june when another young blogger was remved from the sidewalks and beated by police for things he posted online as well. that s been one of the themes. many of them have been online activists, young people in their 20s and 30s who are yearning for a much better kind of life for the future. you re right, tamron. some of the krousd in the square were bigger than we ve ever seen, but the protests have been targeting tuesdays and fridays as the days they want to turn out the numbers. they realize they can t keep the numbers high every day, and today they ve done a really good job of getting numbers up. ron, thank you very much. in washington, a fight over funding for federal abortions is heating up. in two hours the subcommittee holds a hearing on hr 3. already today, six democratic senators held a news conference to denounce the bill introduced
the whole country. but what they ve got is a symbolic culture war agenda targeting poor defenseless d.c. as a sort of showcase for this year s version of isn t murphy brown awful for being a single mom. for this year s version of aids is god s punishment. for this year s version of hate thy neighbor, circa rnc 1992. what s being told to the country at large about republican politics now, by the beltway media and by republicans themselves, is that the culture wars are over and now republicans are all about the economy. when they talk to their own conservative audiences, though, and when they act, it is clear that the culture war is alive and well. i ll give you one last example. in march 2009 rnc chairman michael steele told gq magazine this on the issue of abortion. he said, you can choose life or you can choose abortion. i think that s an individual choice. now, if the culture wars are over, then expressing a rather libertarian down the middle view about abortion rights like tha
well, tell me. you understand my overall thesis i do. which is that social conservatism, beltway common wisdom is that it s dead, that it s only all about fiscal issues right now. but i still see it at work in what the republican party is doing. is my overall thesis wrong or did i just get my details wrong? well, i think the devil is obviously in the details. i believe that the larger premise is that the culture wars are virtually over. what we on the issue related to families and fathers and abortion and the like. what you re seeing now is something a little bit closer to home, which is a state by state approach, discussion, argument, however you want to put it that s occurring at the state level, which is where i have always believed it should be. these decisions affect communities closest to where people are. and that s where you re seeing this played out.
even though the press will take any excuse to debate whether or not sarah palin is running for president, the last time she personally made it sound as though she probably was was when she was selling her last book and promoting her reality show. i m looking at the lay of the land now and trying to figure that out, if it s a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it s a good thing. if you ran for president, could you beat barack obama? i believe so. so sarah palin may be running for president. buy my book. mike huckabee may be running for president. go on my cruise. rudy giuliani may be running for president. buy my sort of scammy speaking gig ticket. all of them cashing in. thanks to mike pence s mom, though, today there s one less competitor in that very lucrative field. joining us now is michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee, who s just as exhausted by me as he was before. you are just too cynical. you think
and is a formidable president presidential candidate in 2012 in the president, and they re going to have to come to the table with their a game. and that s going to be their time as a governor or senator or an elected official. what they ve done, how they communicate, how they re able to take the message of opportunity and empowerment versus government control and spending and how that parries off each other over the next 18 months. it s going to be fascinating. see, i think in a debate between newt gingrich and barack obama it would be a liability for newt gingrich that you can go to his website today and for $99 plus shipping and handling you can purchase a gavel signed by newt gingrich because he s not only monetized, he has merchandised his but look, read go buy it, read it, and learn. the gavel? i got one for free from somebody who tried to scam in a direct mail thing. i ll tell you about that later. michael steele, former chairman of the republican national