Steele Makes It Official And Will Run For Another Term As RNC Chair

What could go wrong?

Oh yeah, this. When asked by Gretta Van Susteren why people weren't thrilled with his first term in office and are trying to replace him, here's Steele's response.

Well, I think there's a lot of reasons for that. My style is a little bit different than most conventional Republican Party chairmen. My style is more grass roots-oriented. I'm much more of a street guy. I love hanging out in boardrooms, but I prefer to be in neighborhoods and communities. My first trip as chairman was to go to Harlem. And a number of members asked me, Why are you going to Harlem? Because that's where the votes are. The party needs to get outside its comfort zone.

No, no and NO.

First, it's not a question of style. It's a management question. You run an organization into the ground and you get fired. It's called 'accountability'.

Second, the job of the Chairman is not to move the party "outside is comfort zone", it's to raise money and provide support for actual candidates. The Chair should reflect the desires of the membership not serve as the ad hoc social conscience of the party. There's nothing wrong with with outreach to non-traditional voters but the RNC should be identifying and grooming candidates that can go into those areas, not simply use that outreach as a way to improve the standing of any single individual like Steele. Nor by the way is the job a platform to sell books.

As for outreach to non-traditional voters, Steele has been a disaster. Again, it's fine to do but not while insulting your own party as he has done in the past.

The Republican Party has not given African Americans a good reason to vote for the party, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said Tuesday night.

"You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True," Steele said at DePaul University, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Now, I'm not the highly paid Chair of the RNC but I can think of a few reasons blacks might want to consider voting for the GOP. Topping the list...school choice. If you're the RNC Chairman talking to black students, school choice not "we suck", has to be the first thing out of your mouth.

On no level can Steele be said to have been a success (GOP wins this year were despite the RNC, not because of it). He has to go.

posted by DrewM. at 12:51 PM

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