Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:15 pm Post subject: Michael Steele: Train Wreck? |
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This is an article which is ostenably about Steele cancelling a planned appearance, but launches off into an overall view of his situation and some of the gripes his own party is having with him. Here are a few clippings:
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Steele's 2010 has not started off well, and his critics' concerns are far from superficial. Chief among them is the RNC's current cash flow situation -- back when Steele won the chairmanship, the RNC had $23 million in the bank. But profligate spending on the 2009 off-year elections hit those reserves hard: it's reported that the RNC is down to $8.7 million. Over at the American Spectator, Phillip Klein argued that the best reason to fire Steele is that the RNC is out of cash even as it seeks to capitalize on "the best political environment for Republicans since at least 2004."
Meanwhile, the guy who's been getting rich is Michael Steele. Steele closed out 2009 under a cloud after it came to light that he'd been giving paid speeches, to the tune of $20,000 a pop. The news surprised observers in all camps, including former RNC Chair Richard Bond, who said he was "shocked" at the news. That shock's been renewed now that Steele is out promoting a new book, "Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda". The Washington Post reports today that this book, too, "caught GOP leaders by surprise." |
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Compounding this are his recent statements about the GOP's fortunes going into the 2010 election. When asked by Fox News's Sean Hannity if the GOP is poised to take back power this year, Steele replied: "Not this year," adding, "I don't know yet, because I don't know all the candidates yet. We still have some vacancies that need to get filled, but then the question we need to ask ourselves is, if we do that, are we ready?"
One could see that as a fairly blunt and honest read of the field, but when it's compounded by the RNC's cash flow problems and Steele's moonlighting, it's hardly good optics. And it's maybe not the best time to be calling on those critics to "Shut up or fire me." |
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UPDATED, AGAIN: So, apparently, Michael Steele is now claiming that he wrote his book before he became RNC Chair. If that's true, he should be definitely kept on as chair, because as TPM's Eric Kleefield points out, HE MUST HAVE "THE SHINING" OR SOMETHING:
Unless Steele is remarkably clairvoyant, it seems as though it could not have been written before he became chairman -- it is overwhelmingly a commentary on the political situation in America under President Barack Obama, as of late 2009. |
Here's another that goes into some additional detail. Clips:
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Among conservatives, there is a growing sense that the RNC header has become a distraction -- frequently generating problematic headlines at a time when the focus should be on a stumbling Democrats. Commenting on Steele's impromptu book tour, which no other Republican officials seemed to have been warned about, one major consultant went so far as to compare the chairman with former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) the infamous Idaho Republican who (allegedly) tried to solicit gay sex in an airport men's room.
"Does he not get it?" asked Larry Farnsworth, one-time press secretary to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. "To write a book like that and not consult with the rest of the party leaders is maddening. It's the most selfish thing I've seen a politician do since a certain senator tapped his foot under the bathroom stall. Michael Steele is clearly using the RNC platform to promote Michael Steele." |
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The reactions to Steele's antics don't get much worse than that -- at least in public. In private, the griping has been intense. Other Republicans have expressed fury with the RNC chair for stepping all over news that Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) were retiring by telling Sean Hannity that the GOP was not just unlikely to win back the House in 2010, but wasn't even ready to govern.
"I'm sorry if Washington hates my pragmatism," Steele responded defiantly on the Dennis Miller show Friday.
The overwhelming concern is that Steele has become a rogue agent -- convinced that his playbook for a Republican revival is the right one, while simultaneously refusing to show anyone else the plays.
"Fortunately, the future of conservatism is not in the hands of Michael Steele," said Craig Shirley, a longtime conservative consultant. "He only controls the future of the Republican consultants who depend upon him for contracts." |
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| The financial front is also worrisome. The Washington Times reported this week that wealthy contributors were "shunning" the RNC out of discontent with Steele's performance. Of the money that has come in, a massive $15 million is already out the door, spent on off-year elections. Twenty-thousand dollars of that was sent to the Republican Party apparatuses on the Northern Mariana Islands -- a non-voting portion of the GOP whose members helped Steele win the RNC post last winter. |
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| Taken separately, the miscues might be manageable. This past week, however, they came at such a consistent and fast rate that the committee could do little to bandage them up. The RNC's communications shop is already understaffed, GOP officials say. And there is a "significant amount of frustration" -- as one strategist put it -- with the lethargic pace of response to these stories. This week alone, Steele used a racially-insensitive term ("honest Injun") to laud Republican principles, told his Republican critics to either "shut up" or "fire him," and insisted (against clear countervailing evidence) that he hadn't actually run for RNC Chair. |
What's your opinion of how Mr. Steel is performing with regards to his duties? Was it a mistake to put this man in the chairmanship? |
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