Michael Steele: The Political Version of “Lost”
I have known Michael Steele for more than a decade and I don’t know who is pretending to be the guy in charge of the RNC. He looks and sounds like Steele but the things that this guy is saying is too out of character to be true. Over the last three weeks, Steele looks like he could be a character on the TV series “Lost”; he has all of us scratching our heads wondering what is going to happen next.
Yesterday, the GQ interview of Steele went live and I find myself shocked, confused, and bewildered all at the same time. If this was an attempt to portray himself as an ordinary person, the exercise was painful to read and may be the end of a short but very interesting tenure at the helm of the RNC.
The RNC has one year to find, recruit and fund candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections. It is a disaster, and a waste of resources, for the RNC chair to distance himself from the very base that he needs to rebuild the party apparatus.
Some highlights:
Steele: But yeah, I like those. I’m a big Pack Rat. I love the Pack Rats from the 1950s—Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, those guys.
So wait, you meant to tell me that Frank, Sammy and Dean were called the “Pack Rats”? I guess I should make sure that I got all of my “Enemy Public” albums so I can listen to Chuck D back in the day.
GQ: Well, would you have this job if you were white?
Steele: Would I have this job? Now, that’s the reverse of the question I typically get. I usually get, would I have this job if the president were white? And my answer to that is yes. But would I have this job if I were white? [long pause] The answer to that is I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s a very good question. And it says a lot about, I think, where the party is right now that I can’t answer it.
No, you wouldn’t have the job if you were white. In fact, as bad as you are stepping in it now, if you were white you wouldn’t have had that interview because you would have already been replaced as RNC chair.
GQ: You mean your Starbucks hasn’t closed yet?
Steele: No, my Starbucks has not closed. And it better not! You cannot close a Starbucks in a black community. We’ll riot!
The black community is going to riot over the closing of a Starbucks? Is that a sign of progress on civil rights or a sad commentary on what Michael Steele thinks of the black community?
What happened to Michael Steele? The RNC needed a leader not another media personality. I had hoped that he would bring a change in attitude that would focus on the mechanics of winning elections. For the last three weeks, Michael Steele has been lost in the glare of TV lights and the mystique of his own media personality. It will be very interesting to watch and see if he find his way back out of his reality TV nightmare.
4 Responses to “Michael Steele: The Political Version of “Lost””
The sad part is that it's hard to even care. I haven't much cared for this guy, even prior to his election as head of the RNC, but that was because it seemed like he has been elevated for all the wrong reasons, without ever demonstrating much leadership. But, his reaction to his election is just sad. It's gone to his head and it's going to be hard for him to be taken seriously in the future unless he just shuts up for awhile and gets his bearings. It's like he's drunk on his good fortune, rather than being elated that he has a chance to do something he knows he can do better than anyone else.
Just curious, but what has Steele ever succeeded at to earn this position in the first place? It seems that he's just failed his way upward.
MS had the right idea to increase the party's diversity and moderate its image and even wanted to cooperate somewhat with the new administration, but he has been stymied by Rush Limbaugh , who pilloried Steele on his radio show.
To Rush, anyone who attempts to move towards the center and appeal to a new demographic, automatically falls into the RINO category . RINO's must be obliterated in Limbaugh's world because they collaborate with “socialist” Democrats!
Steele: No, my Starbucks has not closed. And it better not! You cannot close a Starbucks in a black community. We’ll riot!
EGAD! ACK! WOW! Starbucks and “black folks rioting” just doesn't fit? Starbucks?? Did he say we'll riot over a Starbucks closing? *shudder*