The modern Republican Party, it has been said, believes that life begins at conception and ends at birth. Troubled RNC chairman Michael Steele is learning that lesson the hard way. 24 hours after the publication of an interview in which he labeled abortion "an individual choice," Steele recanted. In the interim, Steele not only was on the receiving end of a hell storm from social conservatives, he apparently went back and read the 2008 Republican Party platform.
To be sure, the GOP abortion plank adopted last year in Minnesota is a draconian one. Choosing the ultra hard line of Sarah Palin over the position of her running mate John McCain, Republicans endorsed a constitutional ban on all abortions, even including cases involving rape, incest or the health of the mother:

"We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children."

But in his GQ feature which hit the streets yesterday (and for which he was interviewed three weeks ago), Steele botched both the Republican platform and the Party's ubiquitous "culture of life" talking point. After having earlier proclaimed himself "pro-life his entire adult life," Steele put his chairmanship in jeopardy by using the "C" word:

GQ: Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
STEELE: Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice. [...]
GQ: Are you saying you don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade?
STEELE: I think Roe v. Wade--as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.
GQ: Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?
STEELE: The states should make that choice. That's what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.

That blasphemy did not sit well with the Republican faithful. La Shawn Barber complained, "say it ain't so." Philip Klein concluded that Michael Steele (and not Mitt Romney) is the modern political chameleon, Zelig. And while Hot Air's Ed Morrissey asked "why we should support his continued tenure as RNC chair," Obama infanticide smear propagator Jill Stanek announced, "You thought he was 'embattled' last week over his Limbaugh comment? Ha. He has now stepped both feet into it."
So Thursday, Steele hit the reset button. In a statement released through an RNC spokesman, Steele reaffirmed his support for the party's "Human Life Amendment." And in a Clintonesque turn, he revealed his pro-life bona fides depend on what the meaning of "choice" is:

"I am pro-life, always have been, always will be.
I tried to present why I am pro life while recognizing that my mother had a "choice" before deciding to put me up for adoption. I thank her every day for supporting life. The strength of the pro life movement lies in choosing life and sharing the wisdom of that choice with those who face difficult circumstances. They did that for my mother and I am here today because they did. In my view Roe vs. Wade was wrongly decided and should be repealed. I realize that there are good people in our party who disagree with me on this issue."

Still, it may not be enough to maintain Michael Steele's place atop the RNC. A gaffe machine stuck on automatic as evidenced by his bizarre comments on the GOP's "hip-hop makeover," Sinatra and the "Pack Rats," an elephant "mired in its own muck," Republicans as "scurrying mice" and above all his ill-fated attack on and rapid surrender to Rush Limbaugh, Steele was already in hot water. (That the budding campaign against the first African-American chair of the Republican Party is being led by Katon Dawson, a sworn enemy of school desegregation and a former member of a whites-only country club, says a lot about the state of the GOP.)
If the only certainties in life are death and taxes, for today's Republicans you can add unswerving fidelity to Rush Limbaugh and the GOP's hard line anti-abortion rhetoric. That makes Michael Steele 0 for 2.