[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/30/art.steelecnn.jpg caption="Steele appeared on CNN's American Morning Wednesday."]
(CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele Wednesday beat back suggestions from some political commentators — most recently from the New York Times' Tom Friedman — that conservative opposition to President Obama is creating a political climate that may foreshadow attempts of violence against the commander in chief.
"Where do these nut jobs come from? Come on, stop this," Steele told CNN's John Roberts on American Morning in direct response to a quote from Friedman's column Wednesday equating the current political environment to that which occurred ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995.