Regardless of one's preference - and this blogger had a different first choice - the election of Michael Steele as Chair of the RNC is a good thing.
Too much will no doubt be made in the short-term about the fact he's African-American. More importantly, he's telegenic, upbeat, technology friendly, and believes in the big coalition politics necessary to win the Presidency and majorities in Congress.
There are lingering questions about his administrative and fundraising skills. Meanwhile, some of the conservative faithful will bemoan his ability to work with GOP moderates - like the controversial Christine Todd Whitman. My take: he was a prominent Republican in a deep blue state. He had to work well with people outside of the conservative movement.
Alternatively, the election of South Carolina GOP Chair Katon Dawson to the RNC leadership slot would have been an unmitigated disaster. Whatever the other merits of his potential leadership, a white guy from the South who just recently resigned from a whites-only country club would have been the worst possible play to stereotype possible. The fact Dawson had a plurality lead in the 4th of what turned out to be six rounds of balloting shows there is a still a notable cohort of RNC members who just don't get it.
For now, though, let's see what Steele can do.
P.S. Washington state GOP chair Luke Esser was a Steele guy.
Posted by Eric Earling at January 31, 2009 01:42 PM | Email ThisAlso Eric makes the core case for why having Steele win was the highly preferable outcome:
''..., he's telegenic, upbeat, technology friendly, and believes in the big coalition politics necessary to win the Presidency and majorities in Congress.''
Given demographics and the outlook of the ''average voter'' in this country, if the Republican party wants to win again at the national level then it needs to have a place for people like former Governors Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge.
Posted by: Methow Ken on January 31, 2009 02:50 PMAnd that's high praise for this state !!!
Steele can't hold a candle to President Obama, who has been as successful as Steele has been failure prone. I hope he doesn't embarrass himself by trying to 'compete' with the president.
Still, I believes that anyone who thinks making Katon Dawson the face of the GOP is smart is delusional. He is part of the element that has made the party a Southern regional outpost and increasingly irrelevant.
Posted by: Interloper on January 31, 2009 03:32 PMObama successfull? yeah, that "community organizing" gig is quite the mantle of greatness. He even quit at that when the going got rough. The man has done little more than win elections by being a glib, artificial shell of a human being, which Somehow, I don't correlate with success.
Posted by: Rick D. on January 31, 2009 03:49 PMThe guy tried to bribe the homeless to vote for him and failed miserably. And Steele put out literature that implied he was a democrat (and still lost). He said in an interview that Republican was a toxic word.
This is the guy Republican choose?
Oh, an even funnier. After all the incoherent and pathetic bleating from the republicans and Rush (drug addict) Limbaugh about the stimulus package, the republicans finally come up with their own version. Their critizism was that they wanted more tax cuts - but the republican package actually will raise taxes on 26 million americans because the republicans were too incompetent to take off the AMT requirements.
Just another reminder of why the american people don't trust the incompetent republicans to run anything.
"In 2008, 4.2 million Americans had to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The Republican proposal would lower marginal tax rates for individuals, but would not reduce AMT rates. Current law requires you to pay the greater of the two rates, so many of those receiving this lower marginal rate would now be held liable for the AMT.
There is no question that Congress needs to -- and will -- act to prevent the number of taxpayers hit by the AMT from growing to an estimated 26 million this year. However, we confirmed with the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation that 26 million people would still be forced to pay the AMT this year under the GOP bill. Essentially, their tax bill would give with one hand and take away with the other, leaving 26 million families without the tax cut they promised in their bill."
Posted by: correctnotright on January 31, 2009 04:00 PMEric, are you advocating that the RNC members integrate a racist approach into their voting calculus? If an RNC member thinks Katon would offer the best combination of ideology, administrative and fundraising prowess, and a plan for the future, then they should be able to vote for him, without regard for his race, and without worry of how others would view his race. Allowing the color of Katon Dawson's skin to factor into their voting calculus is racist.
Posted by: SlipperyPete on January 31, 2009 04:17 PMThat would be Al Gore.
Posted by: cliff on January 31, 2009 04:23 PMWhich would make those that voted for an enormously unqualified person like Barack Obama racists. I admire your admission.
Good. I have only one charge for you, Mr. Steele: Make me believe.
I'm hopeful that electing Mr. Steele is not the elective version of changing captains on the Titanic.
The last Presidential campaign was a throwback to the abortive effort by Sen. Bob Dole... and that's not the kind of "change" I can believe in.
So far, the wimpy efforts of the GOP in the Senate in caving and allowing, for example, the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, does nothing to strengthen my resolve, although I will admit that the late opposition to Mr. Obama's Generational Indebtedness program is a hopeful sign.
I repeat, Mr. Steele: make me believe. I was one of the most hard core Republicans alive, working my butt off to get Republicans elected... Republicans that then betrayed us and engaged in either corrupt or expedient politics that has sold us out.
Just like their leftist counterparts.
Do what has to be done. Require every state party to immediately design, staff and implement a full time, year-around, Minority Outreach Program. Require every state party to design and implement an early candidate identification, vetting, training and funding program for state-level candidates.
Make each state party relevant again. And you might want to start with the West Coast.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Hinton on January 31, 2009 06:11 PMhttp://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=1205
And forget, please, "conservatism," please. It will not “save” us because it has been, operationally, de facto, Godless and therefore irrelevant. Secular conservatism will not defeat secular liberalism because to God both are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and thus predestined to failure. As Stonewall Jackson's Chief of Staff R.L. Dabney said of such a humanistic belief more than 100 years ago:
"[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth."
Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2).
John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com
Moron.
Posted by: Hinton on January 31, 2009 09:49 PMI won't trust a man that won't trust me with my weapon of choice.
Posted by: PC on January 31, 2009 10:38 PMMichael Steele, yesterday after winning the post of RNC chairman:
"We have an image problem," Steele said. "We've been misidentified as party that is insensitive, a party unconcerned about the lives of minorities. I'm saying enough's enough, that day is over."
Washington Post, November 13, 2006
The six Trailways motorcoaches draped in Ehrlich and Steele campaign banners rumbled down Interstate 95 just before dawn on Election Day.
On board, 300 mostly poor African Americans from Philadelphia ate doughnuts, sipped coffee and prepared to spend the day at the Maryland polls. After an early morning greeting from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s wife, Kendel, they would fan out in white vans across Prince George's County and inner-city Baltimore, armed with thousands of fliers that appeared to be designed to trick black Democrats into voting for the two Republican candidates.
The glossy fliers bore photos of black Democratic leaders on the front. Under the headline "Democratic Sample Ballot" were boxes checked in red for Ehrlich and Senate candidate Michael S. Steele, who were not identified as Republicans. Their names were followed by a long list of local Democratic candidates.
Nearly a week later, a fuller picture has emerged about how the plan to capture blacks' votes unfolded -- details that suggest the fliers, and the people paid to distribute them, were not part of a hurry-up effort but a calculated strategy.
Republican leaders have defended the Election Day episode as an accepted element of bare-knuckle politics. But for many voters, it shattered in one day the nice-guy images Ehrlich and Steele had cultivated for years.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/01/hbc-90004316
And Obama filing petty legal challenges to drive all his OWN Dem. opponents off the primary ballot in Illinois is a high-minded, ethical, "Yes We Can" political move?
When your messiah decides to run an upstanding campaign, THEN come back here and comment. Until then, mosey on back over to HA where you fit right in.
Posted by: diamondshards on February 1, 2009 08:05 AMWhich party was formed to keep the institution of slavery active? Which was formed to defeat it?
Which claims Lincoln, MLK Sr., MLK Jr. as members?
Which party fought to pass the Civil Rights Act, which party fought to pass the Voting Rights Act?
Which party sits a former Grand Kleagle of the KKK?
Which party actually had the KKK formed as its political terrorist wing?
Which party continues to use race and hatred to divide these United States?
Which party is trying to use the chains of economic oppression and taxation to enslave a minority in this nation?
There is a reason I call your ilk Slavers, and your association the Slavery Party...
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 1, 2009 08:50 AMI won't trust a man that won't trust me with my weapon of choice.
PC: You see lemons, I see lemonade. Lets convince him he was wrong. The fact are on our side. Shouldn't be that difficult. In many other areas this guy is a positive.
Posted by: Calvin A on February 1, 2009 09:10 AMHow Special!
He's Evans' Man. He worked for the Governor.
And Ralph Munro says he has good ideas.
That should be good enough for any Republican. He must be one of the good ones. Let's appoint him to a Seattle anti-Crime Commission.
(I wish I was making that up but no, absolutely true.)
Posted by: Kim on February 2, 2009 09:15 AM