GOP No Longer Needs a Black Man as Chair, Therefore Michael Steele is Dead Man Walking Within Republican Party

The vote for the next chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) takes place in two months. The current GOP chairman, Michael Steele, indicates that he will be running for re-election. However, a significant bloc of Republican National Committee members wants embattled chairman Michael Steele to step aside, but the rank and file have failed to settle on a clear alternative. [SOURCE]

More than four dozen interviews with members of the 168-member central committee found fear that a badly damaged Steele could emerge from the wreckage of a knockdown, drag-out fight to head the party as it challenges President Barack Obama in 2012. While most agree that Steele’s time has been rough — and costly — the members also recognize that a leadership fight could overshadow gains that Republicans made in the midterm elections. [SOURCE]

“You can’t keep spending the kind of money they’re spending every month just to operate the RNC,” said committee member Ada Fisher of North Carolina. “I would hope he would step aside.”

“The question is who should be hired for the next two years, It’s not a matter of firing anybody,” said James Bopp, a committee member from Indiana who holds great sway among social conservatives on the panel. “I just don’t think Steele has performed at the level we need for the presidential cycle.”

Steele appears to have delivered for the Republican Party.  Didn't they just win a historic landslide victory in the mid-term elections earlier this month?    Shouldn't Steele get some credit for the fact that Republicans won at least 63 new seats in the House. Republicans picked up 10 governorships and added six Senate seats. The party also gained control of 19 state legislative chambers and now hold their highest level of state legislative seats since 1928.

I think that the Michael Steele served his ONLY PURPOSE for the Republican Party.   He was an African American face for the GOP elected in January 2009 to serve as a counterbalance for the remarkable election of Barack Obama ... the first African American president in our nation's history.

Be honest.  That is the ONLY reason that Michael Steele was elected GOP chairman in the first place.  The Republicans couldn't afford to have another old white man as their 'talking head'.   Michael Steele became the puppet.

Steele didn't mind.  In fact, he enjoyed it.   Steele did his 'Bojangles' best to entertain the media and the public when he first got elected. 

But, it's not January 2009 any longer and the Republican Party is now powered by the Tea Party ... and the GOP doesn't see any need to pretend like they are a diverse political party.   They are very comfortable being the party for white folks in America as evidenced by the prominent role that Senator McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) have as party spokesperson.

Michael Steele served his role.   The Republicans are now laying the groundwork to remove him in January 2011.

“He’s a wonderful man. He’s done a good job,” said Cindy Costa, a committee member from South Carolina. “But it would be better for him — and I want the best for him — to step down knowing he gave an honest shot and did a good job this election cycle.”

Dead Man Walking.

That's my view.  What say u?

Michael Steele Speaks at Confederate History Month Conference in New Orleans

I understand that Michael Steele will be a keynoter at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference ... affectionately known in my circles as the 'Confederate History Month' Conference. Tiger Woods got a very good welcome-back from the crowds in Augusta. For some reason I don't think that the GOP audience in New Orleans is going to give that same warm welcome to Steele.

Other Republican Party leaders planning to attend the conference include former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), former senator Rick Santorum, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN).

I wonder if Virginia governor Bob McDonnell is planning on flying the Confederate flag at this conference in New Orleans?

Two More RNC Leaders Call for Resignation of Michael Steele

How long can Michael Steele keep his job as the chair of the Republican National Committee? Personally, I think that he is a 'dead man walking'. I can't imagine that the GOP is going to keep him in office for very much longer.

Two Republican National Committee (RNC) members from North Carolina have called on Chairman Michael Steele to resign. The state's chairman called for Steele to step down yesterday.

Tom Fetzer's letter to Michael Steele

View more documents from News 14 Carolina.

Today we learn that one of the few African American RNC members, Dr. Ada Fisher, wants him to resign, saying, "Leadership demands that when something is fundamentally wrong, we must stand up to it."

There are some folks that still support Michael Steele. Do you?

Can We Stop GOP-Inspired Tea Party Violence Before April 19th Second Amendment March?

I see that Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele turned down request from his Democratic Party counterpart, Tim Kaine, to issue a joint statement against the recent violent acts against lawmakers who voted in favor of health care reform. It is another indication that the GOP is intentionally stoking the base emotions of the Tea Party folks.

Here are examples of what the GOP leadership is saying:

Rep. Michele Bachmann: "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous ... having a revolution every now and then is a good thing."

Rep. John Boehner: "Take [Democratic Congressman] Steve Driehaus, for example. He may be a dead man. He can't go home to the west side of Cincinnati."

Rep. Steve King: "Let's beat that other side to a pulp! Let's take them out. Let's chase them down."

It is time for us to end the right-wing violence brought to us by the GOP.



I think that we need to squash this nonsense right away. It could be dangerous if it goes on through April 19th.

Villagers will recall that April 19, 1993 was the end of the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside of Waco TX. 81 people died.

April 19, 1995 was the day that Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people with his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Tea Party folks are making plans for a gun-toting gathering on April 19, 2010.

Villagers, we need to bring this nonsense to an end. Do you agree?

This Week in Blackness: On the Word, 'Negro'

Elon James White continues the new year with the 2nd episode of 'This Week in Blackness'. This episode focuses on the the word NEGRO. First Harry Reid dropped the word in closed door conversations and then it appears on the 2010 census form. Is the word NEGRO back to its full glory?

Gunfighter had a strong take on his blog ... and Elon James White brings an equally strong take to the story in the following video.





The best line is the last one --- "Michael Steele makes my commonsense hurt!"

What did you enjoy most about this TWIB episode?

Boo Boo the Fool Award: Michael Steele

I watched Michael Steele, Republican National Committee chair, on the weekend talk shows calling for the resignation of Sen. Harry Reid for his racially-insensitive remarks about Barack Obama.

Of course, Steele is intellectually dishonest and hypocritical. He made racial slur earlier this month on the Hannity Show when he used the term, "Honest Injun".

The Democratic National Committee put together the following video to demonstrate the tomfoolery of Michael Steele:




Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Steele wasn’t convinced that he said anything wrong, even though host Chris Wallace noted that “congressmen of both parties say that’s a racial slur.”

“Well, if it is, I apologize for it,” Steele replied, adding that he didn’t mean it in a racial way when he used it to describe the RNC’s political platform as the best in 25 years. “It’s not intended to be a racial slur. I wasn’t intending to say a racial slur at all.”

Intended or not, Steele enraged Native American lawmakers and organizations with his comments and slow response to them.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the only Native American serving in the House of Representatives. “And while I’m certain that Chairman Steele didn’t intend it that way, it’s an offensive phrase in the Native American community.”

Ronnie Washines, head of the Native American Journalists Association said he was

“Thoroughly outraged that the leader of the National Republican Party would use such repulsive language. Those of us in journalism have tirelessly worked to ensure that political leaders, newsrooms, and the public be respectful to all cultures when speaking publicly. Michael Steele’s scurrilous tongue does no service to his group and only undermines the positive work of those who sincerely seek to respect one another in all of our working relationships.”

Michael Steele earns the first-ever 'Boo Boo the Fool Award' from the Electronic Village. I suspect that Steele will not make it through the summer in his current position.

What say u?

This Week in Blackness: Keeping It Steele, Son

In the brand new season premiere of This Week in Blackness, Elon James White comes back to start of 2010 gearing up for Republican National Chairman Michael Steele's New Book "Right Now: A 12 Step Program to defeat the Obama agenda." Plus White puts up a few theories on how to best explain Mr. Steele...

Keeping It Real With Michael Steele

Keeping It Real w/ Michael Steele

Even Young People Aren't Fooled by Michael Steele

Check out the faces of these young people as they listen to RNC Chair Michael Steele.



What do you think of Michael Steele?

Michael Steele: 'Press Fell in Love with the Black Man Running for President'

Michael Steele has become a sad parody of himself. One day he is giddy that President Obama is clowning him at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The next day he is saying that his Republican Party will attack Obama 'with class'.

And I now bring you the latest evidence that Michael Steele is a fool.

Listen to this clip of Steele on a national radio show with ol' school fear-mongering about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the unknown quantities of Barack Obama ... the most watched and known person on the face of the earth.

STEELE: The problem that we have with this president is that we don’t know [Obama]. He was not vetted, folks. … He was not vetted, because the press fell in love with the Black man running for the office. "Oh gee, wouldn’t it be neat to do that? Gee, wouldn’t it make all of our liberal guilt just go away? We can continue to ride around in our limousines and feel so lucky to live in an America with a black president." Okay that’s wonderful, great scenario, nice backdrop. But what does he stand for? What does he believe? … So we don’t know. We just don’t know.

It seems to me that enough Americans knew Obama on November 4, 2008 when they overwhelmngly elected him as our President of the United States.

It seems to me that America knew him well on January 20, 2009 when we came out in record numbers to hear his inauguration speech.

Finally, it seems to me that Obama is regularly talking to the American people in town hall meetings, press conferences, his own website and so forth. He is the most accessible and transparent presidents in my lifetime.

Villagers ... when is the last time that Michael Steele did or said anything that we could take seriously? He seems to add to his blooper reel every week. What are your thoughts on Michael Steele's performance as a national political leader?

Michael Steele Loses Fight with RNC Enemies

Michael Steele's descent into irrelevance continues. It appears that MC Mike lost a major battle with rebel members of the Republican National Committee (RNC). These RNC rebels forced RNC Chairman Michael Steele to sign a "secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends" party funds and contracts. The power grab that Steele bemoaned last week is now official.

I think it may be time to take bets on how long Steele will remain on board as RNC chairman. I'm starting to think that he won't last thru July 4th weekend. What say u?

Michael Steele and the Incredibly Shrinking GOP

Michael Steele made more than his share of mistakes since he became GOP chair. He is trying to make a comeback with group called the National Council for a New America. This new group hopes to produce GOP ideas on major issues like health care and education. The group holds its first town hall meeting on Saturday in Northern Virginia, which will be attended by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Steele still gets grief from members of his own party. Former Bush budget director Jim Nussle expressed a lack of confidence in Michael Steele's leadership of the RNC. "I don't think we've found that yet in Michael or anybody else yet for the party," Nussle said. "So we're going to have to struggle through that for a while."

Finally, it seems that young Michael is engaged in a food fight with RNC treasurer Randy Pullen. Steele recently wrote that Pullen's attempt to wrestle control over RNC spending to be "nothing short of a completely unprecedented usurpation of the authority of the RNC chairman." He added, "No RNC chairman has ever had to deal with this, and I certainly have no intention of putting up with it either."

Poor Michael Steele and his shrinking Republican Party. That can't help but shoot themselves in the foot. It does make for good comedic relief!

Michael Steele is Monty Python's Black Knight

Am I the only one who is worried about the sanity of RNC Chairman Michael Steele? Did you see his interview on CNN this weekend?

Steele said he is "done" talking to the White House, saying he thinks Obama "has got a little thing about me, that I haven't quite figured out what that is." When asked if he was jealous of Obama, Steele was incredulous: "What would I be jealous of?" adding, "I'm chairman of the RNC, so, what’s your point? We both have leadership responsibilities and roles. I'm not equating the two. My point is: you are on your track. I'm on my track. You do your thing. I do my thing."

I realize where I've seen Michael Steele before. He played the Black Knight in a 1974 Monty Python movie. Check it out and see if you agree with me!




What say u?

Top 10 Michael Steele Blunders

Michael Steele may not be the new face of the Republican Party for much longer. It appears that forces within the GOP are rising up against him.

I always thought that the life of a Black Republican must be lonely, but, I never imagined that the 33% of the Black RNC members would turn on him so quickly.

Most of Bro. Steele's problems are self-inflicted. He holds the world record for the least amount of time between (a) making a public statement on some political issue and (b) publicaly apologizing for making the statement. His political will appears to be made of taffy, not steel.

However, I have to give him credit for one thing. He gives a much more interesting interview than GOP leaders of the past.

Here are the top 10 blunders from Michael Steele randomly selected from his first six weeks in office:

1. Failure to hire chief of staff, communications director
   
2. Flip flop on abortion
   
3. Sends 'slum love' to Bobby Jindal
   
4. Offensive comments about 'one-armed midgets'
   
5. Failed showdown with Rush Limbaugh
   
6. Shut down idea for GOP policy think tank
   
7. Lack of support for GOP platform position on gay marriages
   
8. Sought to give GOP more 'hip-hop credibility'
   
9. Thinks he is in the business of ticking people off.
   
10. Threatens to withhold RNC Funds from moderate GOP senators

Things are so bad that the Baltimore Public School system wants Steele to apologize!

Villagers ... what do you think? Has Michael Steele been treated unfairly in these first few weeks as the GOP leader? Any estimates on when he will be either removed or forced to resign?

Michael Steele is the New Face of Republican Party

The Republican Party has a new face. Gone are the faces of old white guys. The new leader of the Republican Party is Michael Steele.

We talked about him earlier this month when he was one of five candidates for the office. He won the GOP chair on the 6th ballot today against the South Carolina GOP chair (Katon Dawson). Dawson was a member for 10 years at a whites-only country club. Jim Geraghty sums up the fears of some in the room when the final vote was taken:

there are already murmurs of, "Can you imagine how the MSM's coverage will be if the guy who was in the country club with a whites-only charter beats an African American on the final ballot?"

What are your thoughts about this selection of the first African American to chair the Republican Party?

Black Republicans Must Be Lonely...

For most of my adult life I thought that my Dad was a Republican. He voted for Ronald Reagan during the 1980 election. I never asked him about it until last year. He told me that he voted for Reagan because he didn't like how Jimmy Carter was running the country. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter that year. I guess that alot of folks agreed with my Dad that year.

Anyhow, it turns out that my father was not a Republican. He laughed out loud when I told him that I always thought he was republican based on his vote for Reagan.

The odd thing was that we never had that conversation from 1980 thru 2007. It wasn't until the advent of Barack Obama's candidacy that I broached the subject with him. I think that I was embarrassed with the (incorrect) knowledge that my father was a Republican. I loved that he was in a 50-year marriage with my Mom. I loved that he worked as an aeronautical engineer on the Space Shuttle program. I loved that he was tight with his high school and college buddies from Oklahoma. I loved that he was corny enough to show us the Super-8mm films of past family vacations whenever I was in town. I loved that he listened to jazz and Malcolm X speeches on reel-to-reel tape. I loved many things about my father ...

....but, it embarrassed the heck out of me to think he was a Black Republican.

I wonder how lonely and embarrassing it must be to be a Black Republican in this election year? I watched a Black guy at a Wisconsin rally for McCain sitting up in the front row as he dissed Obama. He seemed to be enjoying his notoriety as the token brother in the room. Is that the thrill?

The New York Times wrote an article about a young Republican blogger in New York recently. Is that the thrill ... getting publicity for being unique?

Michael Steele almost became a US Senator ... he invented the 'Drill Baby Drill' chant ... and he recently substituted for Hannity on the Fox News television show. Is that the thrill ... getting speaking engagements at right wing shindigs?

Ken Blackwell almost became governor of Ohio ... and he is a hero of right wing zealots for his role in stealing the election for George W. Bush in 2004 ... and he is seen regularly on Fox News as a political analyst. Is that the thrill ... having an open invitation to barbeque outings down in Crawford TX?

African Americans in this country are likely to give over 95% of our vote to Barack Obama next month. Can someone tell me why any self-respecting brother or sister would vote for the Republicans this year? What is the thrill for nubians in a party that never respects them?