GOP Desperately Seeking Token Negro

[prole]

Or, "Intellectually Bankrupt Party Grasps At Straws". Pathetic.

 

At Defining Moment for G.O.P., a Diverse Choice of Leadership

 

WASHINGTON — As the nation is on the verge of inaugurating its first black president, the Republican Party is facing a telling choice: whether to elect its first black chairman.

 

The contest for Republican Party chairman comes as Republican leaders seek to figure out what the party stands for, as well as what face to put forward as it struggles to avoid shrinking into a party of Southern white men as the country grows increasingly diverse. Among the six candidates are four white men, including two from the South, and two blacks: Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, and J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former Ohiosecretary of state.

 

Because it is a six-way race in which ballots are cast anonymously, it is impossible to project who might win. But party leaders said Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Steele were viable candidates, particularly Mr. Blackwell, who has strong support from social conservatives.

 

The leadership struggle follows a campaign in which Democrats, led by President-elect Barack Obama, made geographical and demographic inroads, despite eight years in which President Bush and a previous party chairman, Ken Mehlman, tried to expand the ethnic and racial backdrop of the party.

 

The party is grappling with sharp ideological and geographical divides, and the question of the candidates’ race has not been explicitly raised by the committee or the contenders. “I think it’s color blind; I don’t think people are talking about it,” said Mike Duncan, the current party chairman, chosen by President Bush, who is seeking re-election.

 

Nevertheless, racial codes and strains have emerged in the contest. Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican chairman, quit his membership in an all-white country club soon after joining the race. And another candidate, Chip Saltsman, the Tennessee party chairman, was roundly criticized for distributing a holiday CD to party members that included a parody song called “Barack the Magic Negro.”

 

Some Republicans argued that electing a black chairman could prove helpful as the party struggles to rebuild.

 

“Race is not a consideration of why a person should become chairman of the R.N.C., but if the nation can celebrate its first African-American president, I would certainly think the Republican Party could celebrate its first African-American chairman,” said Jim Greer, the Florida Republican chairman, who endorsed Mr. Steele last week. “There certainly is an advantage of a credible message of inclusion if you have a minority as chairman.”

 

Even if one of these two men win the chairmanship, it will be difficult for Republicans to compete against a Democratic Party that made its way into the history books in November. Mr. Obama will be sworn in as president just one week before the 168 members of the committee are to gather here to choose the chairman.

 

Even Republicans describe this as their bleakest period since Watergate. Yet the party put another Republican in the White House just six years after Richard M. Nixon left office in disgrace in 1974.

 

“There were other valleys we’ve been in that were worse than this,” Mr. Duncan said. “I’m optimistic. I think we can come back from this. We are a center-right country. Only 20 percent of the people consider themselves liberal. That gives us a huge opportunity. We have to get our message refined. We’ll be back.”

 

Still, the problems the party faces now are laid out in often-agonizing detail by the six candidates as they appeal for the committee members’ votes.

 

“We fell behind in investment in technology," said Saul Anuzis, the Michigan chairman and a candidate for party chairman. "Clearly fund-raising is going to be a major challenge. I think we have a lot of challenges.”

 

The party has to choose from a field of candidates barely known outside of Washington. To date, no candidate has shown signs of being the kind of powerful public speaker that party members are yearning for to counter the opposition. Nor has any candidate presented a new message or vision to keep pace with the Democrats, Republicans acknowledge.

 

“I haven’t heard a vision,” said Joe Gaylord, a longtime Republican strategist who was the chief strategist for Newt Gingrich when Republicans seized control of the House in 1994. “If we do not become a future-oriented, solutions-oriented Republican Party, we are going to be in wilderness for a long, long time.”

 

In one telling moment at a debate last week, all six had the same answer when asked to name the best Republican president in the history of the nation: Ronald Reagan.

 

The presence of Mr. Steele and Mr. Blackwell has added some historical resonance to a contest that is usually viewed as a matter of inside baseball.

 

Party officials said this was the first time two serious black candidates had competed for the Republican chairmanship. The Democratic Party elected its first African-American chairman, Ronald H. Brown, in 1989.

 

Given the depth of the Republican Party’s difficulties — and the divisions over ideology and region being played out in the contest — party leaders said they did not think race would be a deciding factor in many, if any, votes.

 

“I don’t get the sense that race is a driver in the context of this election,” said Phil Musser, a Republican strategist who has been leading an effort to get the next party leader to invest resources and attention to improving the party’s technological abilities. “If it is, it’s a narrow minority. People are more interested in the plans for the committee and the ideological perspectives of the candidates running for chairman than they are about ethnicity.”

 

Beyond that, given Mr. Obama’s election and the lopsided support that Democrats drew from African-American voters, several Republicans said it was unrealistic to expect the party to make serious gains among black voters, at least for now. Instead, they said, the party should seek to recover its standing, in particular among Hispanic voters, where Republicans lost ground this year.

 

Mr. Steele has drawn criticism from conservatives because, while he opposes abortion, he supports an exemption in cases of incest or when the life of the woman is in danger.

 

“Those who want to obsess on those issues will continue to lose the American public, which is focusing on the economy and education and national security,” said Mr. Greer, the Florida chairman. “Values and principles are the foundation of our party. But if you are out of a job, or your 401(k) has halved in value, people are looking for leadership in those areas.”

 

Mr. Blackwell, who as Ohio’s secretary of state was at the center of a controversy over voter disenfranchisement, is running as a social conservative, drawing support from that still-potent segment of the party.

 

Over the years, the party has had its share of criticism over race matters in contests for public office. And the tensions it faces as it tries to deal with these issues were illustrated by problems Mr. Dawson and Mr. Saltsman encountered.

 

Mr. Dawson said the focus on his country club membership was an effort by opponents to distort his record and background.

 

“I resigned, I moved on, tried to correct it,” said Mr. Dawson, who owns an auto parts distributorship. “The country club issue is so bogus.”

 

Mr. Saltsman declined to renounce or apologize for sending out the parody song, saying it was a harmless joke. (Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Steele said they found nothing offensive about it.) Nonetheless, he said, the episode had hurt him.

 

“I don’t think it helped,” he said. “But I think we’ve gotten past it and people kind of see it for what it is, and what it was, and now my challenge is to talk about the future of the Republican Party.”--from NYT 1/10/09

[j_b]

I can't wait to see him/her pound the pulpit in front of a Palin crowd

[Bug]

What about "real Americans"? Who will represent them?

[prole]

 

FOUND ONE!!!

 

Republicans Choose First Black Party Chairman

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

 

WASHINGTON — Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, was elected the chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday as the party chose its first African-American leader in a vote that signaled a desire by Republican leaders to put a new face on an embattled party.

 

Mr. Steele was elected in a contest that took six drawn-out ballots before any of the candidates received the required 85 votes. In the final ballot, he defeated Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican chairman, drawing 91 of the 165 votes.

 

From the start, Mr. Dawson, while well-liked in the party, was hampered by worries that his selection would reinforce the notion that Republicans are increasingly becoming a Southern regional party. Mr. Dawson also withdrew from an all-white country club he belonged before he started running for office, a point that was raised by Republicans concerned that it would provide a bad contrast in a year when the country elected its first African-American president.

 

Mr. Steele also represented an important break for Republicans for another reason: He was one of two outsiders — non-members of the committee — running to be its leader. Historically, the party typically chooses members to be its leaders.

 

Mr. Steele accepted the selection after a prolonged standing ovation from members who were clearly tired after five hours of voting.

 

“As a little boy growing up in this town, this is awesome,” he said.

 

Mr. Steele also signaled that after an election in which there were signs that the party was shrinking — in terms of parts of the country and groups it was appealing to — he would make a concerted effort to get the party back on track and compete with Democrats. His speech offered a sharp contrast of tone in a meeting that had been marked by expressions of concern by leaders of the party.

 

"It’s time for something completely different and we’re going to bring it to them," Mr. Steele said. "We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike, ‘we want you to be a part of us, we want you to be with us and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ "

 

Mr. Steele was one of two African-Americans competing to be the party’s leader. The other was Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state. Mr. Blackwell quit the race after the fourth ballot, in which he drew just 15 votes. He then endorsed Mr. Steele, which had ideological significance: Mr. Blackwell was among the most conservative candidates in the race, and there were recurring concerns among some conservatives about Mr. Steele’s convictions.

 

The results also signaled a desire by the party to make a clear break with former President George W. Bush. The incumbent chairman, Mike Duncan, who had been installed in the job by Mr. Bush, withdrew after the third ballot, in which he got just 41 votes, compared with 52 votes in the first ballot.

 

“Obviously, the winds of change are blowing at the R.N.C.,” Mr. Duncan said.

 

Mr. Steele made no mention of his race in his acceptance speech, and members said that was not a major factor in their decision. Nonetheless, it was clearly a force, playing out at a time when the nation has just inaugurated its first black president.

 

In addition to Mr. Duncan’s experience with a white country club, another candidate for candidate — Chip Saltsman of Tennessee — came under fire after distributing a Christmas CD with a song parody entitled, “Barack the Magic Negro.”

 

Mr. Saltsman dropped out of the race on the eve of the contest after apparently failing to qualify for the ballot

 

Mr. Steele was the first African-American elected to a statewide office in Maryland in 2003, when he became the state’s lieutenant governor. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 2006.--from NYT 1/30/09

 

 

[billcoe]

Your post is demeaning as hell Prole. Put yourself in others shoes for a moment will ya. I'd like to think that we as a country are generally beyond that kind of crap...maybe some of us are and you and a few pointy white hat idiots aren't.

 

Here's to the future where you can let your inner racist lay dormant. I'll bet money on 2 things: 1st, you don't think what you said is racist. 2nd) if you show this post to any person of color they will say it is a racist post.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Your post is demeaning as hell Prole. Put yourself in others shoes for a moment will ya.

 

Prole is a racist pig.

[prole]

Gimme a break. Anyone who doesn't see this move for the cynical circus stunt that it is barely rates a response much less a debate on this.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Gimme a break. Anyone who doesn't see this move for the cynical circus stunt that it is barely rates a response much less a debate on this.

 

Gimme a break. Anyone who doesn't see your post and its subject line as overt racism spewing from your race-obsessed, racist mind barely rates a response much less a debate on this.

[prole]

I just call 'em like I see 'em. You seem happy to confirm the old saying, "denial ain't just a river in Egypt".

[billcoe]

 

Here's to the future where you can let your inner racist lay dormant. I'll bet money on 2 things: 1st, you don't think what you said is racist. 2nd) if you show this post to any person of color they will say it is a racist post.

 

Gimme a break. Anyone who doesn't see this move for the cynical circus stunt that it is barely rates a response much less a debate on this.

Did I call that or what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHOW ME THE MONEY JERRY!

 

HA HA ! YA RACIST!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I just call 'em like I see 'em

 

 

Exactly - you call 'em as you see 'em - through racist-tinged glasses.

 

[prole]

Your post is demeaning as hell Prole. Put yourself in others shoes for a moment will ya. I'd like to think that we as a country are generally beyond that kind of crap...maybe some of us are and you and a few pointy white hat idiots aren't.

 

Here's to the future where you can let your inner racist lay dormant. I'll bet money on 2 things: 1st, you don't think what you said is racist. 2nd) if you show this post to any person of color they will say it is a racist post.

 

It's absolutely befuddling to me that "as a country, we are generally beyond that crap" (crap being defined here as discussing race) was your "take home message" from the election of Barack Obama. It's exactly what many American people of color were afraid would happen if a black man were elected president, that real and historical forms of institutionalized racism (tokenism being part of that complex) would be swept aside in a "post-racial" purge of white guilt. Whatever. I say I'm befuddled but I'm certainly not suprised, all this coming from someone whose ignorance is only matched by their incoherence.

[Skeezix]

The Republican Party is done. Done. I don't think the pendulum's even going to swing back to those dumbfucks. They might as well pull their heads out of their asses and just try to fit in.

[111]

The Republican Party is done. Done. I don't think the pendulum's even going to swing back to those dumbfucks. They might as well pull their heads out of their asses and just try to fit in.

doubt it

[No. 13 Baby]

The funniest part is that Steele barely won over the guy who just recently resigned from his whites-only country club.

 

Methinks the GOP is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.

[tvashtarkatena]

The racism-fest here speaks more to a couple of posters' inabilities to grasp political satire than to anyone's actual bias.

 

The question is whether the GOP's choice for Chairman was a cyncical one. Given the Palin fiasco, they are certainly capable of some serious cynicism in their choice of leadership.

 

Even if Steele was chosen to win favor on the racial front, however, his selection still provides a symbolic win for blacks; that attaining the highest positions of leadership is actually possible. The transformative power of such a gesture should not be underestimated.

 

Yes, it's true that GOP inspired policies have done great harm to American blacks; primarily by putting historical numbers of them in prison and keeping historical numbers of them below the poverty line. In addition, the GOP has been publicly and vociferously racist of late (the whole Obama as Muslim/Terrorist/Arab campaign, which came directly from the RNC, comes to mind).

 

Could the choice of Steele signal a change in thinking? I would say that's unlikely right now, but after a fews years with Obama, some softening on race attitudes might happen among enough republicans to move the party where it has long needed to go.

 

Finally, what are Steele's politics? After all, he's an individual. Is he automatically more moderate because he's black? Let's ask Clarence Thomas.

[AlpineK]

The Republican used to have people like Eisenhower and Dan Evans. One might not agree with their decisions and politics, but at least they were respectable leaders.

 

Now for the most part Republicans are a bunch of religious nut jobs. They talk tax cutting, but in the same breath talk about tons of new spending (debt) to engage in the latest hip new war.

 

Right now it seems like they are choosing an ineffective way to expand their base. We'll see what happens, but I believe they have a ton of reorganization that they have not even confronted.

[tvashtarkatena]

The GOP has exchanged what's good for the country for what's good for the GOP. It describes itself as the 'Party of the Big Tent', ie, we'll take anyone, and it does...to win elections. The result is a loose coalition of single interest kooks; the ideological burnt crumbs at the bottom of the toaster, impossible to reconstitute into any kind of coherent ideology. The GOP, at this point, has no core ideologies it can sell. Everything it had, neoconservatism, deregulation, and the like, it put on stage, only to see it catch fire and burn the theatre down.

 

Thus, when any real problem is confronted, such as the tens of millions of Americans that have no health care coverage, the GOP's answer has been "Big Government is Bad". It doesn't seem to get any more complicated than that, but, after all, these are toast crumbs we're talking about here; they only have so much capacity for reasoned debate and considering complex problems. This, of course, has lead to Republican leadership that not only cannot solve problems, but one that actually creates more problems. By electing them for 8 years, we've handed over the keys to the store to a mongoloid who just really likes the color red, with predictable results.

 

The problem for the GOP is that this evolution to idiocracy has been a long, slow, deliberate process over decades. It's going to be very difficult to move the party back towards a core set of reasoned principles in the style of Goldwater and Eisenhower, if that's even possible now. Add to that that the country is currently tectonically shifting towards socialism to stave off utter collapse. I'd like to see such a principled shift, but I'm not sure the party has the intellectual fire power or political smarts to pull much of anything off.

 

On the flip side, there will always be a backlash to any adminstration's policies, Obama's included. This is not a great time for predicting with any certainty, that's for sure.