Steele tries to defy history in Maryland contest

Steele dismisses abortion issue
Steele also bridled when he was asked about his position on abortion. I prefaced my question by noting that abortion hasn’t played a big role in the campaign. “So why are we talking about it?” Steele demanded. “It’s in the Supreme Court. What piece of legislation in the United Senate is dealing with abortion?”

Asked whether he thought the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide was wrongly decided, Steele said, “What has that got to do with anything? I’m a Senate candidate. My opinion on that is moot.”

But doesn’t his view on that decision help to define Steele as a candidate?

“Do not think you’re going to define me on that question; don’t even go there,” he shot back. “It’s not even a blip on the screen. That is nowhere near defining who I am. It’s not even a piece of defining who I am…. Trying to define me on this issue is ludicrous.”

The Maryland Right to Life Political Action Committee has endorsed Steele. Cardin describes himself as “pro-choice” and gets a zero rating from the National Right to Life Committee.

Likewise, Steele said the death penalty wasn’t a defining issue. More relevant, he said, are his views on everyday crime. “I know my neighbors over here aren’t talking those issues (abortion and the death penalty). They’re talking about the fact that cars are getting jacked in this neighborhood.”

Steele said that as lieutenant governor he had responded to this problem by setting up a task force which had helped cut the number of car-jackings.

Put more pressure on Iraqi leaders
On the dominant issue of the 2006 campaign, Iraq, Steele stakes out a position critical of the Bush administration, but opposed a prompt withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“I think we need to put a great deal more pressure on our friends there in the government to make sure they are picking up their piece and carrying it forward,” he told reporters after a candidate forum in Hagerstown, Md. Friday.

But he rankled under reporters’ questions. “I’m tired of this (idea that) I’ve got to justify everything the administration does or everything it doesn’t do…. I’m not going to stand here and try to be the whipping boy for the Republican Party.”

Cardin, meanwhile, is campaigning as a fiscal conservative. “You can’t continue to have all these tax cuts and you can’t continue to spend the billions of dollars we’re spending in Iraq and still be able to balance the budget,” he told the Hagerstown forum.

Cardin voted against the 2002 Iraq war resolution and last year voted with his party in the House 85 percent of the time, so if you’re a Democratic voter, what’s not to like?

Zeese supplies answers: Cardin has voted to keep funding the Iraq war and even voted against a May 2005 measure by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., that urged Bush to develop an Iraq exit plan.

Zeese calls Cardin’s proposal for phased troop withdrawals from Iraq “a recipe for killing American soldiers… that’s leaving sitting targets behind.”

Zeese adds spice to this race, offering ideas never heard in the standard 2006 debate. One Zeese proposal: make the first $100,000 of income exempt from federal income taxes and offset the lost revenue by imposing a 0.1 percent tax on purchases of stocks, bonds, foreign currency and derivatives.

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