Steele Debacle: Day Four

The Baltimore Sun received an email that alleges "a a Steele spokesman gave Milbank clearance to exclusively report the lieutenant governor's comments..." The Sun added:

Steele's week of verbal gymnastics has led to his being skewered on Internet blogs and on cable television, and to speculation about whether the remarks were calculated to give voters the impression that there is political distance between him and Bush. The president has low approval ratings in Maryland, but, with other key figures in his administration, has raised substantial campaign cash for Steele, who calls him his "homeboy."

The dispute began Tuesday when Milbank reported that an unnamed Republican U.S. Senate candidate would "probably not" want Bush to campaign for him. That led to a guessing game in political schools and the swift admission by Steele's campaign that he was the source of the remarks.

Steele said Wednesday that Milbank had violated an agreement with his campaign to keep the information out of print and reversed course by saying he would welcome the president on the campaign trail.

Milbank stood by his reporting yesterday, saying on WBAL that Steele's campaign was fully apprised of what he was writing.

"Obviously he's wrong," Milbank said of Steele. "I have no idea what's going on in his head. [Steele spokesman] Doug Heye and his aides know well the ground rules they agreed to."

An e-mail from Heye to Milbank dated Monday indicates Heye knew the columnist was writing about the lunch.

But, wasn't the campaign complaining that Milbank had violated their agreement? If a candidate for the U.S. Senate can allow his campaign to become so distracted and steer so far from its message because of a newspaper quote, how can we expect him to represent us in Washington? I said it Wednesday, this guy's simply not Senatorial.

Crossposted at Outside the Beltway