Republican National Chairman Michael S. Steele has launched a direct attack on President Obama in a new mass mailing, accusing the president of being part of the “blame America first” crowd, The Washington Times has learned.

Criticized by some in the party for not taking on the Democratic president hard enough or often enough, Mr. Steele took the gloves off in a fund-raising letter sent out Monday to 12 million party supporters. Recipients included RNC donors as well as the mailing lists of two conservative organizations, Human Events and GOPUSA, according to RNC communications director Trevor Francis.

Mr. Steele wrote that Mr. Obama’s comments criticizing the United States on his recent European tour showed “an absence of wisdom.”

Mr. Steeles letter also slammed the Democratic president for saying he was open to possible talks with Iran. Apparently, he believes he can make peace with crackpot tyrants and heartless terrorists simply by sitting down and talking, the Steele letter said.

The RNC letter noted that Mr. Obama while in Europe had said the United States has displayed “arrogance” at times in its foreign policy. But Mr. Steele said it was the former senator from Illinois who was “arrogant” when he “boasted his election would be remember as the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

He said the president showed similar arrogance earlier when he “indicated disdain for small town and working Americans who ‘cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who arent like them.’”

Only toward the end of the letter does it become evident that it is an appeal for donations to the RNC.

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