A LITTLE FACT CHECKING

RNC Chairman Michael Steele accused Rep. Steny Hoyer of calling him a slave during an interview on Univision:

STEELE: No, no, look the reality of it is when I ran for the United States’ Senate and I was called an Uncle Tom by leading Democrats in the country, when I was called a slave by Steny Hoyer who is now the majority leader in the House no one came running to my defense and no one seemed to think that that was racists at the time.

This is a very serious allegation so I used LexisNexis to see what was reported back in 2006. I found 6 hits for "Michael Steele," "Steny Hoyer" and "slave" between 1/1/2006 and 11/20/2006.

The AP (4 stories) and UPI (1) both reported that Hoyer accused Steele of "slavishly" supporting the Republican Party and The Hotline has a longer version:"a career of slavishly supporting the Republican Party."

This is a poor word choice by Hoyer but it's NOT at all the same as calling Steele a slave.