“Tea Party activists are your mom or dad, your local grocer, banker, hairdresser or doctor,” the former lieutenant governor of Maryland said in statement. “They are a diverse group of passionate Americans who want to ensure that our nation returns to founding principles that honor the Constitution, limit government’s role in our lives, and support policies that empower free markets and free enterprise. Enough with the name-calling.”

I find it interesting that Chairman Steele would defend the fringe elements in this movement, but perception is reality.  Steele is fighting for his political life, and his only hope of surviving it is to stop speaking out against the party.  Having an independent thought and criticizing some Tea Party members behavior is tantmount to political suicide.  Just look at his most recent example, trying to make the case against the war in Afghanistan.  The chairman’s still running for cover over that.

Michael Steele lacks the courage to speak out against this hatred, and as a black man and an American, he ought to be ashamed.   Real leaders do what they must, even in the face of doubt and oppression.  Then again, what real leaders exist in the republican party nowadays?  I guess this explains Steele’s 19% approval rating, and congressional republicans strong 31%.

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I am not a Michael Steele fan.  I won’t try to deny this fact.  But I’ve always thought that Mr. Steele was a bright man, fully capable and respectful of the moment–even though I tended to disagree with his political ideology.  As chairman of the Republican National Committee, Steele’s responsibility is elevating the profile and prospects of potential candidates for the republican party.  Mr. Steele would be wise to remember his history, and his responsibility to use his position to spread truth.  Here is Steele and his thoughts on supreme court nominee Elena Kagan:

“Over the past year, the American people have been witness to President Obama’s massive expansion of the federal government into our daily lives. To assure the American people, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, will need to demonstrate that she is committed to upholding the vision of our Founding Fathers, who wrote a Constitution meant to limit the power of government, not expand it. The President has stated repeatedly that he wants a justice who will understand the effects of decisions on the lives of everyday Americans. But what Americans want is a justice who will stay true to the Constitution and defend the rights of all Americans, adhering to the rule of law instead of legislating from the bench. Given Kagan’s opposition to allowing military recruiters access to her law school’s campus, her endorsement of the liberal agenda and her support for statements suggesting that the Constitution “as originally drafted and conceived, was ‘defective,’” you can expect Senate Republicans to respectfully raise serious and tough questions to ensure the American people can thoroughly and thoughtfully examine Kagan’s qualifications and legal philosophy before she is confirmed to a lifetime appointment.”

In trying to appease the irrational conservative ideologues of his party, chairman Steele callously perpetrates the crime of tomfoolery–and blindly allows his sycophantic tendencies to override good sense (though I’m now feeling he may lack that).  Steele denounces Kagan’s statement that the Constitution, as originally drafted and conceived, was defective.

Elena Kagan was actually parroting the words of legendary Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.  A point of fact Mr. Steele:  The United States Constitution– in its original conception– was in fact flawed and defective.  A few instances:

1) The Three-fifths compromise found in article 1 section 2.  The compromise counted Black Americans as three-fifths of a person solely for monetary reasons.  Blatant racism.

2) The original constitution, in its “perfect crafting,” denies voting rights to women and non white men.

The more shocking aspect of Steele’s diatribe is his cavalier attitude toward his own history as an African-American man, and his ambivalence toward another iconic civil rights pioneer:  Thurgood Marshall.   We are respectable Negroes expounds fully on this:

The irony of Mr. Steele’s comments are not lost, as America’s first Black Supreme Court Justice, and litigator for the NAACP in a series of cases leading to the monumental Brown vs. Board decision, struggled to make the freedoms and opportunities enjoyed by the chair of the GOP a reality. Despite Steele’s questionable loyalty to the tribe that is Black America, and his earnest boot licking for the tea baggers and his White Republican Masters, men like Thurgood Marshall are the proverbial fathers of 21st century Black America. He, like Brother Malcolm and Brother Martin, is our father, brother, cousin, mentor, and sage. A giant of a man, we are forever in Judge Marshall’s debt. Lest we forget, without Thurgood Marshall, there would be no President Obama.

I’m not peddling race dogma here.  It’s just important to determine how one’s political philosophy can cloud and obfuscate facts and reality.  Mr. Steele lives in a fantasy world– ruled by a conservative monarchy that deems it proper to defame someone of Marshall’s caliber– in order to distort the truth.  Add this to Steele’s growing bill of ineptitude.

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The Republican National Committee’s troubles with spending money just took an more bizarre turn.  Already under fire for its $2000 reimbursement at a Los Angeles lesbian bondage club, the republican fund raising arm is now beating back new, more shocking charges of prostitution and dog fighting.  Aides to chairman Michale Steele have been seen engaging in several illegal activities–including playing a significant part in funding a dog fighting operation outside Bakersfield, California.  Receipts for the past two months show that more than$20,000 has been spent  on the purchase of treadmills, staple guns, sedatives and other well known dog training paraphernalia.  The Bakersfield area is known to have a large national dog-fighting presence.

Steele’s troubles also extend into other illegal activity, as receipts as far back as April 2009 show the chairman and his staff frequenting various adult establishments– and procuring sex from several young women.  While the expenditures are not quite tabulated, it is estimated that RNC coffers were responsible for the bulk of the payments.

These new revelations come a a time when the RNC is wading in the public relations nightmare about Voyeur, the bondage-themed nightclub where a republican operatives were caught spending committee dollars, and chairman Steele is under fire for his purported lavish spending as chairman.  Already several prominent republicans including Sarah Palin and Tony Perkins have tried to distance themselves from the organization.  It seems only a matter of time before these new allegations permanently sully the brand the GOP has tried to maintain for years.  Calls for him to resign have already begun to emerge.

Chairman Steele could not immediately be reached for comment.  I’m sure you can though.

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I can’t say that this was unexpected:

“He’s become our Howard Dean,” says a top Republican leadership aide. Steele’s latest remarks that the party won’t take control of the House in the November midterm elections — a prediction he later backed away from — have revived talk of replacing him. But senior party officials say they plan something worse: just ignoring Steele. “It’s going to be out of sight, out of mind,” says one aide. And firing him won’t work. “That would just expedite the talk show where he bashes us all the time,” he says.

I’ve said before that chairman Steele is an extremely bright and energetic man, two obvious traits the GOP need in their committee chair.  He’s also a self-absorbed attention whore, who seems at his worst when the cameras are rolling.  And he always finds a camera to roll in front of him…

My question is this:  Will GOPers be afraid to pull the trigger on dumping Steele because he’s black?

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No matter how often I hear him speak, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele never ceases to amaze and befuddle me.  For such an intelligent man, he sure knows how to put some puzzling words and phrases together.  Case in point:  On a conference call yesterday, Steele spoke of Democrats efforts in moving health care reform legislation forward with a cloture vote.  How must the American People feel about this chairman Steele:

I mean, it just annoys and irritates me on something so fundamentally important. That this Congress, this leadership, is so tone deaf and so hell bent on propping up a policy that the American people doesn’t want, that they’re willing to basically flip the bird to the American people on this issue and slip it in in the dead of night.

Watch the clip:

Steele has a penchant for over the top dialogue and antics; traits I’m sure will give the RNC pause when his chairmanship comes up for vote in 2012.  Steele and the GOP need to make significant gains in the mid-term elections in order to quiet the skeptics, and burnish his image.  Even with the gains though, Steele should probably take a lower profile.  He doesn’t have to jump in front of every camera he sees does he?

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Let me piggy-back off of a twitter connection of mine by the name of Stephen Kruiser. I enjoy Mr. Kruiser’s work very much, even as I vehemently disagree with his politics. He’s a very smart guy, and his work is engaging and amusing. Take his lastest post for example. The title says it all: Where Da White Girls At? The gist of the post is to illustrate the lunacy of political correctness run amok, perpetuated by people who don’t hold themselves to the same standards.  Fair enough.  Here at wrightandleftreport, any opportunity to expose hypocrisy is a red banner day.  So I applaud Mr. Kruiser’s effort.

Let’s examine another instance of pot calling kettle black, featuring RNC chairman Michael Steele.  Steele, much like most conservatives, believes that political correctness has gone too far in our society.  He feels that victimization on matters of race is counterproductive– and minorities who engage in it are setting themselves up to fail in society.  Yet here is chairman Steele, claiming the mantle of racially impugned black man on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

Later, Steele got into it with MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle who, in discussing health care, asked, “What are you people for?

“You people?” Steele asked. “Who are you people?”

“The Republicans, what are you for?” Barnicle responded.

Laughing, Steele – the first African American chairman of the RNC – said, “Mike, I just wanted to you define the pronoun baby, that’s all.”

“Oh, come on,” Barnicle responded.

It was an absolute ridiculous display of false outrage, and phony pandering.  The rest of the interview was just as bad.  Mr Steele, being a black man, should know when to exhibit righteous indignation toward perceived racial insensitivities– when to answer fair pointed questions– and when to know the difference.  If he can’t navigate these delicate waters,  perhaps he’s not the spokesman his party needs at this time.  Perhaps he should join the DNC instead.  Then no one would bat an eye at this type of self-martyrdom.  I guess liberals aren’t the only ones who are politically correct.

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This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee.  Notice the cartoonish hand gestures, and the sly suggestive smile.  This is a man that is confident in his abilities, but what those are, is questionable to me.  He should be happy about one thing though:  He has mastered the art of the hypocrisy two-step.  So, just what has Mr. Unspoiled Juice done to master this?  He just had to sell out a segment of his own party, to sail on the rugged seas of the uncompromising right-wing that’s all.

Steele initially claimed that republican party was a big tent, and they, more than the democrats, welcomed diversity of thought and opinion.  Here he is a few months back in Wisconsin:

“All you moderates out there, y’all come. I mean, that’s the message,” Steele said at a news conference. “The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front.

Flash forward to now:  Steele and his Two-Face persona, have seriously compromised the GOP’s ability to retain and attract moderate voices to the party.  Take the case of New York and its 23rd district.  Conservatives ridiculed and vilified the established candidate Dede Scozzafava– eventually backing a more conservative candidate in the race– and effectively abandoning the official nominee.  The result?  The GOP lost another seat in the house to democrats, a seat held by the party for over 100 years.  And for what?  To burnish conservative credentials of a party, and a chairman, who both seem to lack a coherent direction.

Chairman Steele’s pledge to “come after incumbents who support President Barack Obama’s policies,” is laughable.   Here is the actual quote from chairman Steele:

Asked if he’d be comfortable with Republican candidates in 2010 who supported President Obama’s stimulus package, or his push to overhaul health care, Steele said:

“Well I’m gonna tell you honestly, that’s where the line gets a little bit tricky. And you saw in the House and in the Senate that there are ramifications, because that goes against a core principle. And trust me, you’re assuming that people want to have bloated debt, government expenditures and growth into their lives — they don’t. That’s a talking point out of the DNC.”

“People aren’t buying that. So candidates who live in moderate to slightly liberal districts have got to walk a little bit carefully here, because you do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles, because we’ll come after you,” Steele continued.

Last time I checked, the people in those slightly liberal and moderate districts, wield the true power.  Candidates and incumbents take their cues from them. Imagine the nerve an incumbent would have to have, to vote the way their constituents want them to. Crazy! Is it Steele’s intention then, to put party brand and ideological style, over substance and common sense legislating?  If so, then be prepared to spend the rest of the next decade as the minority party.  And be prepared to find another line of work in 2012.

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Funny stuff.

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The barrage continues:

RT @RightBloggerPat: @AnhJosephCao You Bastard piece of shit fuck! GO BACK TO Saigon, South Vietnam where you fucking BELONG GOOK! #TCOT

This is from DemConWatch:

First, there was Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana. A month ago, we thought he might be the most endangered member of the House. This might be a game changer for him.

(Editorial note: We previously had a reference here referring to Congressman Cao as Congressman Mao. The reference, was, in our minds, a play on the GOP wanting to call Democrats “socialists”. We did not intend anything racist by the remark. However, upon further review, the source we used may well have had a racist intent, so we have decided to remove the link and the quote. We apologize to anyone who was offended by the reference. – The Mgmt)

Here’s a novel idea dipshits…  STOP CALLING DEMOCRATS, OR ANYONE FOR THAT MATTER, SOCIALISTS!  I can’t imagine calling anyone Mao, would have any vicious racist undertones can you?  What the hell is wrong with people?

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Why does he even bother opening his mouth?  Michael Steele– in answering a  clearly baited question from political commentator Roland Martin– once again invites a pointy wing-tip to kick him square in the ass:

MARTIN:  “One of the criticisms I’ve always had is Republicans — white Republicans — have been scared of black folks.” Yeah, ever come across anything like that, Michael Steele?

STEELE: You’re absolutely right. I mean I’ve been in the room and they’ve been scared of me. I’m like, “I’m on your side” and so I can imagine going out there and talking to someone like you, you know, [say] “I’ll listen.” And they’re like “Well.” Let me tell you. You saw in Christie and you saw in McDonnell a door open because they went in and engaged.

Dumb.   Does he have to say something stupid into every microphone he comes across?  How long is the GOP willing to give this clown the stage?  I say he has until January 1st, to keep scaring white republicans before they give him the boot.

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