Can Michael Steele Overcome the Dreaded M-Word?
The new Republican National Committee chairman has much to prove to skeptics in his own party.
Opposition to — or, perhaps more accurately, skepticism about — Steele was repeatedly mischaracterized by the media as a battle between conservatives and moderates. In truth, the doubters were more concerned with the question of whether Steele has the managerial prowess needed to organize winning unity among Republicans, a difficult feat Trent Lott famously likened to “herding cats.”
American Spectator managing editor J.P. Freire summarized this issue before the RNC convened last week in Washington: “What has he done to demonstrate that he has the sort of executive ability needed to lead the RNC? The GOP is in deep trouble, and no more mistakes are necessary. … Did Maryland pick up seats in the legislature during his tenure [as state party chairman]? Not really. How was he as a fundraiser, one of the main jobs of a chairman? Middling. Out of power and in a bad economy, committeemen need to ask how Steele will be able to pull in the big bucks for the party.”
Those are the doubts Steele must overcome and, as Freire observed, he must overcome them in the midst of an economic crisis for the nation and a political crisis for his party. Steele’s ability to meet these challenges have not been helped by months of vicious infighting over the RNC chairmanship, as he acknowledged last week.
“It’s unfortunate, and it doesn’t reflect what Ronald Reagan tried to leave behind as part of his legacy,” Steele said in a video interview recorded by Kerry Picket. “Yeah, we can disagree as Republicans, but we should never be so disagreeable with each other that it turns ugly the way it has.”
After so many violations of Reagan’s 11th Commandment — “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican” — can the Gipper’s party unite behind its new chairman?
The answer to that question must come from those 77 RNC members who voted for South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson on the sixth and final ballot Friday. Dawson’s reputation as an organizer and fundraiser won him those votes, despite racial controversy stirred by his opponents.
The South Carolinian’s supporters included black Republicans who vouched that Dawson is no bigot. “It really isn’t an issue anywhere but in the press,” Dawson told John Gizzi of Human Events. But the question of media-generated perception — the national image of the party in the Age of Obama — weighed heavily on the minds of those who opposed Dawson’s RNC bid.
One former RNC staffer who talked to me privately Friday expressed eye-rolling dismay that so many members voted for Dawson. The ex-staffer admitted that the members had been confronted with a very difficult choice. Many supported incumbent chairman Mike Duncan’s re-election bid, feeling he was unfairly blamed for the party’s 2008 losses. Yet given the overall mood for Duncan’s replacement — in his withdrawal speech after the third ballot, Duncan referred to “the winds of change” — the party was forced to choose between candidates with different drawbacks. For Steele, the drawback was doubt about his track record as an organizer and fundraiser, the ex-staffer said.
Following the fourth ballot Friday, I went out for a smoke in front of the Capital Hilton, and found myself talking to a fellow smoker, a South Carolina Republican whose lapel sticker proclaimed her support for Dawson. A feisty widow with cheerful laughter in her blue eyes, this Republican lady chatted briefly about her late husband and about her youngest daughter, now a student at Furman University. Her daughter had recently expressed interest in a political career, only to be warned against it by Mom.
“I told her, no, honey, you just go on to medical school,” said Sally Atwater.
Does that name ring a bell? Her late husband was Lee Atwater, who served as RNC chairman after managing George H.W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 1988, only to die three years later of a brain tumor at age 40. Like the rest of Dawson’s supporters, Mrs. Atwater was determined to fight it out to the last ballot. Quitting a fight isn’t the Atwater way.
With Atwater’s beloved party at low ebb, the new RNC chairman will need the support of every Republican for the fight ahead.
“We’re in the business of winning elections,” Steele said Sunday on Fox News.
Should he succeed at that business, even the staunchest GOP conservatives will forget that ugly little slur, “moderate.” If Steele can organize victory, no Republican will ever call him that M-word again. But the Democrats might call him something else.
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Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party . A frequent contributor to the American Spectator, he blogs at The Other McCain.
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30 Comments
1. David Thomson:Actions speak louder than words. Will Michael Steele be an effective leader of the GOP? The legacy media will more than hint that he is a black Uncle Tom. Can he handle the pressure? We will soon find out.
Feb 2, 2009 - 5:01 am 2. The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Quoting J.P. Freire:[...] His wisdom spreads forth: [...]
Feb 2, 2009 - 5:23 am 3. Anonymous:Like the 2008 elections, Steele may be a bad choice from a pool of worse choices.
A pro-gun control republican? Thanks, but can’t we find better?
Feb 2, 2009 - 5:43 am 4. Mongoose:Well he seems pretty tough to me. This “moderate” thing sounds more like a Lefty meme IMO.
Steele is fairly typical of the people in the GOP during the Reagan years. He is a one of the good guys, and a geat choice. (Good grief, they almost put in Dawson. Wheew! that was a close one.)
I thing what we shall soon find out is if there really is such a thing as “moderates”, and from at least a couple of perspectives:
1) I am not sure that the “muddle” is an homogeneous group somewhere along “the middle” of “a political spectrum” that must be “won over” by parties “moving” or appearing to “move” across that “political spectrum”. This “moderate” business, to me at least, rather than being a political reality is more a construct of the Left and the Democrats–an illusion which they use for their own nefarious purposes. In any event, this “movement towards” the center is rarely honored by the Democrats after elections. The worst of it is that the GOP just gets moved further to the left and thus we have “leftist incrementalism”, which would really seem to be the point of this “political spectrum” tactics that the Democrats so adroitly employ. I’d bet that, rather, the “middle” is composed of a heterogeneous mixture of special interest groups, the mildly apathetic, the distracted, the overburdened, the superficial, the befuddled and the idiotic. It would be best if the GOP could abandon this whole “spectrum” paradigm because it forces them into merely reactive and rearguard actions as the nation slides toward colectivism, socialism and communism. The question is, what do they replace the “spectrum” paradigm with?
2) Related to the above, it is becoming quite clear that this is shaping up to be a war between the Western tradition, as particularly articulated by America, and Communism/Transnational Socialism. There is no “third way”. There is no middle ground. The battle lines are quite clear. The “moderate voters” need to figure out where they stand. My guess is that they are mostly not Communists but lazy, intimidated or confused citizens whose patriotism and common sense can be reached and awakened. Getting this bunch to come to their senses is what the GOP must figure out.
(As an aside, the GOP needs to dump as a vocal faction the Country Club types like Whitman–have them sit down and keep quiet–they only damage the Party. There will be enough deep pockets to tap who will be desperate to hold on to what they have once they see what the game truly is. The country clubbers are as dangerous as the “Sierra Club Democrats”; they just live across the sreat from each other and both despise the rest of us. Whitman really need to join the Democrats and in fact would be a Democrat had not the Marxist-Leninists that own and run the Democrat Party chased people like her out. These people will turn on the middle class the first chance that they get.)
Feb 2, 2009 - 6:01 am 5. E Voice:Why are’nt they hinting that Obama is a black Uncle Tom? Why the double standard? Give the man a break.
Where were all these other candidates during the election? Michael Steele was the only one on national tv sticking out his neck for the GOP. No one saw the then GOP chair, who was the chair during the 2008 elections? Does anyone know? There was no leadership of the GOP during this past election.
They need to get off this classification and name calling and roll up their sleeves and get together and fight together for the future of the GOP instead of worrying about who is more conservative than whom.
GOP leaders need to stand up for conservatism and vote accordingly. They have become more like democrats because they want democrats to like them and they don’t realize that no matter what they do for the democrats, they will never give them the benefit of the doubt. They will just use them. Republicans need to build up their self esteem. They have been so beaten down by the democrats and democratic controlled media that they have now become like a “battered woman”. The MSM will never change.
Feb 2, 2009 - 6:15 am 6. Cybergeezer:Seems to me that Steele has the experience with media and his party to be able to manage both. This petty media can be manipulated, and still keep ones eye on the important business of legislating. Once the media is manipulated as well as the Dumocrats, then the media might be forced to get more detailed with the issues.
Feb 2, 2009 - 6:30 am 7. Laura:But he needs to keep RINO’s like McCain at a good distance.
The MSM will vilify Steele regardless of the facts. He is a conservative, that’s enough to hate him. I’m just waiting for the nasty racial comments to come from the Left, the “so-called” tolerant party. If Steele’s appointment can bring in more ethnic voters into the GOP, his appointment alone will be worth it.
Feb 2, 2009 - 8:11 am 8. Pee Wee Herman, Community Organizer:We’ll know that he’s not a moderate when some woman comes out of nowhere and accuses him of putting pubic hairs on her coke.
Feb 2, 2009 - 8:26 am 9. ashok:Fundraising is tricky initially, but if he keeps at it, he’ll get better at it. There are going to be lots of people who give him grief for no reason: Ron Paul’s ability to raise funds actually tells a deeper story, that a good portion of money one can raise always resides with people who are flat-out nuts, and being a moderate, decent, likeable guy can actually be a disadvantage in those cases.
But again, he’ll get better. There are plenty of people who’ll come to him and say “here’s what I can give” without him asking.
His biggest obstacle is going to be getting conservatives and Republicans more exposure generally. In his “Blueprint,” he talks about the GOP brand, but he talks about it with regard to lower taxes and other soft issues, and almost ignores just how hostile the media climate is. That latter has to change in order for the party to have long-term viability: winning elections is important, but people need the chance to hear that being a Republican is a perfectly sensible choice, which they are most certainly not hearing nowadays.
Feb 2, 2009 - 8:56 am 10. Cybergeezer:If we can’t find a whitey cussing reverend in his background, he doesn’t stand much of a chance with his own race.
Feb 2, 2009 - 8:59 am 11. tristan:I was sure the M in the headline was for mediocrity.
Feb 2, 2009 - 10:26 am 12. Maxi Malone:My bad.
I’m with E Voice. Many a time I watched Michael Steele on TV standing up for the party. He’s the leader they need for the job.
Feb 2, 2009 - 10:55 am 13. East Coast View:Interesting blog. Relevantly, Michael Steele, born 1958, is a member of Generation Jones—the generation between the Boomers and Gen X’ers. The Boomers have passed the leadership torch to the Jonesers. Which matters quite a bit in understanding the nature of the new chapter in politics we’ve just begun.
In this short video, Steele embraces his own Generation Jones identity, and discusses his fellow GenJones leaders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbbVe_Twui0
Obama, and many of his Administration’s top players, are Jonesers. The GOP is also now led by Jonesers, including Steele, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Mark Sanford.
I’m a Joneser and totally relate to it, and am enjoying all the recent media buzz about Generation Jones. We’re not Boomers or X’ers!
There is a brilliant op-ed about exactly this topic in USA TODAY this week: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm .
Feb 2, 2009 - 11:07 am 14. Ann:I’m very curious to see what Steele’s early weeks at this new job will look like.
I am just going to wait; who did the background process for this man. If guilt by association applies to everyone. This took me 10 minutes on the net:
Michael Steele received the following awards:
“Foreign Aspen networks are located in Germany, France, Italy and Japan. This cross-global relationship coincidentally also represents the areas of the Trilateral Commission.”
“Let’s hope the Aspen Institute doesn’t manage to fool any of the people any time after reading this and other articles discussing the real agenda behind their PR constructed exterior. This organization is nothing more than a satellite UN using OUR money, OUR legislators, and OUR formerly US companies to facilitate OUR entry into the New World Order.”
http://www.isburg.net/essays/aspen-institute-for-humanistic-studies-exposed.htm
C. DeLores Tucker Bethane-Dubois
http://www.bethune-dubois.org/
ABOUT BDI
Founded in 1986, The Bethune-DuBois Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established to sustain and magnify the educational legacies of two of America’s greatest leaders…Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. Their examples and teachings, emphasized personal leadership and the importance of education and training in solving public policy problems and in advancing the status and contributions of all African Americans in American society.
The Bethune-DuBois Institute was founded by the late Dr. C. Delores Tucker, former Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The late WEB Dubois has an FBI rap 600 pages long for Marxist activities.
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/dubois.htm
Feb 2, 2009 - 12:37 pm 15. sambo hux:Cybergeezer:
“Whitey” is a derogatory term. I prefer cracker or honky. As for reverends, I think Mr. Steele is more the Ron Parsley / John Hagee type. Don’t worry, conservatives won’t find anything objectionable about those two men of GAWD.
Laura:
“I’m just waiting for the nasty racial comments to come from the Left, the “so-called” tolerant party.”
I suggest calling Mr. Steele a “halfrican” or maybe “Mike the Magic Negro”. That approach seems to work for Rush.
As for bringing in more minority votes, you may be onto something. Better yet, how about we make that M stand for Miguel. We can make “the little brown ones” believe anything.
Feb 2, 2009 - 1:30 pm 16. Holy Cow What is Happenin:Where is his voice against the Spendulus Bill? If this thing gains any momentum, we are in deep doodoo.
Feb 2, 2009 - 2:30 pm 17. sambo hux:Holy Cow:
We’re not in deep doo doo now?
Feb 2, 2009 - 3:09 pm 18. ricpic:Is Steele calling publicly for Snow, Collins and Spector to vote against Porkulus?
You’re damn right he isn’t. Some conservative.
Feb 2, 2009 - 3:36 pm 19. Cybergeezer:15. sambo hux:
Feb 2, 2009 - 3:52 pm 20. sambo hux:I’m so happy you pointed that out; I’d be so devastated if I offended anyone. How can we function without you? Shall I address you as Mr. Moderator?
(Jesus F’in H. Christ)
CyberGeezer: Are you trying to stifle my free speech? Sounds like the fairness doctrine at work to me. And who is “we”? I thought this was a bunch of individuals expressing their views. I didn’t realize it was a portal to the Moose Lodge.
Feb 2, 2009 - 4:04 pm 21. Cybergeezer:20. sambo hux:
Feb 2, 2009 - 4:53 pm 22. BERLET98:Make sure you get your homework done before bedtime, sonny.
One Iconic, One Shameful Moment in Black History
Iconic Moments in American Politics
There are certain, rare iconic moments that occur in the world of American politics, not nearly as many as some would have us believe, but they do happen.
“Moments” and “occasions” are daily events. Therefore, this article will focus only on those Americans who had a profound influence on the course of American history. Rather than looking at what they accomplished, which is for the most part common knowledge, it will focus rather on what the latest iconic moment means.
In the last half-century, one would have to designate as iconic such moments as, in chronological order, the election and assassination of our nation’s first Roman Catholic president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the subsequent rise to power and assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
and Ronald Reagan’s election as our 39th Chief Executive who was elected in 1980.
People are obviously free to dispute that choice of the three most iconic occasions of the last fifty years but my picks do lead up to the most significant event, to date, of the twenty-first century, namely the election, not of Barack Hussein Obama as president, but of the election of Michael Steele as head of the Republican National Committee.
(The shameful moment occurred on Monday.)
Any contention that a new RNC chairman is in any way equivalent to Kennedy’s election and assassination or to MLK’s murder or to Reagan’s successful efforts to reverse what President Carter did to our military, our economy, and our sense of value as a people, misses the point.
Michael Steele represents perhaps the last, best hope to prove …
(Read the rest of this article and details on Black shame at http://genelalor.com/.)
Feb 2, 2009 - 11:58 pm 23. John K.:Chairman Steele will be a spectacular GOP leader!
Feb 3, 2009 - 12:03 am 24. David:I expect Chairman Steele has a clear understanding of the job of herding cats. Just because he will drive the conservative agenda does not mean he will drive those afflicted with McCainsian Principle Reconciliation Syndrome out of the party. Snow, Collins, Spector, et. al. are not the enemy. We simply need to overwhelm them a majority of true conservatives.
Feb 3, 2009 - 8:18 am 25. Jesse:I understand he thinks that there is such as thing as “bad guns”.
Hopefully, he has reconsidered this position. As one of those grassroots conservatives whose views on fiscal responsibility, smaller government, etc have been (and with the notable exception of the first house Republican vote against the TARP bill and Porkulus) and continue to trash republican ideals, I will hold my judgment…and money…for now.
Feb 3, 2009 - 12:03 pm 26. McRib:Cybergeezer -what a good name. Sometimes I go by Geezerlust. I think geezer anything makes them uncomfortable.
Feb 3, 2009 - 3:14 pm 27. Cybergeezer:Thanks. Haven’t been to Geezerlust, (Just checked out the site: not what I expected.) I have the name, but I’m not the only one.
Feb 3, 2009 - 4:22 pm 28. Tennwriter:I’ll be looking for your posts.
This whole column has been a great laugh.
MORE; MORE.
I’d like some proof that Chairman Steele is a conservative. Its easy to say you are.
Pro-life is good, but not enough. And how ‘pro-life’ is that ‘pro-life’?
Basically, what has he done that has seriously ticked liberals off, and he’s still prevailed?
Feb 3, 2009 - 5:20 pm 29. Bilgeman:Mr. McCain:
“Can Michael Steele Overcome the Dreaded M-Word?”
You mean “Maryland”?
“when they started throwing around nasty slurs like “moderate.””
Oh…THAT “m-word”. Really…same difference.
He’s GOP from Maryland, f’god’s sakes. And even his “moderate” stances couldn’t get him any further than the understudy’s chair in Annapolis.
If anyone should know the futility of appeasing the Left, it should be someone like him.
Feb 6, 2009 - 8:33 am 30. WR Jonas:Michael Steele can gain my confidence and millions of conservative ex-Republicans by some results. Some winning people or platforms that generate support, enthusiasm and energy. Rather like Sarah Palin who draws people like a magnet wherever she goes and unlike Colin Powell who could not excite anybody.
Jun 19, 2009 - 2:19 pmThe mid terms are a slam dunk for Republicans . There are so many irate and disgusted people who are fed up with this political swamp that they are begging for a real winning slate. If the Republican Party cannot capitalize on the loathing the public has for this administration then all is lost. If the Dems steal the 2010 mid terms the Republic is gone forever.