Riding the coattails

New RNC Chairman Michael Steele shows the sign of what Republicans can expect under his leadership. L for LOSER.



Republicans, meet your new RNC Chairman. I think I made my feelings about Mr. Steele pretty clear back in October.

That was after Steele went out and pumped the GOP line about why someone like Colin Powell would come out and support Obama instead of McCain. Here's what I said then about Mr. Steele:

According to Steele, Powell just wants to be a part of history and get on the
first-black President bandwagon. You see, it's all about Powell being black.
They always stick with their own, you know. Well then, Michael...if that's the
case, how does one explain you?

For someone who blasted Powell for jumping on the Obama bandwagon just because of color, it sure seems like he has no problem taking this job thanks to his being African American. I mean, lets face it, the GOP Chairman race came down to Steele versus Katon Dawson, a man whose membership in an all-white country club was the biggest national splash he's made lately. Quick question, how many black congressional members does the Republican party currently claim? Zero. How much of the African American vote did they get this past election? Less than 4%.

It wouldn't be the first time the RNC attempted to use Steele to counter Obama. Remember, after Obama stole the show at the 2004 DNC, the GOP trotted Steele out at the RNC. I'm sorry...but Michael Steele is no Barack Obama.

It's hard not to look at this as a strictly token pick. I mean, how well did Steele do in his last gigs? He apparently made up a bullshit story about people throwing Oreo cookies at him during debates in 2002. He lost the '04 senate race in Maryland, despite trying to confuse voters into thinking he was a Democrat with the signs pictured above and having low income folks from Philly bused in to hand out misleading fliers. Or how about this gem:

While speaking to the Baltimore Jewish Council, Michael Steele compared
doctors conducting stem cell research to Nazis performing human experiments
during the Holocaust: "You of all folks know what happens when people decide to
experiment on human beings, when they want to take your life and use it as a
tool." [Associated Press, 2/10/06]

Or how about the jam up job he did with GOPAC. He took over in February 2007. How have things looked since then?

Seriously, for a guy who claims Reagan's pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps won him over to the Republican cause, he sure looks like an opportunist who is riding Obama's coattails. What's worse, he couldn't hack the "competition" of riding them in Obama's on party, so he threw in with the other guys. I have to admit, as a career move, it's pretty shrewd. He certainly would not be anywhere near this if he was in the Democratic party. But since he's in a party that lacks color, he grabs the spotlight.

Here's what Benen had to say:

Indeed, whenever I see Steele, I immediately think of the
editorial the Washington Post ran on his U.S. Senate candidacy in 2006,
which described Steele as a man of "no achievement, no record, no evidence and
certainly no command of the issues." Noting his four-year tenure as Maryland's
lieutenant governor, the Post added, "Steele had at best a marginal impact, even
on his handpicked projects."

Cheer's, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to watching you get drubbed for the next 8 years. Let's face it, you've been damn good at losing so far in your career.

Late add: Good one by Tim F.:

Dear Republicans,

Obama is not kicking your ass because he is black.

best,

TF
ps. I assume that you hope to keep a tight leash on the new antic-prone chairman (e.g., see below) and not look like patronizing racists. Good luck with that.