Or radio.

Case in point: Despite rigorous briefings on judges, Steele recently rambled off into the brambles while guest-hosting Bill Bennett's radio show. Commenting on Obama's plan to appoint judges who are, among other things, empathetic to how rulings affect everyday lives, Steele managed to invoke Miss California and beauty pageant judge/blogger Perez Hilton.

Let's see: David Souter. Perez Hilton. Sure. We get that.

"What was so outstanding about Miss California, let's do a little parallel," said Steele. "The empathetic judge in this case, the judge of the beauty pageant, asked this woman a question and instead of taking her answer at face value, he was empathetic to a particular community and he thought her answer should be favorably disposed towards that particular community ..."

If you get Steele's drift, you may want to grab a flotation device.

Helping Steele in his self-demolition are power brothers Curt and Wes Anderson, media consultant and pollster, respectively. All one needs to know is that Curt, affectionately noted for chewing tobacco and taking cell-phone calls at intimate dinner parties, was the magician behind Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's perky performance following Obama's February address to Congress.

Finally, winning cures all ills in politics, to borrow a Republican friend's words. And Steele isn't winning. "Right now we're considered losers," she said. "We get back in the game by winning."

Insiders feel that the GOP should have won the New York special election to replace Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the Democrat who succeeded Hillary Clinton in the Senate. And internal polling showed that the contest, lost by just 700 votes, was winnable. Although Steele directed some money to New York, his critics say that it wasn't spent strategically enough to draw out soft Republicans -- the GOP's real target demographic.

Even the most empathetic judge perusing Steele's record would be forced to wonder: What's up with that?

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CORRECTION -- In my column on the torture memos, I mistakenly attributed two quotes to the torture statute that actually came from one of the memos. The error, though regrettable, doesn't alter my argument that lawyers shouldn't be sanctioned for writing good faith opinions with which others disagree.