Flip-Flopping Steele Backed Lott in '02

If Michael Steele truly thinks Harry Reid’s current situation is similar to Trent Lott’s, he should be pushing for Reid to stay as Senate majority leader. But since he’s not, he’s flip-flopping, Mike Allen writes in Politico. In 2002, Maryland's newly elected lieutenant governor weighed in on Lott’s plight, and suggested he just needed to “apologize a little bit more.”

Then, Steele was firm in his admonition of Lott, but also expressed support. “I know that this is not his intent,” he told the Washington Post of the majority leader’s questionable comments about Strom Thurmond. When he spoke to the Washington Times, he called Lott a “compassionate and a tolerant statesman,” and his statement just “a poor choice of words.” (More Michael Steele stories.)