'You Be Da Man' Michele Bachmann Tells Michael Steele

RNC Chairman Michael Steele addressed C-PAC yesterday, offering his audience the curious new talking points that many conservatives are using to explain the economic legacy of the man they staunchly supported over the past eight years, George W. Bush. Via CNN:

"Tonight, we tell America that Republican values, conservative values, are right for America," he said, admitting that the party has made some mistakes. "Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad. But we go forward in appreciation of the values that brought us to this point."

To much applause, Steele attacked the Obama administration's recently-passed stimulus package, calling it "nothing short of frightening." He said conservatives must use the political moment to re-assert their belief in a set of basic principles: limited government, freedom, opportunity and the ability of the free market to "create, innovate and prosper."

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, who was moderating the session at which Steele delivered his remarks, was ecstatic at what she heard, exclaiming "Michael Steele! You be da man!" Apparently she is taking the GOP's whole Hip-hop makeover thing to heart.

But what of the party's Back to the Future message itself? Is it sufficient for Republicans like Steele to confess away eight years of fiscal wrong-doing, during which time our national debt exploded and our economy tanked, only to return to the ideological policies (and I speak specifically of gutting regulatory agencies in favor of an unfettered free-market) that may have helped get us into this mess in the first place? And even if you believe that returning to a belt-tightening, government-is-the-problem philosophy of governing, is a course of free-market fiscal restraint the right path to follow at a time of such dire economic peril?

I can't help but feel that in its desire to get its mojo back, more than a few members of the GOP may be overplaying their rhetorical hand. On a day when the government has announced it will become the majority shareholder in Citibank (just don't call it nationalization!), when orders for durable goods have plummeted, unemployment continues to rise, and our GDP sank 6.2% over the last three months, the bumper-sticker calls for limited government, freedom, and the free market all ring a tad lacking in terms of solving all that ails us.

In this writer's mind, Mr. Steele will need to say a whole lot more about how to actually fix our problems before he'll attain that lofty title of "Da Man."

Stephen Colbert pretty much sums it up: