Camp Romney Responds to Steele

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Excerpts from The Hill
>> read article with Steele's full comments here

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) camp is not happy with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's suggestion that base Republicans had a problem with the 2008 presidential candidate's Mormonism.

On Monday, Romney's camp responded to the comments Steele made Friday while guest-hosting a conservative radio show, comments a Romney spokesman said were ill-considered.

Responding to a caller who said Romney could have beaten President Obama had he won the Republican nomination instead of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Steele took his analysis to another level.

Camp Romney fired off a quick response: "Sometimes when you shoot from the hip you miss the target. This is one of those times," Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told The Hill.

Romney won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference three years in a row, picked up 11 states during the primary season and won more than 4 million votes, second only to McCain.

Romney is the latest 2008 presidential candidate to take issue with a Steele statement.

Michael Steele, through a spokeswoman, released this statement:
via Campaign Spot on NRO:

"Chairman Steele regrets the way his comments have been interpreted. Chairman Steele believes Mitt Romney is a respected and influential voice in the Republican Party and looks to his leadership and ideas to help move our party and our nation in the right direction."

Also for the record, as K-Lo posted at NRO:

Since losing the GOP primary to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Romney has insisted that the Republican Party’s base doesn’t have a problem with Mormonism. “I believe that religion will not be a factor of a significant nature in selecting our nominee, regardless of who might run,” Romney told the Deseret News last month.