RNC Chairman Michael Steele opens mouth and inserts his foot, again

RNC Chairman Michael Steele opens mouth and inserts his foot, again

Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Michael Steele in a rush to denounce President Obama’s pick of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), sent out a Memo Monday morning saying that Kagan did not support the Constitution and said it “was defective”.

Right after President Obama made his announcement and before Kagan reached the lectern to give her speech accepting the nomination, Chairman Steele sent out his Memo wanting to be the first Republican to make false accusations about her character. As Bush once proudly said, “Mission Accomplished”.

The remark that Chairman Steele was referring to came from a 1993 tribute she wrote in the Texas Law Review for Thurgood Marshall who had just died at the time and whom Kagan worked for as a Supreme Court clerk. She quoted from a speech Marshall gave in 1987 in which he said that the Constitution as originally conceived and drafted was “defective.” (Complete speech by Kagan can be read here),

Marshall cited in particular the definition in the original Constitution to slaves as representing three-fifths of “free Persons” when counting the nation’s population. That reference was rendered moot after the Civil War with the ratification of the 13th and 14th amendments abolishing slavery and granting full citizenship to all people born in the U.S.

Excerpt from Marshall’s speech that pertains to the heart of Steele’s memo.
(The complete speech can be read here.)

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