Steele: This is not your father's GOP

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the GOP is redefining itself by moving back to its core values of fiscal conservatism after the excesses of the George W. Bush years.

"This is no longer your momma or your daddy's Republican Party," Steele said.

The former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland engaged in a spirited discussion with members of the press tonight prior to his keynote speech to the Republican Party of Wisconsin annual convention.

Seated beside RPW chairman Reince Priebus, whom he called his "consigliere," Steele said in recent years the party "stopped talking to people" and delivering the message about its core values to average Americans.

"When you stop doing that, you stop losing elections," he said.

Steele said the party is welcoming to moderates despite the way that the defection of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has played out.

Steele had some strong words for Specter, who announced last week he was leaving the Republican Party to join the Democrats. He said that Republicans in Pennsylvania helped prop up Specter in 2004, and suggested the former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's support of his colleague cost Santorum his job in 2006.

Steele called Specter's move "pure political gamesmanship" and said Specter made the move because "he couldn't win a primary." He added that Specter's difficulties arose from his vote not to block the federal stimulus package, and that Specter "voted (himself) out of the party."

"It was a calculated decision to leave," Steele said. "I'm not going to begrudge him that -- but don't push back on my party."

At the same time, Steele acknowledged that Republicans share blame for rising spending and debt because the bank bailout happened under former President Bush's regime. He said the GOP needs to offer a "mea culpa" to the American people.

"That was our mistake in leadership," he said. "I can't look the voters in the eye and talk about what the Democrats are doing without acknowledging we opened the door."

"We are the culprits that actually started this ball rolling," Steele said.

Steele said he thinks in 2010 the GOP can stage a comeback nationally in Wisconsin, a state in which Democrats now control the Legislature and governor's office. No Republican has carried the state in a presidential election since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But Steele said he sees vulnerability in Dem Gov. Jim Doyle's as he adopts "a national agenda of spending and borrowing and taxing."

"That gives the potential gubernatorial candidate an opportunity to compare and contrast," he said.

"We come to play here, and we come to play hard," Steele said.

Priebus played a major role in Steele's campaign for party chair. It took Steele six ballots to win election, and there has been some discord among party veterans since his election, most recently a recommendation that the chair have restrictions on spending.

It's time to move past the rancor, Steele said.

"Those who still want to wallow in name-calling and blaming and finger-pointing are welcome to do that. But they can do that without me," he said.

Listen to the press availability here.

-- By Greg Bump