RSS Feed MenuA recent meeting between GOP congressional leaders and party chairman Michael Steele painfully reveals that eight months after his election the “leaders” in the party still aren’t communicating well with one another or trying to coordinate a unified agenda or message.
According to Politico, GOP Congressional leaders took issue with Chairman Michael Steele’s attempts to present policies to the public without consulting them first. Last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Senate GOP conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, and Senate GOP policy Chairman John Thune met with Steele and told him bluntly to leave the policy making to them.
Steele defended himself and noted that when he traveled, he was tired of not having answers to questions about the GOP’s positions on a variety of issues. Afterwards, Sen. Alexander described the meeting to the press as “a good discussion” and claimed that Republican congressional leaders and Steele now “see eye to eye on it.” He added that “what he’s [Steele's] trying to do is correct.”
If Senator Alexander believes GOP leaders need to be the ones setting policy because they “are elected to set the policy,” then they need to start doing their job and include the RNC chairman in this process. In the absence of these “leaders” taking action, Steele tried to fill the void with some concrete answers such as his “healthcare bill of rights” rather than the party’s usual chords of discontent.
Steele is trying to lead but this meeting raises one very uncomfortable question, why as the first black chairman of the RNC is Steele on such “a short leash” within the organization and among congressional Republican leaders. He’s admittedly made some loose-lipped comments to the media and public but why won’t the GOP establishment fully embrace him?
It’s a question that hangs like a cloud over Steele’s election and I can’t imagine it would be easy for him to do his job if he always has to second guess everything he does and says and constantly feels the GOP establishment looking over his shoulder. A prime example was a resolution passed in April which requires Steele to get approval for any expenditures over $100,000. This rule wasn’t imposed on previous chairmen. If the RNC and congressional Republicans gave Michael Steele an unfettered vote of confidence, I think we would see a different chairman emerge and the party would be better for it.
Right now, the GOP’s lack of leadership on issues such as healthcare, improving the economy, job creation, etc. and has led to a motley crew of misfits (Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck) to fill the silence with meaningless, often offensive noise. This is the problem with the Republican Party, it lacks a well sculpted identity. Not a good position to be in leading up to the 2010 mid-term elections.
The party wisely elected the first black chairman of the RNC but in giving him no real power they embarrassingly make Steele look like a political prop and cast the Republican Party as a group of insufferable politicians who can’t be trusted. As I have often said in this forum, in addition to presenting the American people with fresh alternatives to Democratic policies, Republicans need to acknowledge the “other people” in the room and pitch the GOP tent to a wider audience. The party can’t go whiter to win because the votes aren’t there. White men are endangered species in the electorate. In 1952, they represented 47% of all voters and by 2004, their share shriveled to 34% and it’s still withering.
You can’t have a “Republican Renaissance” if you keep looking backwards. Perhaps the RNC and the GOP “leadership” should start including Michael Steele in their discussions and really recognize him as the chairman in the room. Maybe then the road to the 2010 mid-term elections could start looking like something positive for Republicans.
Bebe99 // Oct 14, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I don’t envy Steele his job at a time like this. You make some excellent criticisms of the problems created by the limits imposed on him. And his exclusion from decision-making looks foolish. It only adds to the view that Republicans are in disarray.
Allowing media personalities to control Republican rhetoric is making matters worse. Frankly, I can only see and hear hysterical rantings coming from the Republican Noise Machine on Fox and most of the Republicans I hear echo that. It does not inspire the rational person to cast a vote for ANY Republican. As a Democrat living in Texas, I would gladly vote for a moderate Republican. Unfortunately there aren’t any. (Thanks Newt). A big issue to resolve is this insistence on ideological purity. Unfortunately Fox News has trained its viewers to think with one mind on issues. If there is- always and only-ONE valid point of view on every issue you will be making your party smaller and smaller. You might start by getting Fox to ease up a bit on everything. Maybe if you ask nicely they’ll think about it.
MFarmer // Oct 14, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Palin, Beck and Limbaugh are doing more to oppose progressivism than the entire Republican Party — yes, that is a shame.
LFC // Oct 15, 2009 at 10:32 am
Michael Steele is cut from the same cloth as Michael “Heckuva’ Job, Brownie” Brown.
ottovbvs // Oct 15, 2009 at 11:34 am
……This guy is a total bozo…….he’s a gift to the Democrats but then he has plenty of competition on the right from people like Bachmann and half the Republican congressional representation not to mention the radio and tv shills.
MI-GOPer // Oct 15, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Ms Wright, I’d argue that having watched M Steele over the last 6-8 yrs, no one could plausibly say “he’s on a short leash” of anyone’s design. He’s doing exactly what the RNC Chair –and just like Geo HW Bush did after Watergate– should do: he’s trying to rebrand the Party into something which is appealing, relevant and on-task to winning POLITICAL battles, not parsing out Congressional earmarks or endlessly debating the merits of some remote, irrelevant Congressional resolution commending the role of snail darters in the eco-system.
If your memory was a tad longer than a squirrel’s, you’d have included in your opinion piece that former DNC Chair ScreaminHowieDean got taken to the woodshed by BoToxNancy and HarryGreed when he seemingly stepped outside his balliwick and into their’s. Yeah, how’d that all work out? Obama, not Hillary, got the nomination and won inspite of the NancyBoTox and HarryGreed’s woodshed moment dressing down the DNC Chair? ScreaminHowieDean had his way on Election Day, my good madam.
Elephants, Ms Wright, ought to have longer memories. Good analysts put these things into perspective; Politico just reports ‘em. You can do better for all here. Please try.
MSheridan // Oct 15, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Speaking as an observer from across the aisle, Michael Steele appears to define the “blithering” in “blithering idiot.” I’m not at all surprised he’s on a short leash; I am surprised he’s still got a job. At this point, almost anything that could conceivably happen with Steele looks like good news for the opposition (my crowd). Keep him, fire him, shorter leash, longer leash–it all looks good, and you can’t blame us for any of it.
MI-GOPer // Oct 15, 2009 at 3:28 pm
MSheridan opines: “I am surprised he’s still got a job. ” Fortunately, Sheridan, that’s exactly the question that Democrat & Independent voters are asking in Nevada as they weigh out whether or not HarryGreed deserves another term to again demonstrate his mediocrity as a high level Democrat leader –with 100% name recognition after 23 yrs in the Senate, his unfavorables are at 51% and climbing… meaning, for every voter who likes him, there’s a voter who strongly dislikes him. And that’s before opposition advertising gets the chance to use a meat-tenderizer on that piece of pork-laden lard you call Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid.
In a poll last week, nearly every likely contender to HarryGreed was more favorable to voters than another term with HarryGreed in the Senate.
Steele never had that problem in his elective office, nor in his campaigns, nor in his stunning win as a moderate GOP to lead the Party to electoral victory. In fact, he’s faced down the racist bigots in YOUR party during the 2002 elections when Democrat trolls were tossing Oreo cookies at him, implying he wasn’t a real African-American, just a black cookie on the outside, white on the inside. Nice group of people you hang with there, my racist, bigoted Democrat friend.
Michael Steele is doing exactly what he needs to do to help the GOP back into another generation of political power –and I gather that your side of the aisle already senses that fact and it’s why you and the other Democrat trolls are working overtime to bust Steele’s butt. But ti ain’t working because Steele appeals to moderate, independent voters and any Democrat voters who still love the USA.
MSheridan // Oct 15, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Heh, I’m the racist, huh? Because I think Steele’s an idiot? Funny thing–without a single exception every black person I know with whom I talk politics (that’s lots and lots of people, btw) thinks the same thing. So do lots of Republicans (certainly not all of them are racists).
Then again, I’m pretty equal opportunity when it comes to labeling politicians as idiots, but Steele was the subject of this particular piece, not anyone else.
As for Reid (nice subject change on your part, incidentally), his unfavorables haven’t changed even a little bit with Republicans because they couldn’t really go any lower. If he does gets voted out, it will be disaffected Democrats and Independents that are the deciding factor, just as they were the ones that originally voted him in. But until you or anyone else can show me that Republican favorables and registration are on the upswing, I’m not going to worry much. Losing bad and/or ineffective Democrats doesn’t bother me at all, at least not with the gains I see elsewhere.
MSheridan // Oct 15, 2009 at 4:47 pm
mi-goper, I have to wonder if you’ve been following Nevada voter registration patterns. The Las Vegas Sun had an article about it just this Monday:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/12/republicans-adding-few-voters/
It leads off this way:
Carson City — This was a summer of discontent for Democrats as they lost control of the health care debate, the economy continued to founder and their approval ratings slipped, both in Nevada and nationally.
But Democrats’ troubles haven’t brought a surge of new voters for Nevada’s GOP.
Republicans have added just 1,549 voters since February, when the secretary of state’s office cleaned up voter registration rolls.
Democrats, meanwhile, added 4,860 and nonpartisan registration grew by 3,783. Even the hard-right Independent American Party registered more Nevada voters in that span than Republicans.
Interesting, huh?
MI-GOPer // Oct 15, 2009 at 6:46 pm
MSheridan, we’re just doing what “your side of the aisle” has been doing whenever anyone criticizes the mmm mm m Obama… the White House and Democrat talking heads like Clinton and Carter yell “Racists!!”. Now, we have you calling the highly respected black leader of the GOP an “idiot”… what’s next, toss an Oreo cookie to the stage? Yes, MSheridan, you are a racist. Steele is black; you criticize him for no apparent, logical, rational reason… it’s because he’s black and you’re just like those other bigoted Democrats like former Klansman Byrd… r-a-c-i-s-t. If Obama and his talking heads can do it to anyone who criticizes Obama, then we get to do it to you and your bigoted, racist Oreo-tossing Democrat goons. Racist. Bigot. Can we add “troll” given this is a site about Republicans and not the Daily Kos?
Now, about those “voter registration” numbers… is that from the state which ACORN now has over 39 former employees charged with felony election crimes? YEP.
Is that from the state where the leading Nevada Democrat has moved to block Congressional investigations into the widespread corruption of ACORN? YEP.
Is that from the state where senior Democrat US Senator Harry Greed announced he’d block any IRS investigation into ACORN’s fraud? YEP.
Is that from the state where Democrat leader Reid said HUD’s Inspector General better see him first before asking a single Nevadain anything about ACORN? YEP
I think you were commenting about how voter registration numbers prove something, no? They prove that, for Democrats committed to protecting ACORN’s vital election fraud operations, any registration numbers coming out of Nevada should be suspect even for the most naive. Evidently, you pass for most naive.
http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/acorn-nevada-corruption-harry-reid-blocks-investigation-las-vegas-review-journal-september-25-2009-clark-county-rampant-fraud-acorn-corruption/
http://yedda.com/questions/ACORN_Guilty_Voter_Fraud_Harry_1498122173977/
http://www.nrsc.org/200909243185/news/in-the-news/irs-severs-ties-with-acorn-as-harry-reid-blocks-congressional-inquiry-into-scandal-scarred-liberal-ally.html
I seem to recall that ACORN was paid about $1m –that we know of– by the Obama Campaign to do voter registration for the 08 election. When the GOP tried to make that an issue along with ACORN’s proven record of vote fraud, the Obama camp said two things: 1) you’re all racists; 2) it never happened.
I wonder why you didn’t grab the money quote from that story, MSheridan? You know the one….
“As for the Nevada indictments, Acorn isn’t worried. “We’ve had bad publicity before, and all it does is inform the community that we’re here working for the community,” Bonnie Greathouse, Acorn’s head organizer in Nevada, assured the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “People always come forward to our defense. We’re just community organizers, just like the president used to be.”"
Ahhh, do you think she meant corrupt, vote frauding felons just like the President? Or do you think she forgot to mention his penchant for playing the RaceCard? What do you think, MRacist?
As for the GOP adding new voters to the list? They don’t really have to… all they need to do is let old Harry Greed keep on being Harry Greed and he’ll hand them the election in 2010 because even Democrats can’t stand the corrupt, arrogant, mediocre, lack luster Harry Greed.
MSheridan // Oct 16, 2009 at 1:50 am
Oh goody, I’m offered a debate about racism with someone who thinks (or at least seems to be saying) that any and all accusations of racism made by any Democrat are purely for political advantage and that therefore counteraccusations are not only in order but negate any obligation to actually consider the validity of any such charges. I think I’ll pass, thanks all the same. Sounds no-win for both of us.
As for Nevada, even if you wish to assume that large-scale voter registration fraud by ACORN is a fact across the entire state, I still don’t see how that state of affairs would improve Republican chances there. Republican registrations came in dead last, after non-partisan unaffiliated voters and voters registered Independent American. Or were you saying that ACORN has been artificially pumping those numbers up too?
I don’t personally believe that voter registration fraud is all that widespread nationwide, although naturally I do support cracking down hard on any proven cases. However, registering nonexistent voters does nothing in and of itself to affect vote outcomes. The only way it could do so would be in conjuntion with a concerted and coordinated attempt to have people vote under those same false identities. I seriously doubt a conspiracy of that nature would register people under names like “Daffy Duck” or the line-ups of sports teams or use common felons to do the work.
The other thing that leads me to believe that the Republican registration numbers I cited are a valid indicator is that they tie in so well and consistently with the tracking polls we’ve been seeing for months. Support for Democrats in Congress has been dropping nationwide, as has support for the President. However, support for Republicans is still near all-time lows. They haven’t gained from the Democrats’ slide in the polls, which I’d find worrisome, were I Republican.
As for trolling, I have never concealed my allegiances here, or deliberately attempted to be disruptive to productive conversations. I’ve contributed here since soon after the site was founded (as you may see by Googling) and genuinely hope that at some point you guys get your act together. David Frum and I disagree on many, many things, but we would both agree that the country is ill-served without a strong conservative counterbalance in the nation’s capital. Unfortunately, from my perspective the GOP left conservatism behind a very long time ago and is now merely reactionary.
MI-GOPer // Oct 16, 2009 at 10:14 am
Oh goody, MSheridan has the guts to admit he was wrong and he recants his racist screed on highly respected GOP Chairman Michael Steele?
Oh wait, that wasn’t it. He was just a good-natured Democrat who is concerned about the terrible plight of Republicans… yeah, dry those crocodile tears, MSheridan.
You got nailed on the notion that any voter registration “uptick” from Nevada is reliable or indictative of anything except the corrupting influence of Democrats, Democrat ally ACORN, and Harry Greed.
Your side had a two pronged voter fraud operation running in more than a dozen states –helped and supported by Obama’s campaign organization and local Democrat Party union goons. First, it was pad the registration rolls with names so that fraud could occur on Election Day. Second, doing everything possible to depress the military ballot count and late returns in the West… and never, ever let any election issue get to SCOTUS. If Eric Holder wasn’t such a tool of the Democrats, the DOJ career staff would be indicting Obama on conspiracy to commit vote fraud. And the Obama Democrats have problems with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s election??
You could have taken the high road, MSheridan, and admitted that your side of the aisle is responsible for vote fraud and the cover-up of that vote fraud. But you didn’t. You’re a nothing less than a garden variety Democrat troll posting on a moderate GOP website. On that, along with being a bigoted racist, the case is well documented and closed.
MSheridan // Oct 16, 2009 at 11:54 am
mi-goper, it’s never to late to return to school. In your case, an introductory logic course might be in order, as your conclusions do not seem to follow from your facts.
I have seen some criticism of Steele that seems to spring from racism, most of it from your side. However, one comment disparaging his speaking skill (“blithering”) and common sense (“idiot”) does not fit that bill. You call him “highly respected?” Prove it–I’ve seen no evidence since his election that he gets any respect whatsoever. Many apparently Republican posters on this very site have said far worse than I. Some posters over at Red State and Free Republic (I’ve never posted at either site, but have looked in a few times) have posited that Steele is so bad he must actually be a deep cover liberal working to discredit Republicans. I congratulate you, sir (or madam, as the case may be), for your confident use of “the race card.” Perhaps you should write a letter to your local paper suggesting that Democrats just can’t handle the fact that Republicans elected a “highly respected” African-American to be RNC chair. Because we’re all racists, of course.
“…so that fraud could occur on Election Day.” Nice. Unlike the people who pulled off the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in 2000 or the widespread Democratic vote suppression in Ohio in 2004, we didn’t need to commit fraud to win. The will of the majority in 2008 was clear, unmistakable, and overwhelming. If Republicans deal with that and figure out what they did wrong, perhaps the party won’t go the way of the Whigs. If not, the country will have to find another counterbalance to the Democrats.
MI-GOPer // Oct 16, 2009 at 3:52 pm
MSheridan, as is might prove, you’re still a racist and bigot for demeaning the good name of highly respected RNC Chairman Michael Steele. You called him a bithering idiot again (!!) and you did so, because we all know “code speak” from Democrats when we hear it, you and your O-pals resent the fact that GOPers elected a black as Party Chair… and the racist bigoted tendencies that are deeply rooted in the old (Democrat) Party of the South, the Party of Confederate Rebellion, the Party of Slaveholders die hard.
It’s not about his abilities. The oreo cookies tossed at Chairman Steele weren’t about abilities, they were about his skin color. Just like your Democrat Party authorized code-speak comments.
It’s a shame that someone from your side of the aisle, 130+ yrs after the Republicans freed the slaves in the South, can still harbor this latent, sometime overt racism and bigotry. It’s a shame. If you guys hadn’t trademarked the VictimHood Industry as a Democrat Party strategy, you’d have long ago lost blacks and minorities from your ranks.
As for vote fraud and your alarming naive statement that “The will of the majority in 2008 was clear, unmistakable, and overwhelming”, maybe you can explain why Obama voters are experiencing so much buyer’s remorse and wouldn’t vote for him today if given the chance for a do-over?
The only mandate that came out of 2008 was the notion that Obama was going to change the political environment in DC… he was going to make it a civil, mannered, bipartisan place. He hasn’t, even his supporters agree on that point. He’s engaged in a Nixonian Era Enemies List mentality with his “Fishy Comments” initiative, his attacks on Rush and talk radio, his attacks on Fox News, his attacks on western PA voters who he saw as rednecks clinhing to their guns and God, his dismissal of House GOP members with the “We won, we rule” comments in January… and on and on.
“Hope and Change” was what he sold. Hype and More of the Same is what he’s delivering and that’s why voters –young and old, Democrat and independent, moderate and conservative– are turning away from him faster than any modern era President… and Obama hasn’t even had his first sex scandal yet. It’s stunning you think the majority in 2008 had a clear voice in electing Obama.
By the way, on that point… when voters who supported Obama were asked shortly after the election to list the priorities for the new incoming Obama Administration… guess what, health care reform came in dead last in a long litany of priorities. A long, long litany of priorities. The economy, expressed many ways, was #1. I guess that kind of kills your “logic” about electoral mandates and Obama’s to-do list, no?
Let me know when you want to take that reading comprehension class, MSheridan. I think a forensics or debate class is in order, as well… you’re kind of weak on that, too.