Haley Barbour: You Know, I'm Not Entirely Sure If Michael Steele Is Right That the Republicans Who Put Him In Charge of the RNC Are Racist
Ken Blackwell: "Ridiculous"

Over on CNN, just a few minutes ago.

Asked about Steele's claim that he had a narrower margin of error permitted to him, due to his race, than, say, the white chief of staff he just fired, Barbour responded, “I just don’t see that. I don’t think that way.”

Tepid stuff, I guess.

By the way, check out Steele's letter announcing his firing of Ken McKay:

""The buck stops with me. That is why I have made this change in management."

The buck stops with me, so I am now forced to push an underling on to his sword.

And now the goddamned race card.

Really?

Ken Blackwell Rips Steele. Awesome.

Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state who ran against Michael Steele for RNC chairman, said Steele’s argument that he has a “smaller margin of error” beacuse he’s black is “ridiculous.”

“This notion that this disturbing pattern of gaffes and missteps is now being criticized solely because he is black, and that Barack Obama is being criticized for his big-government power grab solely because he is black — that is nonsense,” Blackwell told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto.

“And here’s a person who is leading Lincoln’s party, and now he’s falling back on this crutch of race. That’s disturbing,” Blackwell added.

A fuller Barbour quote at the link, too.

Someone suggested just replacing Steele with Ken Blackwell. My only hesitation about that is that it's soooo obvious.

But, 1, who cares?, and 2, it's not altogether obvious we're just cushioning the PR blow by replacing a black guy (with a small margin for error) with another black guy (presumably with a larger margin of error). Blackwell held high elected office (Secretary of State, Ohio) and has a good amount of goodwill and respect in the party, and does sort of seem to be campaigning for Steele's job; hey, what the hell, why not give it to him?

And look, if people are so worried about Steele's race (and, actually, I sort of think if you're too worried about Steele being black that's likely because you aren't terribly confident about your own colorblindness; I've personally got no problem firing a black guy) then, okay, here, you weak-ass bitches: Here's another black guy for you. Better?

Actually, it would lead to a chorus of obvious jokes ("... proving the GOP can't tell one black guy from another") but who cares? Steele's firing is a three day story.

Except on Keith Olbermann... but no one watches Keith Olbermann.

posted by Ace at 06:00 PM

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