Poor Michael Steele....they wanna kick him to the curb....LOL

from Black Politics on the Web

Steele on thin ice at helm of Republican Party
By The Admin on November 26, 2010

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, according to Associated Press interviews with committee members.

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.

With balloting set to take place in just two months, many just want Steele to go.

“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.”

In interviews with 51 committee members, 39 said they preferred Steele not be on the ballot when they meet near Washington in mid-January to pick their leader.

For his part, Steele hasn’t said whether he will pursue the 85-vote majority needed for a second term. Already, members have been hearing from others interested in that quest.

.......................................

Steele started the job with a $23 million surplus; the RNC raised more than $79 million this year and has spent all of it. Some went to places that previously saw little RNC cash or interest, including five U.S. territories that each has three votes on the central committee.

Oh MC Steele.....

You can't be surprised by this, can you?

Read more »

Michael Steele Caught Lying About Afghanistan - Faces Calls to Resign

This is why I love the idea of Progressives taking their video cameras to Right wing events. I'm not sure if this was the case in this situation, but it shows that such a strategy could yield political treasure. Catching these hucksters in their macaca moments, or when they are telling lies should be an important part of Progressive efforts to get off of defense and take back the PR initiative.

Propaganda and lies are a huge part of the GOP strategy. That goes for the Tea Party as well. They have to lie. So it should be the duty of Progressives to catch them when they do.

Steele made a huge gaffe at a recent Republican event.... his biggest gaffe of all, according to Chris Good of the Atlantic. And the calls for Steele to resign have started to pour in. Steele stuck his foot....and leg in his mouth by making the claim that the war in Afghanistan was a war of Obama's choosing. Of course it was a war perpetrated by George W. Bush in 2002 and heavily supported by Republicans ever since. Steele's attempt to make the invasion Obama's idea now that it's becoming unpopular is amazing.

He went on to slam the war effort. Ironically, in his attempt to lie and mislead, Steele ended up accidentally telling a few truths about how daunting a task Afghanistan is and how the effort to nation build may be unrealistic. OOppps!
But once he was caught...he turned around and released a phony statement that basically said he didn't mean it, and he gave assurances that he supports the troops and the war effort. Hilarious.



Qoute From the Atlantic:

Keep in mind, again, our federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not, this is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in. It was one of those, one of those areas of the total [horde?] of foreign policy...that we would be a background sort of shaping the changes that were necessary in afghanistan as opposed to directly engaging troops. But it was the president who tried to be cute by...flipping the script deomonizing iraq while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways that we can engage in Afghanistan without committing more troops...
And so now for our candidates, whether they're running, you know for, Congress or the United States Senate, there is a whole text of resources available to them through our office, through the RNC, through the congressional committees, the senatorial congressional committees, and even some of the think tanks that help frame those arguments so that you know you don't get stopped on, 'Well, George Bush--' you know, fill in the blank. I think that that's going to be very helpful...

He also describes the McChyrstal fiasco as "comical".

Read more from CBS.

Michael Steele Talking Too Much About Race

After recent revelations about his big spending, Michael Steele has started to come clean about the role race plays in the GOP. It's funny how he seems to have discovered that he is Black over the last few weeks. He recently admitted that the GOP had in fact used the Southern Strategy, as pointed out by Rachel Maddow.

Steele also stated, during a speech this week at DePaul University:

“Why should an African-American vote Republican?

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night….

Steele seemed to hold the diverse student audience’s attention most when he talked about his own experience suffering racial discrimination — in his first law firm interview for example — and when he confessed his party’s failure to reach out to African-Americans:

“We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans,” Steele said. “This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass. The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP, and yet we have mistreated that relationship. People don’t walk away from parties, Their parties walk away from them.

“For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

It appears that the Republican Party may be losing control of its racial stooge. The Republican leadership put Steele in the Chairman's seat to be a prop to counter claims that the Party wasn't a reflection of America's diversity. He was put there to look pretty. I don't think his GOP handlers are too happy about him making comments that basically confirm what critics have been saying for some time about the Republican Party. First he made the comment that Black leaders may not have as much room for error....in response to criticism from within his own Party. Now he is talking about how his Party has used the Southern Strategy.

I think he'll be gone if the Republicans don't win big in November. They will have to win big by gaining enough seats to take over the House of Representatives.

Michael Steele can't and shouldn't win

Ever since assuming his position as head of the RNC, Michael Steele has been in a can't-win situation. The Republican party was in such a mess after the 2008 election, that they had nowhere to go but up. Even then, Steele has done everything but turn his party around.

Read the rest at The Loop.

Secret RNC Files Reveal Republican Strategy

Republicans were seriously busted this week. An RNC fundraising presentation reveals the core of their overall strategy. The files reveal what many of us have been saying for years regarding how the Republicans manipulate the public. It confirms how the Republicans use fear (this is why their propaganda is so ridiculously over the top)...and it is also why they target the ill informed. But the papers reveal something worse...that the leadership of the Republican Party has a certain contempt for their own base voters. Stunning (not in the sense that this is what really goes on...many of us already knew that. But stunning in the sense that it is now out there for all to see). Sadly though... stupid American voters will still support these people.

Hear Howard Deans take on this.

From TPM

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared on Fox News this afternoon, and had to answer some tough questions about the recent internal fundraising presentation that included negative depictions of President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and the RNC's own donors.

The fundraising presentation, which was originally reported by the Politico, included the infamous illustration of Obama as the Joker, and also compared Pelosi to Cruella de Vil. It also directed how to appeal to "ego-driven" large donors, and to appeal to small donors through "fear" and "extreme negative feelings" and "reactionary" attitudes against the Obama administration.

Watch as Steele fumbles in his attempts to explain... lol

Michael Steele - at it again

Michael Steele is a Slave Catching Coon

Plain and simple.

They should have beat his ass on GP at Howard for having the nerve to utter such bullshyt.



From The HuffingtonPost:

Dave Zirin
Posted: September 2, 2009 12:01 AM
Michael Steele: Meet Amanda Duzak

Tuesday night at Howard University, RNC chair Michael Steele did an impression of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz: he was absolutely heartless. Not everyday do we see the head of a major political party insult a 23 year old whose mother just died of cancer.

Read more »

The Republican Party's Makeover Is Going Well

It's going well if the goal is irrelevance.

Over the past week, Republicans have been busy self destructing and attacking one another. And I have to admit, it has been a joy to watch. The Republican base (the racists, the bigots, Southern White xenophobes, hate mongers, religious radicals, fiscal incompetents and the like) have been chastising a phony group of moderates who are at least attempting to appear reasonable and want to show that they are pulling the Party back to some sort of common sense position. The so-called Moderates, led by Congressman Eric Cantor, Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney are calling themselves the National Council for a New America. The group wants to travel the Country (outside of the South) to get a sense of what Americans are feeling and thinking and to get ideas on what direction they should take the Party. It's all part of efforts by Republicans to re-brand. But Rush Limbaugh (the Republican Party leader) is having none of it. Limbaugh & Co. believe that racism, greed, Laissez-faire government, free markets, torture, war, Wall Street, corporate incompetence, John Wayne Foreign Policy, Confederate Southern ideology, the Party of the White- Rich- and elderly, and the Party of "no" is the way of the future for the Republicans.

Tricky Dick II reaffirmed Limbaugh's position as the Republican leader and his out of touch ideology over the weekend by saying that he would support Boss Limbaugh's Republican Brand over that of Colin Powell (a man who actually served in war and has a very distinguished career). Because Powell endorsed Barack Obama during the 2008 General Election Campaign, Cheney stated that he "didn't know Powell was still a Republican".

The Republican Party is now being consumed by the very monster that it created some 20+ years ago - the powerful Right Wing Media.... which believes in the Party's more hardline, radical ideology regarding governance and religion. Don't doubt the strength they hold. They were able to sell the Country a phony war and were able to get a buffoon elected not once, but twice. Now the powerful Republican/Right Wing media is targeting its own. The resulting battle is going to be ugly.... but quite entertaining if you are a Progressive or Democrat.

This is why I have suggested that this is the time to force Republicans to make a choice. Force Republicans (those who will even admit to being Republican at this point) to either support the ridiculous comments and beliefs of their leaders in the Right wing media, or reject & denounce them. But this is a big dilemma for Republicans (and this is where Progressives trap them in a corner) because they can't afford to accept either choice. The Republican Party dies if the ideology of Limbaugh & Co. (the vast radical Republican media apparatus) is accepted by the Party's rank and file members. Because the rest of America (Democrats, Progressives, Independents, etc) isn't interested in buying the racism, religious radicalism, backwards thinking, out of touch beliefs, failed policies, and Laissez-faire attitude that the Republicans are selling. On the other hand, Republicans can't afford to reject the Right wing media either.... because the GOP has always relied on its propaganda wing to sustain the Party. It has never been sustained by its ideas (not in modern times at least) it has always been the Party's ability to control the narrative, control information and distort its opponents that has sustained the Party. The Republican Party is just a shell without its media platform. Right wing media is essential for the Party to gets its message out, to raise cash, to mobilize voters, to agitate and anger its base with wedge issues, to run its propaganda.... to do everything. Right wing media is a well orchestrated machine.

The problem is... that the machine has gotten so big.... that it's now a monster that has taken on a life of its own. It is no longer an apparatus that the old traditional Republican political leaders in Washington D.C. can control. Thus, they lost the real leadership of the Party a long time ago. The huge network of Limbaugh and Co. represent the true leadership of the Party....regardless of how backwards that leadership is.

Steele Yields Powers To Foes In RNC

From The Washington Times:

EXCLUSIVE: Steele yields powers to foes in RNC
Accepts limits on spending
By Ralph Z. Hallow (Contact) | Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts, The Washington Times has learned.

The "good governance" agreement revives checks and balances Mr. Steele resisted implementing for RNC contracts, fees for legal work and other expenditures that were not renewed after the 2008 presidential nominating contest.

The agreement, proposed by several current and former RNC officials, goes further, making 33-year RNC veteran Jay Banning, who was fired by Mr. Steele along with his deputy last month, an on-call adviser to the RNC treasurer. Mr. Banning was seen as a trusted liaison to RNC members critical of Mr. Steele's tenure and financial management.

"I regard them - the Steele administration - bound by it," former Republican National Committee General Counsel David Norcross told The Times on Tuesday.

Mr. Norcross, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, and former party budget chiefs Ron Kaufman and Alec Poitevint had fought with Mr. Steele over having the 168-member committee vote on restoring the "good governance" guidelines created in 2004 at a special May 20 meeting.

Trevor Francis, the RNC's new communications director, would not comment on the agreement that several of the dissident members said was reached.

"Everything was already in place," Mr. Francis said.

Rest of article at link above.
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Now, I could comment here, but I'll let Shay, from Booker Rising, give the last comment:

I call it as I see it. Ol' boy is letting these dudes symbolically whip his back like a slave. As chairman, he has the power to hire and fire but yet he's required to re-hire someone whom he let go? Every other chairman has controlled the purse strings, but Steele cannot do so?

Steele is clearly politically weak, and not HNIC but in a Tobyesque situation.

For those that don't understand the Roots Reference:

Former Evangelical Slams the GOP

Former Evangelical Frank Schaeffer smacks down the crazies running the GOP during an appearance in the DL Hugley show:



_________________________

Related Post

The Christian Right In America (sorry, some links are dead).

SNL Does Michael Steele - Hilarious!

The GOP's 'Urban Outreach'

Hat tip: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Michael Steele Is Forced To Bow Down To His Masters

Michael Steele was forced to bow down to Rush Limbaugh after getting a little too brave on CNN yesterday when he stated that Limbaugh was not the leader of the Republican Party. Limbaugh and Veteran Republicans had to quickly correct Steele and remind him of his place. And they did it in public *ouch*.

Here is Steele on CNN speaking with DL Hughley (Carlton Ridenhour also on set):



But Rush Limbaugh was not amused by Steele's comments. Limbaugh had to remind Steele who was in charge.

Limbaugh also stated:

“It's time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of trying to be some talking head media star, which you're having a tough time pulling off,” “But it seems to me that it's Michael Steele who is off to a shaky start.”

Steele immediately called Rush: (my paraphrasing)

I's Sorry Masta.... Please forgive Me... don't hurt me please. I understand sir that I am simply here to fill a role.... the role that you chose for me. I know I'm the token Nigra... I in no way meant to challenge your authority as leader. I just got carried away talking to that DL Hughley on CNN... I don't know what I was thinkin'. Masta... Please forgive me.

I hope I can stay in my position... I sure does like it here Masta... I hope this situation won't get me removed. I'll do anything you want me to just to make up fa dis. Can I shine your shoes the next time we meet? Just let me know where you need me...and I's make sure I bring ma shoeshine bag wit me. I'll shine those shoes so clean you'd be able ta see ya reflection.

Just as I have been saying here (and elsewhere) for years... Limbaugh and Co. represents the leadership of the Republican Party... they are the ideological and spiritual compass of the Party....and they speak for the Party. It has been this way for at least the past 20 years.

Somehow Steele actually believed that he was running something (funny). All this time... he has failed to realize why he was chosen as the figurehead leader of the Republican Party.

I have to admit...this kind of nonsense is disturbing... to see a grown man...an adult Black man... having his dignity stripped so publicly. It almost reminds you of another time. But it's equally bothersome to watch Black men like Steele, Keyes, Blackwell, and others... offer themselves up for this kind of public castration and submission to a Party that seeks to exploit them.

Whenever a Republican challenges the Right Wing Republican Media apparatus... they are quickly reminded of how powerful this group is...and they are made to apologize. This has happened about 3 or 4 times in the past week, and it happens all the time. Even Republicans are afraid of Rush Limbaugh and the other figures in Conservative Talk Radio and TV. In many ways...the Republican Party operates like an organized crime syndicate. What we are seeing now is a lot of infighting...and jockeying for position during a time of change....just like in the Mafia.

This is likely to go on for quite some time as the Republicans search for a new identity...try to determine what they stand for... as they try to find a message...and as they seek some sort of "official" figurehead leadership, now that Tricky Dick II, Tom Delay, Trent Lott, and other GOP stalwarts have all moved out of their official positions of power and influence.

I have been saying forever that it was past time to force Republicans to admit the obvious... that Right Wing nuts like Limbaugh are the spokespeople and the leaders of the Republican Party. Progressive strategists are finally learning. Once you shackle the Republican Political leaders with their Spokespeople they will be shamed... but would likely have no choice but to be content with the connection. The GOP's political success is dependent on the Right Wing media apparatus and its reputation for filling the airwaves with lies, distortions, propaganda & hatred. Republicans simply can't make it if they are forced to deal with real issues, real people and if they have to come up with solutions to real problems. They don't operate in the real world with the rest of us. If they do, then they are wearing blinders.

In years past... Republicans operated alongside the Conservative Talk Radio and TV lunatics... but in a more subtle way. Right Wing Talk Radio has always been more of a shadowy parallel companion to the official Republican Party. It was more of a wink and a nod relationship...where officially... Republican political figures were able to distance themselves from racist and incendiary comments from their media cohorts. This arrangement almost always allowed Republican political figures to claim plausible deniability...whenever their friends in the media (many whom they know to be racist and sexist jackasses) made offensive comments.

Now Republican Politicians won't be able to do that so easily anymore. And that's a good thing. I say... let their Conservative media buddies drag them down even further...and let them continue with their infighting. But if Progressives don't know how to exploit this... then they will miss an opportunity IMO.

As much as I have criticized Hughley.... I believe that what he did with Steele was a pretty smart move. He put Steele in an impossible position, where he had no choice but to say something that would cause a problem within the Republican Party. But the GOP can't call Hughley the bad guy. They have been running around with these media nuts for years.... now they either have to claim them or fight it out with them and purge them. (And that's not likely to happen because the GOP relies on its media wing for its very survival). They are stuck with Limbaugh and Co. And I couldn't be happier.

Michael Steele vs. Tim Kaine

Michael Steele on 'This Week'

Can't find the embed code, but here's the VIDEO LINK.

Transcript from the money section:

STEELE: You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.

STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?

(CROSSTALK)

STEELE: Hold on. No, let me -- let me -- let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point.

As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference -- the distinction is this. If a government -- if you've got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That's -- there's no guarantee that that -- that there's going to be more work when you're done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we've seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come -- yes, they -- and they come back, though, George. That's the point. When they go -- they've gone away before, and they come back.

Michael Steele .....Undercover Black Panther?

So says David Duke.

Hat tip: Jack and Jill Politics

David Duke calls Michael Steele, the new Chairman of the RNC....

a radical Black racist


Really?

That's a surprise to the large group of Black folk out there who believe Steele is just thisside of SAMBO.

Radical Black Racist?

Lawdhammercy.

Here's some more:

Steele is a passionate supporter of affirmative action programs that racially discriminate against tens of millions of White Americans. He also supports increased discrimination against White owned businesses in the awarding of non-merit and non-bid minority contracts. He is opposed to the death penalty and thinks that it is disproportionately applied to Blacks even though it is applied to White murderers at 500 percent higher than it is to Black murderers. He is also an advocate of more gun control legislation as well as a draconian, massively increased enforcement of the current laws. He is a servile dog of Israel and has condemned Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorists and yet said not a word of compassion for the 5,000 (half of them women and children) who have been maimed and murdered in Gaza by Israel’s weapons of mass destruction. He says that he would still support the Iraq War and the loss of 50,000 maimed Americans, 4500 killed and trillions in cost, even though the reason for the war (Weapons of Mass Destruction) was proven to be a lie.

Where are the Sarah Palin rallygoers going to go now? One has to ask.

Michael Steele - radical Black racist...

Uh huh.

The GOP is presently a Southern, White Male party. What are they going to do now that Steele is in the GOP Chairmanship. It's going to be fascinating to watch him go around the country. Let's see how his selection shakes out in places like Alabama, Mississippi, Western Pennsylvania, Appalachia. I want tape recorders everywhere that he goes to speak.

UPDATE: found this and thought it was hilarious.

By spirit_55z

Something’s Happening Here

There's something happening here
What it is, is exactly clear
There's a man with a black face over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, hey, why’s he brown
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's white if everybody's Black
Black people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, why’s he brown
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the RNC
The base are rearing their ugly heads
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, we lost the election for our side

It's time we stop, hey, why’s he brown
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, why’s he brown
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, Michaels brown
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, Steele is brown
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look he’s going down

Michael Steele Elected RNC Chairman

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Follow-up - Michael Steele a Black Radical? (The Republican Base Responds, lol).