the most visibile and influential national Republicans, stood with Rep. Michelle Bachmann and actor Jon Voight. If you recall, Ms. Bachmann is the same person who said that Mr. Obama wanted to round up young people and send them to re-education camps, among other strange things. Mr. Voight, who appears in the “National Treasure” movies, recently stopped by the Fox News program, “Huckabee,” to chat.
UPDATE: Here are more signs from the rally.