Steele trap? GOP fears growBy: Mike Allen and Andy Barr
March 4, 2009
A month after Michael Steele became the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee, key party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake — one that will make it even harder for them to take back power from the dominant Democratic Party.
Steadily becoming a dependable punch line, Steele has brushed back Rush Limbaugh, threatened moderate Republican senators, offered the “friggin’ awesome” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal some “slum love,” called civil unions “crazy” and promised more outreach to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” via an “off the hook” public relations campaign.
He even threw a shout-out to “one-armed midgets.”
That’s in just 30 days on the job — and that’s just the PR part.
On the organizational side, Steele does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director. Last week, one of the two men sharing the job of interim finance director was forced to resign.
For now, “the fourth floor,” as the RNC’s executive suite is known, is being run by a pair of consultants.
“There’s frustration that there’s no discipline, no planning,” said a well-known Republican consultant. “He’s risking being overexposed by accepting every interview, which makes gaffes more likely.”
In a lengthy interview, Steele was unapologetic, referring to the high-level GOP critics and skeptics as “nervous Nellies” and saying that he actually has been tempering his public remarks.
“If I told folks what I really thought, I’d probably be in a lot more trouble,” he said. “I think that’s what I bring to this job, as a voice of the party: I think it’s important to have that kind of newness and rawness to it that grabs folks’ attention and hopefully ... take a look at what we’re doing.”
Steele said he would make the “hip-hop” comment again — and that when he told The Washington Times that the GOP needed to “uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets,” it was a repetition of a question from the reporter.
During this winter's nasty, tight contest for chairman, Steele promised that, if elected, he would be able to say to the party and to America: “And now, for something completely different.”
But this kind of “different” is making some party leaders extremely nervous.
“I’m worried that we need someone to manage the chairman,” said one frustrated Republican National Committee member.
Other party leaders have voiced similar concerns in private conversations, but they’re wary of taking on the chairman so early in his tenure.
In an embarrassing soap opera that unfolded this week, Steele took the bait from Democrats who were trying to make Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party. Steele first seemed to criticize the radio host in comments aired Saturday night on CNN, referring to him as an "entertainer" and "incendiary." But when Limbaugh roared back about the “sad-sack” state of the party and said that Steele was “off to a shaky start,” Steele backpedaled, telling Politico he had been “inarticulate” and saying he had not been trying to undermine Limbaugh.
Steele offered an implicit apology during a phone conversation with Limbaugh Monday night and said afterward through a spokesman, “We had a nice conversation. ... We are all good.”
That emboldened the opposition, with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor, calling the apology proof that Limbaugh is "he who must be obeyed" in the GOP.
Mark Hillman, a national committee member from Colorado who supported former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell rather than Steele on the first ballot in the RNC chairman's race, called Steele’s Limbaugh comments “a misstep” and added: “Probably the best advice for him in that regard is to get the lay of the land first. ... The chairman doesn’t have to pontificate on every issue that comes along.”
In another incident that drew unwanted scrutiny to the chairman, Steele was asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto if he would consider supporting primary challengers against the three Republican senators who voted in favor of President Obama’s stimulus package, Steele seemed to threaten moderate Republican Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Susan Collins of Maine by responding: “Oh, yes, I’m always open to everything, baby, absolutely.”
Snowe, who is not facing reelection in 2010, told Roll Call that she approached Steele to ask: “You didn’t really mean that, did you?”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19588.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
