McCain: "No Excuse" for Michael Steele's Afghanistan Comments

On ABC's This Week yesterday, Senator John McCain questioned Michael Steele's ability to lead to the RNC following Steele's remarks that Afghanistan is is "a war of Obama’s choosing" and that "the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan":

“I think those statements are wildly inaccurate and there is no excuse for them,” McCain told host Jake Tapper from Kabul, Afghanistan.

“Chairman Steele sent me an email saying that his remarks were misconstrued,” he said. “I think that Mr. Steele is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee.”

Apparently, according to The Hotline's Reid Wilson, Team Steele is relieved that McCain, as well as Lindsey Graham, stopped short of formally calling for his resignation. Jim DeMint also ripped Steele on Fox News Sunday, but said it's up to the RNC members to remove Steele:

On "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Steele must apologize to the military fighting in Afghanistan and focus on his party responsibilities. 

"He needs to refocus on electing candidates who can stop this rampage of spending and debt in Washington -- whether or not he resigns is up to other people than me, but I need to see him focus on this November election," he said. 

DeMint and other GOP officials sought to correct Steele's assertion that the war belongs to Obama. 

"This is America's war. It's not Obama's war," DeMint said.

Plenty of conservatives--Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney, Rep. Tom Cole, Hugh Hewitt, Andy McCarthy--have called on Steele to resign. And only one Republican in Congress has expressed support for Steele. You guessed it: Ron Paul.