Steele wants a 'Rodney King moment'

Can't we all just get along? That's apparently what RNC chairman Michael Steele is hoping for as he stresses the need for bipartisanship in the healthcare debate.

But he chose some odd words.

"I'm not trying to be an obstructionist here," Steele said on Fox News on Wednesday morning. "To the contrary, I'm saying, can we all get in a room and have a Rodney King moment and work toward something that reflects the common-sense, bottom-up approach that the voters and -- and certainly the insureds of our -- of our country, you, me and others, want to be done?"

Steele was referring to the motorcyclist who was the victim of police brutality, an incident caught on camera in 1991. The subsequent acquittal of the officers involved touched off race riots the following year.

On the third day of those riots, King himself appeared on local television to try and quell the riots.

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?" King pleaded. "Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out."

Asked whether the healthcare train had pulled out of the station without Republicans jumping aboard, Steele let fly another fantastic metaphor.

"Well, I'm the cow on the -- on the tracks. And you're going to have to stop that train to get this cow off the track to move forward," Steele said.

Moo.