michael steele

epublican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is facing a new test of his leadership over comments he made that appear to question America’s military effort in Afghanistan.

Video footage that emerged Friday shows Steele referring to the conflict as “a war of Obama’s choosing” and implying that the effort is doomed to fail.

“If he’s such a student of history,” Steele said, referring to President Obama, “has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Everyone who has tried, over 1,000 years of history, has failed.”He described the events surrounding the dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as the top commander in Afghanistan as “comical.”

The video, which appears to have been filmed surreptitiously, was shot at a fundraising event Thursday for the Connecticut Republican Party, a party spokesman confirmed.

Democrats quickly seized on the remarks.

“It’s simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing — that we were attacked,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said in a statement.Steele has since clarified his controversial remarks, urging a firm commitment of U.S. military force to Afghanistan on behalf of the president. His hold on the chairmanship, meanwhile, seems relatively secure, so long as other committee members refuse to call for his resignation. (Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican who was Steele’s primary opponent for the RNC post, has been the one institutional Republican to call for the chairman’s resignation.)

But Kristol and Cheney’s remarks are significant, in so much as they represent real fissures developing within the broader GOP, and likely foreshadow more establishment figures making calls for Steele to step down.Although Steele later backtracked a bit in an official statement, he should be commended for even talking about what is quickly becoming the Democrats’ war in such a frank manner. The Democratic National Committee quickly attacked Steele for wanting to “walk away from the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban without finishing the job.”