Now. Today.
Political losses in the US don't result in the opposition being shot or imprisoned. So it's customary in American politics that when one of the parties suffers a major defeat, changes occur, especially in party leadership.
What's normally called for is a selfless steward with leadership and accountability, with a plan and a vision to revive the party and restore it and its core principles to power.
Instead the GOP leadership picked Michael Steele.
What they had in mind I'll leave to your speculation, but in terms of providing selfless leadership and vision, they were knockin' at the wrong door.
Since he's been in charge, Steele has done very little that's been positive and a whole lot that's been negative. He's used his position to enrich himself by pimping lucrative speaking tours for himself, accepting paid speaking engagements while he is working as the RNC’s chairman and shilling a book he's written, while spending RNC money like water with so little effect and accountability that a number of high level GOP donors have reportedly closed their checkbooks. Meanwhile the RNC is now experiencing a cash crunch.
He's consistently refused to back conservatives attuned to the party base. A good example was his plowing almost a million dollars into RINO Dede Scozzafava's campaign in NY 23 while shunning Conservative candidate Hoffman, even after he had endorsements from major conservative Republicans. As it was Scozzafava turned Democrat and took just enough votes away from Hoffman to allow Democrat Bill Owens to win by a whisker.
And as I write this, he's refusing to send a dime or any help to Scott Brown, the GOP senatorial candidate in Massachusetts who is closing in on the Democrat nominee Attorney General Martha Coakley, an undistinguished candidate even by Democrat standards in an election that might very well be won.
Even worse, he has what I could aptly term a stoo-pid mouth, almost rivaling Joe Biden in that department. This week for instance, as two GOP sitting senators announced their retirement, GOP indentification up and the Obama's poll numbers cratered, Steele was interviewed on TV and said that Steele said that not only didn't he believe the Republicans could win enough seats to take control of the House in 2010, he wasn't sure his party was ready to be in charge!
Lovely. We not only have a president apologizing for America all over the globe, we now have an RNC chairman apologizing for the Republican Party!
In response to the aghast reaction of Republicans, Steele then responded in a radio interview with ABC "Get a life....If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up," he said. "Get with the program, or get out of the way."
Just today, he insulted a native American GOP congressman by using the phrase 'honest injun'.
Fire him NOW. Believe me, any black voters bringing a racial angle into this weren't going to vote against Obama and the Democrats anyway.
UPDATE: Steele apparently canceled a TV appearance today with ABC News' "Top Line" after he was summoned to an 'emergency meeting' at RNC headquarters according toAce. Hopefully they're giving him his walking papers.
Wow I didn't know. Thanks for this insightful post.
ReplyDeleteI've thought this all along. This man seems like a blundering idiot. I thought he should be gone from the time he said that Rush Limbaugh is a political commentator who is sometimes incinderary. (This is a rough paraphrase of what he said.) Those comments are not a big problem per say. After all they are correct. The problem was he apologized the next day or soon after. This makes the Republican leadership look stupid.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the RNC cannot fire him. Why? He is to much like them. My suggestion to the RNC would be to find areas of compromise with the tea party movement and with Sarah Palin supporters and work together with them on these issues as equal partners.
Unfortunately the RNC has decided to make war on Sarah Palin and the tea party movement. In this the Democrats, the media, and the RNC are all in agreement. This is not a good strategy for them. The Republicans may still gain seats in the House and the Senate but they could do much better if they attempted to forge compromises with Ms. Palin's supporters and the tea party movement and worked with them as equals in areas of agreement.
The RNC, Ms. Palin's supporters, and the tea party movement do not have to agree on every thing. they just need to work together on areas of common interests. My sense is the tea party movement and Ms. Palin's supporters are very willing to do this, however, the RNC and its leadership do not seem willing to make the necessary compromises at this time. My sense is they would rather go down in flames than make any compromises with these people.
"I's sorry!" haha.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back up and running, JP.
And thanks for another great Council line up.
Cheers - Dinah