As Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game's afoot!" In the last few months,
whenever anyone has said to me "The Republican party is dead!", I've said
"Don't write them off. They know how to fight dirty. They know how to do
whatever they have to in order to win". (McCain's choosing a complete
know-nothing like Palin to supposedly offset Obama is proof of that). Although
it's probably making many of their tongues turn to flame to even speak the word
"diversity", some of the Repubs are slowly coming to realize they have no
choice. I tend to think the realization that white men may actually be in the
minority in a few decades, and the fact that more Latinos than expected backed
Obama, are helping make them at least entertain the notion. Steele's being a
more moderate Republican, as well as being black, makes this very interesting:
how can he rein in a party that's full of backwards bigots, extreme religious
people, and war mongers, while his very beliefs will tick some of them off? Wa
tching Steele navigate these waters, watching him try to compete with Obama
while holding the party together, watching him try to somehow pull blacks from
the democratic side while not attacking Obama, watching him woo Republican
whites while not being called "Oreo", yet counter Obama while not being called
"traitor"--this is going to be interesting!
Heck, I may have to tip my toe in the foetid pools of Limbaugh and Hannity
again just to see if they can be even more apoplectic than they were after
Obama's election!
***************************************************************
Steele becomes first African-American RNC chairman
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, was
elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday.
Steele, the first African-American to hold the post, defeated South Carolina
GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, 91-77, in the final round of voting among the RNC's
168 members. Only 86 votes were needed.
"This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself," he told the crowd at the
annual RNC meeting Friday. "God bless you, and God bless our party. ... It's
going to be a new day."
Steele also told his fellow party members that it will be a "great honor to
spar" with President Obama.
For the duration of his campaign, Steele fought perceptions that he was too
moderate to lead the party because of his blue-state roots and his former
membership in the Republican Leadership Council, a group that sought to curb
the influence of social conservatives in the party.
"For so long, we've allowed the Democrats to define us, we've allowed the media
to define us, and so it's important for us to begin to establish with clarity
who we are, what we believe as we begin to go out and take, I think, a brand
new message to the American people," he said Friday.Video Watch Steele's
remarks to the RNC ยป
Steele brings a national profile to the committee, having shot to fame in the
political world during an underdog Senate bid in 2006 distinguished by a series
of clever TV commercials. He has since become a fixture on cable talk shows,
experience that boosted his reputation as the best communicator among the field
of RNC candidates.
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Earlier Friday, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, who was
elected to lead the committee in 2007, dropped his re-election bid, telling
committee members: "Obviously the winds of change are blowing here at the RNC."
Duncan rose to address the committee after three disappointing rounds of
balloting in the chairman's election. He bled votes on every successive ballot,
his support trickling to the other candidates in the race.
Despite the sometimes contentious nature of the campaign and criticism that the
party suffered with him at the helm, Duncan told the crowd the race had been
worth it.
"I thought this would be good for the party," he said. "And I think it has
been."
Duncan earned a noisy round of applause when he said running the committee "has
truly been the highlight of my life."
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell also ended his run Friday,
throwing his support to Steele, a fellow African-American candidate.
Blackwell had been in last place after four rounds of voting.
"I told you last night that in elections, there are two ways that you change
outcomes: You either change the composition of the electorate, or you can
change the attitude of the electorate," he said Friday.
"My fellow Republicans and members of the RNC, I cannot change the composition
of this electorate. Nor would I want to. I do want to influence your
perspective and your attitude at this moment in history. We must be a party
that makes good the promise of Lincoln. We must unleash a new, a new birth of
freedom," Blackwell said.
Also on Friday, Michigan GOP chairman Saul Anuzis ended his bid to head the
national party. He did not endorse either of the remaining candidates.
"It's been a great honor," he said. "I have enjoyed every minute."
With Republicans out of the White House and in the minority in both houses of
Congress for the first time since 1994, the new chairman will have an
uncommonly powerful role in revitalizing the beleaguered party.
"What counts now, quite frankly, is competence more than change," said
Massachusetts committee member Ron Kaufman, who backed Duncan's re-election
bid. "People want a chairman who can run the building, raise the money and
spend it wisely, and that becomes more important to folks than just change for
change's sake."
Duncan had garnered more public endorsements from RNC members than any of his
opponents and had run a sophisticated re-election campaign. However, many in
the committee were ready for a clean break from the soft-spoken Kentuckian, who
managed to raise $400 million during a difficult 2008 cycle.
Duncan, tapped in 2007 to succeed Ken Mehlman, is also associated with former
President George W. Bush and sat atop the party through an election in which
Republicans hemorrhaged congressional seats for the second consecutive cycle.
Some party members want the new chairman to change with the times to win back
disaffected voters, while others are convinced the party must stress basic
conservative principles like small government and lower taxes. Read how
iReporters would like to see the Republican Party move forward
With so many considerations on the table and opinions differing widely among
the membership, no candidate emerged early as the true front-runner. As a
result, the race had, at times, turned sour. Each contender was the victim of
e-mail salvos laden with opposition research that appeared in member inboxes
almost daily in recent weeks, sometimes anonymously.
advertisement
Dawson presided over of a string of GOP successes in South Carolina, from the
state house on up to last year's pivotal Republican presidential primary.
He boosted his prospects earlier in January, but a number of party members said
they didn't savor the thought of having a white Southerner as the face of the
party in the age of Obama. In September, he resigned from a country club with a
whites-only restriction in its deed.
------------------------------------
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