Who will occupy the RNC Siege Perilous? Michael Steele or Newt Gingrich?
Amanda Carpenter reminds us why Newt not running for the RNC Chair is probably a good thing:
And it would appear that both men might be on the same page.
Bill Sammon’s sources tell him Steele may announce as soon as Thursday, and is courting the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, which if landed, would do much to scare off the incumbent and possible challengers:
The source also contradicted a report in Tuesday’s Washington Times that Steele and Gingrich were competing for the RNC post.
“There is no fight,” the source said. “This tension between Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich is totally fabricated and, in fact, Gingrich and Steele are working together to create a new strategy for the direction of the GOP.”
In a statement issued by the former House speaker, Gingrich said he was not interested in seeking the post of Republican party chairman.
“A number of people have asked me to consider running for Republican National Committee chair. They have been very flattering, and I am very honored by their support,” he said.
It’s time to bring in new blood. Republicans need a fresh makeover even as we speak of returning back to conservative traditionalism. As much as we decry that “race doesn’t matter”, the face of the Republican Party as seen by the American public is that of the stereotypical “white man’s club”. We need the Palins, the Jindals, to bring style with the substance. What the Democratic Party had in 2008 was a charismatic rock star; what we need is not only a “return” to conservative ideology, but also one wrapped in an attractive delivery system. Someone like Alfonso Rachel in the public eye could also do much to reshape the image of the Republican Party. He is someone who the MTV crowd can relate to on style and delivery.
I prefer Michael Steele as RNC Chair on the most superficial of reasons, as well as on the most substantial: He’s black.
The color of his skin shouldn’t matter. But because the country as a whole is still fixated on race….it matters. Let someone like Michael Steele deliver the post-racial conservative message that it’s the Republican Party that’s been living the message of MLK: That the color of one’s skin doesn’t matter; it’s the content of the character.
Michael Steele has character; and to those to whom it matters, he also has the “right” skin color to deliver the message.
One of life’s charms is in paradox.
Michael Medved points out similarities between where we find ourselves politically today, and where we were 16 years ago:
Pouring over the numbers in the Presidential and Congressional elections of 2008, there’s an eerie parallel that deserves far more attention than it’s received.
In races for the House, the Senate and the Presidency, the final totals match almost precisely with the results of the last Democratic sweep in 1992.
That election gave the Democrats 57 Senate seats to 43 for the Republicans. So far, with three races yet to be decided in 2008, Democrats (and the two independents who caucus with the Democrats) control 57 seats and the Republicans control 40.
It is absolutely appalling to me, that an angry and unfunny idiot of Al Franken’s magnitude might steal the election in Minnesota.
Assuming that the GOP’s Norm Coleman hangs on to win his seat after a recount in Minnesota, that Saxby Chambliss wins his run-off election in Georgia, and that Ted Stevens (or a GOP replacement) secures the seat in Alaska, the Senate lineup will match exactly with its contours in 1992—57 to 43. Even if the Republicans lose one of the undecided seats, it’s possible that Independent Joe Lieberman will decide (or find himself forced) to caucus with them, still giving them the same 43 seats they won in ’92.
On the House side, the resemblance is similarly close to the line-up sixteen years ago. After the Clinton landslide (beating President George H. W. Bush and eccentric “Reform Party” contender H. Ross Perot), the Democrats nabbed 258 seats in the House and the GOP controlled 176. At this point in 2008, the Dems have secured 255 seats and the Republicans 174, with six seats unsettled. The most likely outcome of the races yet to be decided would be an exact replica of the House of Representatives that convened in 1993.
As to the Presidential race, sixteen years ago Bill Clinton cruised to victory with 370 electoral votes to 168 for President Bush (Ross Perot drew 18.9% of the popular vote but, like most third-party vanity candidates, earned no electoral votes). In 2008, assuming that John McCain carries the officially undecided state of Missouri (where he’s maintained a slight but steady lead) the final outcome will be an Obama victory by 365 to 173 electoral votes— just a five vote difference from the 1992 race. In the popular vote, Obama prevailed by a margin of 6.5%, while Clinton beat Bush sixteen years ago by a strikingly similar margin of 5.5%.
The resemblance in election outcomes between the triumph of Clinton Democrats in 1992 and the resounding win by Obama Democrats in 2008 ought to fill disheartened Republicans with determination and hope.
Just two years after the electoral disaster of ’92, the GOP came roaring back to capture both houses of Congress in the “Contract with America”/Newt Gingrich revolution. And six years after that epic triumph, Republicans recaptured the White House under George W. Bush in the impossibly close election of 2000.
For several reasons, the election of 2008 left Republicans in an even better position for a quick comeback if they handle their opportunities intelligently.
Above all, the situation with the economy should work to the GOP’s advantage in the Congressional elections of 2010 and perhaps even in the Presidential race of 2012.
When Bill Clinton came to power in 1993, the recession that destroyed the first Bush presidency had already begun to recede and the economy had already begun its recovery, which ultimately morphed into the “Clinton Boom” and secured Slick Willy’s reelection. No one expects a similar economic turnaround for President-elect Obama in the three months before his inauguration and perhaps not even in the first two years of his presidency. If unemployment continues to rise, the deficit continues to explode, and personal income continues to stagnate or decline, the Obama reputation as a messianic miracle worker could collapse in a hurry. As with Clinton, the great expectations surrounding Obama’s election could quickly transform to a sense of betrayal and even disappointed rage.
Don’t worry, folks: The sun will come out tomorrow (or in two years); and the best is yet to come.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Michael Steele would be perfect !
Remember, folks…..the man loves puppies:
You also need to stop allowing comments like this:
These people should be purged from the mainstream of Republican thought.
Could you provide a link that is directly relevant to sourcing your quote?
Fixed. Thanks Wordsmith.
Michael Steele is a solid conservative, but if I were wargaming for the Republicans, I would look for a Hispanic candidate from California. California is 55 electoral college votes, and has a Republican governor, yet it’s treated as a freebie for Democrats. With 20% of the vote need to get to 270, it should always be a battleground.
I appreciate a message where democrats and republican come together on an issue. I do think the liberal illuminati have pushed forward a scare tactic when it comes to climate change. Yes, it is an issue and yes we do need to address but we are probably not going to see the world end any time soon.
PS :: i love the puppy video! GREAT!!!
Once again, taking advice from Fit Fit is exactly what we don’t need. Something tells me he would be equally reluctant to accept my advice for Democrats.
I usually don’t take advice from people who want me to lose.
P.S. I have no idea what relevance his quote has to this post or any other. Is he trying to deny Obama deliberately used race in this election?
Hey, I’ve got my guy picked out…. but he’s not in armor.. He’s wearing camo fatigues… LOL
The Motor City Mad Man has declared open season on RINOs…
No bagging, no tagging, no permits required… and thereby no expiration date!
Mike, I believe that Fit fit just might be one of those members of Obama’s Internet Army of 3.5 million sent-out to help “make the Obama Presidency Work”.
Or, something to that effect.
The Republican party does need younger more diverse faces. The image isn’t going to sell if it’s white old men when the number of white old Republicans are decreasing.
They need a new tigher contract with America.
They should drop the social wedge issues such as abortion. It doesn’t really work for them when it comes to election time. It also diverts from the real message of less government.
The Republicans can’t just go after “small time” pork, but they should go after the big projects. The budget deficit for 2009 was projected to be $407 billion before the bailout.
2009 budget expenses to attack:
$644 billion Social Security
$408 billion Medicare
$224 billion Medicad and SCHIP
$360 billion Unemployment/Welfare
$59.2 billion Department of Education
$38.5 billion HUD
subsidies farm or otherwise.
That’s $1.7337 trillion (54.8% of the expenses) of $3.1 trillion in expenses with only a projected $2.7 trillion in income.
That’s what the Republicans should rework and offer a plan. Some of it should be hand up rather than hand out. I’ve already mentioned how to do that here.
I believe the Republicans should offer DVDs on education. Make it in English, Spanish, French, the Chinese languages and Portuguese and Arabic. these should also offer something for the blind and deaf. Let them spread throughout North and South of America. The Republican leadership has complained for decades that teachers are not teaching the students properly. If they do it this way, the Republicans will be able to control the message and not be hampered by civil rights laws. This could make the Republicans look serious about education and maybe become the education leaders. Over time, it would boost the image of the Republican Party by immigrants. They would be as famous as other educational leaders such as Sesame Street.
They need a long term diplomatic plan. Nobody really knows the patchwork of diplomacy the Republicans have. They need their own version of a new form of Manifest Destiny. For example it could be promoting Democracy, promoting free trade, ridding the world of tyrants and taking immediate action against terrorist threats and genocide around the world.
The Republicans need an outreach program to the inner cities. The Republicans have nothing like ACORN except maybe the scouts and you’ll probably find the scouts more in the suburbs and rural areas than the inner city. Many of the religious organizations in the inner cities side with the Democrats. Maybe it should be a business venture program such as offering health care to minimum wage workers and in turn those workers do something for the Republicans on their off hours.
The Republicans need a real long term energy plan and they need to promote it more.
(If this is a double post, please excuse it.)
Michael Stelle was head of the Republican Party in Prince George’s County (MD) and for the state of MAryland.
The Republican party in Prince George’s County is moribund.
The State party has suffered losts: the governorship in 06 and this year, the 1st Congressional district.
Not a very glowing recommendation.
Part of what Wordsmith is suggesting in the post is that Steele would help rehabilitate the Republican party’s image on race relations that has been wrecked by fourty years of embracing the “Southern Strategy”. This often involves stoking people’s racial anxieties as your post and comment were clearly meant to do.
The Ashley Todd incident is an excellant example of how Obama avoided racial issues as much as possible. When story initially broke, McCain officials pushed it to the press before all the facts were even in. When the truth came out, the Obama campaign just let the story die rather than take an Al Sharpton style approach of raising Holy Hell for the rest of the campaign.
Fit, INRE your comments:
Forty years ago also saw Robert Byrd and quite a few DNC engaging in that “southern strategy” as well, Fit. It was the beginning of an end of an era. Many generations had to come thru to distance ourselves from that imbred mentality.
However the last 40 years have not seen the GOP practicing that ‘southern strategy’. But it did have the DNC still trying to lay that on the GOP, to perpetuate old myths…. all merely to gain political advantage.
As in my last statement above, with the DNC trying to portray the GOP as a party of racists, instead of the principles of low taxes, smaller government and less centralized control, this *is* stoking racial anxieties. Then add Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Louis Farrakhan to the mix and I have to ask you… just who is stoking racial anxieties? Who keeps reminding us that prejudice is wide spread when, as we can see with this election, it is nothing more than crying “wolf”.
And, just to hedge you off… no, I am not saying all racism is gone. As long as there are humans, scum will walk amongst us. But it is not the majority of Americans that harbor some sort of racism in their heart, as is constantly suggested by the progressive socialists.
“However the last 40 years have not seen the GOP practicing that ’southern strategy’. But it did have the DNC still trying to lay that on the GOP, to perpetuate old myths…. all merely to gain political advantage.”
Jesse Helms and Wille Horton come to mind.
However, on his deathbed, I believe Lee Atwater apologised for his behaviour.
Lew, what part of my very last paragraph did you miss? Do you think a Congressman born in 1921 is representative of the entire GOP?
Perhaps I should point to the example of Murtha and his latest comments, accusing his constituents (of both parties, apparently) of racism?
Your comeback is an example of my point… that progressive socialists try to keep the myth of the GOP as being nothing but a bunch of racists alive by doing exactly what you just did… and what Murtha does yet today. I rest my case.
Mata,
So Peter Feldman is a DNC plant and they hacked Mike’s PC to make racialized posts as an attempt to discredit Republicans? As long as Republicans keep making excuses instead of calling out those within the party who are spreading the hate, they will never reform their image.
Scrapiron compares blacks to animals and the thread nanny just looks the other way… Excuses and finger pointing at the Pre Civil rights era Democratic party doesn’t change the fact that too many Republicans are willing to let that sort of thing slide.
mmmmm…. and I’m just bowled over by those DNC’ers calling out Murtha on his statements, Fit. Nope… that goes two ways.
INRE FA community, I don’t respond to every thread… don’t even necessarily read every thread. I’m just like you guys… pick and choose. But since you brought up Scrapiron’s remark, I went back to that thread (one of those that I didn’t read, nor have posted on) to see what you are talking about.
And how you manage to construe some sort of racist statement to that is one heck of a stretch indeed. N. Africans such as those in Somalia and Darfur are animals. In fact, Scrapiron places them higher on the food chain than I do… I call them human cockroaches. He also includes the jihad Muslims in his statement.
He said “[A] Few animals eat their own and some humans are still in that class of animal.”
Somehow I fail to see this as some blanket statement against all blacks, Fit. He was talking about some serious criminal types.
Cleopatra you are truly hopeless.
LOL Ya know, Gloucester (aka Fit), I think the same of you. Shall we celebrate a moment of shared civil aggression?
As long as we keep it civil.
Lew, what part of my very last paragraph did you miss?
None.
But I did see the bit about how no Republican has practiced the Southern Strategy.
40 years ago takes us to 1968. Richard Nixon ran on “states rights”
Jesse Helms ran for office in the early 1970s, within the 40 years.
Lee Atwater brought Willie Horton to politics in 1988, within the 40 years.
Lee Atwater died in 1991, saying:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.
Lew, ya got a reading/comprehension problem, dude. You said:
Really? I said:
I really attempt, without fail, to NEVER speak in absolutes. Thus I knew as soon as you said how *no* Republican has practiced… that you just read with preformatted bias. You read it, saw what you wanted to see, and responded with your cyber foot in your mouth.
You want to take a single – or even a few – GOP member’s action to indict the whole party? As a DNC type, be careful where you tread.
Before you come back here, Lew, and remove one cyber foot to replace it with another, you might want to do some required reading. Obviously, if you are so willing to place the Willie Horton onus on Bush, without noting that it was Al Gore who first brought it up… but by not calling him out by name… I suggest you pick up They Think You’re Stupid” by Herman Cain.
From a 2007 article in Newsblaze by Frances Rice:
Continue reading at the link above, if you’re not interested enuf to buy the book… that way you’ll see what you’re swallowing hook, line and sinker from your friendly media propagandists and your selected elected. Via Rice, Cain expounds on Democrat Deception, Hypocritical Democrats, and Democrats’ Re-written History.
A few more educational tools for you, Lew. Even many of the young aren’t fooled, including VoIPpoetry and his rap videos.
Here’s the youtube, but if you don’t like listening (or can’t make out the lyrics) they are below. He gives people like you a History Lesson 101 in racism.
You want to take a single – or even a few – GOP member’s action to indict the whole party? As a DNC type, be careful where you tread.
Hmmm,
Who was Nixon?
and
blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans, not a vote for Democrats.
Why are “blacks” deceived?
How come they can’t see through it but you can?
PS.
You forgot to mention that Dr. Martin L. King, Jr was registered as a Republican.
Who was George Wallace, Lew? Democrat Senator Ernest Hollings? Democrat Georgia Governor Lester Maddox? Who appointed Earl Warren to SCOTUS? A Dem? Nope… Eisenhower. It was then SCOTUS came up with Brown vs. Board of Education.
The main opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrats – Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd. Nixon lobbied *for* the bill. What the heck are you talking about?
How about the Voting Rights Act of 1965? When Dems finally decided not to filibuster, it passed. But only one GOP member voted no compared to the DNC’s 17 naes. But, of course, the GOP is the party of “racists”.
Remember the Dixiecrats and their “segregation forever” slogan? Evidently not… Robert Byrd was one of those.
You want to condemn Nixon for his “Southern Strategy” to get DNC disenfranchised voters to stop casting their ballots for those that opposed their progress because it kept them in political power? He was trying to impart the truth… something you apparently wish to ignore.
Continuing this futile one on one of names – counteracting your attempts to prove the DNC is pure as the driven snow in civil rights – is a waste of time. You are rewriting history in your mind. You really should read more of Dr. Frances Rice’s works… she is the great great granddaughter of slaves. And she is nothing short of an amazing woman.
Dear Mata,
The people and events you detail are from MORE THAN 40 years ago.,
I am not condemning Nixon, just pointing out what he did.
After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson said:
“I know the risks are great and we might lose the South, but those sorts of states may be lost anyway.”
The votes on the 1964 Civil Rights Act were:
House
Southern Democrats: 7-87
Southern Republicans: 0-10
non Southern Democrats: 145-9
non Southern Republicans: 138-24
Senate:
Southern Democrats: 1-20
Southern Republicans: 0-1
non Southern Democrats: 45-1
non Southern Republicans: 27-5
Based on this, one might disparage the Southerners as opposed to the rights of American Americans.
your attempts to prove the DNC is pure as the driven snow in civil rights
I’ve written nothing about the DNC.
Thanks for the link to Dr. Frances Rice.
I read through a few of her commentaries, such as http://www.nationalblackrepublicans.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.DYK-Democrats%20and%20identity%20politics&tp_preview=true, but she did not answer my question:
Why are “blacks” deceived?
How come they can’t see through it?
Gullible?
Ignorant?
Indifferent?
PS Unless I am mistaken, Gore harped on Dukakis’ parole program and did not mention Willie Horton by name, race or picture.
Bears repeat mention:
It is the Republican Party that has a profound history of support for blacks; not the Party of Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations:
[GOP President Dwight Eisenhower’s Justice Department argued for Topeka, Kansas’s black school children. Democrat John W. Davis, who lost a presidential bid to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924, defended “separate but equal” classrooms.]
[According to Congressional Quarterly, only 61% of Democrats in the House of Representatives supported the act, while 80% of Republicans voted in favor. In the Senate, 69% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans voted in favor. Among the Democratic senators who voted against the legislation were J. William Fulbright (Bill Clinton’s mentor), who was a racist- pg 82, Do-Gooders, Mona Charen]
*[Senator Barry Goldwater (R., Ariz.) opposed this bill the very year he became the GOP’s presidential standard-bearer. However, Goldwater supported the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts and called for integrating Arizona’s National Guard two years before Truman desegregated the military. Goldwater feared the 1964 Act would limit freedom of association in the private sector, a controversial but principled libertarian objection rooted in the First Amendment rather than racial hatred.]
Goldwater was also a founding (lifelong) member of the Arizona chapter for the NAACP.
Shattering glass ceilings:
“it is a plain fact of American political life today that Democrats are completely dependent on black votes. The day African Americans stop casting 80 to 95 percent of their votes for Democrats is the day Democrats stop winning elections.”– Mona Charen, Do-Gooders
Thank you Wordsmith.
That should put an end to it.
Except,
Why are “blacks” deceived?
How come they can’t see through it?
Oh… my fault for duplicating Fit, using his exact number on the years, I see, Lew. That serves me right for being “absolute” when I am normally not. LOL Certainly none of the civil rights legislation in the decade before could have any possible bearing on our cyber conversation.. uh huh.
But then, for a guy who likes to call me Lucy (yeah, you’re not the only sleuth novel/movie fan here, Philip/Sam), I’d say now that you… wanting to split the southern and northern Dems votes up merely to try and score another four downs… prohibits you from calling the kettle black in the future. Change of moniker, but the same condescending endearments… oh my.
Glad you like the link to Dr. Rice. Now read and stop regaling us with BS and semantics. Parsing words will not make your revisionist history any more correct.
Slight change of subject here, since I can’t (understandably) start threads, but Joe The Plumber has his website up now:
http://www.secureourdream.com/
I’m glad you enjoy the sleuth novels. It too bad there aren’t a lot of Lew Archer books.
His version , as well as PhillipMarlowe’s, of California is gone.
It’s a long goodbye,
it happens everytime.
Sen Boxer’s aide is having some problems:
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=116&sid=1517089
The Marshman is back? Got our own stalker it looks like.
Quite the bastion of 1st Amendment rights, you are, Fit. Lots of rhetoric from your side of the aisle about stamping out dissenting opposition of late. That’s a seriously anti-Constitutional ‘tude.