by Frank James
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's unpromising start as one of the titular heads of his party (we all know who the Democrats say really leads the party) probably means he has nowhere to go but up. 
James Oliphant of the Tribune Washington Bureau pretty much captures the launch of Steele's chairmanship right from the start of his piece on the new chairman:
This hasn't been the smoothest rollout for the new chairman of the beleaguered Republican Party, Michael S. Steele. As debuts go, it may rank right up there with New Coke and the movie "Waterworld."
Steele celebrated his ascension as head of the Republican National Committee by almost immediately picking a fight with Rush Limbaugh -- the one party icon still standing amid the rubble of stinging election defeats in 2006 and 2008 that cost Republicans control of Congress and then the White House.
Wow, "Waterworld". Hadn't thought about that movie in a long time. Could have been worse for Steele. Jim could have likened him to the movie "Ishtar."
Anyway, you get the point. Steele's start has been nothing short of disastrous. Maybe he should've started with the now standard listening tour?
And it wasn't bad enough that Steele was busy shooting himself in the foot. He had Rep, Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) speaking ebonics at him with her "You be da man" schtick.
Jim Oliphant's piece reports that Steele's people admit he messed up.
Steele's closest aides acknowledge that perhaps he should have spent less time early in his tenure trying to be the public face of the party and more time working to rebuild the party organization.
"We are going to try again to be a more bottom-up organization," said Curt Anderson, a political consultant recruited by Steele to help restructure the RNC.
And nothing quite says grass-roots like a good old-fashioned purge of people at party headquarters.
More Jim:
The first act has been gutting the staff in Washington. Anderson said that the RNC was still staffed at "presidential levels" when Steele took over, failing to reflect the party's minority status. Steele also inherited an expensive polling project conducted after the election, Anderson said, that ended up telling the party what it already knew: It was deeply unpopular nationally.
Since then, more than 70 people have lost their jobs at the RNC, and Steele currently has no senior staff. Last week, the organization lost Cyrus Krohn, who was credited with modernizing the GOP online effort.
Krohn's departure was curious because Steele had spoken often about the need to compete technologically with Democrats. A Silicon Valley veteran, Krohn increased the party's e-mail list from 1.8 million to 12 million in little more than a year.
Not long ago, the RNC was viewed as a model of political efficiency and a strategic powerhouse that mastered the craft of getting voters to the polls on election day. Obama's presidential campaign was modeled in part on RNC tactics -- but he took them one better.
Anderson says as much. "There's nobody I know who can say we didn't get our clock cleaned in our use of technology in 2008," he said.
As I think on it, Steele's situation parallel's President Barack Obama's. Two black men, one trying to turnaround a nation on the ropes, the other a political party in horrible straits.
As he bears the slings and arrows of his fellow Republicans, and of the Democrats who are gleeful at his troubles, Steele might want to keep in mind the words of poet Maya Angelou from her poem "I Rise." An excerpt:
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Comments
Unlike most DEMBHOLE's who prefer to leach off the taxpayers or government - LIMBAUGH's wealth is entirely self-made as well as rejuvenating the RADIO-TALK-SHOW industry!!! You are jealous/envious - GET OVER IT!!!
Posted by: Zyskandar A. Jaimots | March 8, 2009 8:22 AM
America Continues to Waste over 70% of the Energy it Consumes.
Our hedonist energy waste is culturally pervasive, and abominable !
(1) 100's of millions of lights burn unnecessary during the day and night.
(2) We over heat and over cool our homes, businesses, offices,
schools, churches, etc... (government buildings waste the most).
(3) Recycling is inadequate. Our landfills are busier than ever.
Over packaging is the norm. (Plastics are the ultimate polluter).
(4) Most Americans do not minimize their driving. Road congestion is horrendous.
(5) America's obsession with road construction is the ultimate contradiction.
The only way to eliminate over demand and energy waste is by using the
economic impact of taxing energy. Crude oil needs to be taxed at $200
per barrel(55 gal) and 'offset' by making Federal Income Tax begin at $60k.
Only with a substantial and tangible dollar reward/consequence, will
Americans care to conserve. Until the price of gas is $7 to $8 per gallon,
Americans will not reduce their over consumption and energy waste.
In the mean time, the USA continues its hedonist energy waste and gives away
its economic and political wealth to the Islamic Middle East via OPEC.
Know that the Islamic dominated OPEC cartel is glad to allow
supply and demand market forces to drive energy prices to $8/gallon.
China, India, and other 'developing countries' have just begun to
compete for the world's remaining fossil fuel. If global demand for
energy is not dramatically reduced, World war is inevitable
( geopolitical unrest is directly related to global competition for
energy and natural resources ).
Ford and General Motors are headed for bankruptcy, which will leave
100,000,000 Americans unemployed, ruin our economy, and lead to
anarchy. America can no longer continue to 'do business as usual'.
Ford and GM must quickly transition to the lucrative business of
building solar and wind 'energy producers' for the world's 6.7 BILLION
people reason$. The world cannot continue to support all the
automakers. We are running out of petroleum !
Mass transit must become FREE, SAFE, CLEAN, and CONVENIENT,
thereby rewarding those who reduce their driving.
Global warming continues to increases with our persistent waste and
overuse of fossil fuels.
The incentives necessary to create sustainable and renewable energy supplies
can ONLY occur when we implement the economics of TAXING ENERGY.
Michael Knight, PhD Energy Conservation Policy lmmicha@gmail.com
Posted by: Michael KnightLowell Michalove | March 8, 2009 8:29 AM
Well....At least I will say one thing for Steele, unlike the coward Rush, Steele puts it out there everyday. He has taken the pay cuts that Rush could never give up. He has fought in the trenches for votes. Rush finds it comfortable hidden in his EIB bunker spewing hate and ridicule and doesn't have to face the public who would find most of his shtick disgusting. He is not American enough to lay it on the line. Just like avoiding service for a cyst on his butt, Rush is driven by one thing......money. He is a coward.
Posted by: bill r. | March 8, 2009 9:06 AM
LibTrib journalist is down on a Republican?
What a surprise.
Posted by: Hope N. Change | March 8, 2009 10:46 AM
I wonder if Steele is another example of the "PETER PRINCIPLE" ?
VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com
NO MORE SCHUMER
NO MORE PELOSI
Posted by: VJ Machiavelli | March 8, 2009 11:07 AM
Still rise? He never was down!! And neither is Rush! They are both wonderful, highly intelligent people who actually love this country and believe in traditional American values....unlike liberals who constantly destroy everything that is great about this country. You lib's are having a big blast right now...but you better remember one thing..58,000,000 people did not vote for the Messiah Obama...we will rise again!
Posted by: Joe | March 8, 2009 11:29 AM
Big guppie in very small pond.
Posted by: ornery | March 8, 2009 11:34 AM
...but you better remember one thing..58,000,000 people did not vote for the Messiah Obama...we will rise again!
Posted by: Joe | March 8, 2009 11:29 AM
The mind of the rabid. Start at a false number and then each month go up a million or 2.
Posted by: bill r. | March 8, 2009 1:06 PM
Zyskandar A. Jaimots --
Wondeful and astute points...you are so good at articulating an original argument! Furthermore, I think your logical prowess will do great to sway more people into your party. "Dembholes'...hahaha, true genius, my friend. What sophisticated wit you have! I'mm going to change my voter registration right now. Keep up the civil discourse!
Posted by: nic | March 8, 2009 1:15 PM
They are both wonderful, highly intelligent people who actually love this country
I think Steele probably is doing it for the right reason, service to country, not that I agree with his tactics or views. Rush on the other hand is only doing it for the money...keep in mind his millions in contracts. He is laughing all the way to the bank on the Republican's dime. I wish the Republicans would wake up and see that he does not care about you he is just using you to make money. Maybe then he'll go away.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | March 8, 2009 1:40 PM
Hey bill r.....for the first time in your life you are right.....we will be adding about "a million or 2" voters each month to the Republican Party!!!
Posted by: Joe | March 8, 2009 2:09 PM
...but you better remember one thing..58,000,000 people did not vote for the Messiah Obama...we will rise again!
Posted by: Joe | March 8, 2009 11:29 AM
The mind of the rabid. Start at a false number and then each month go up a million or 2.
Posted by: bill r. | March 8, 2009 1:06 PM
Joe, perhaps you'll be heartened by words of your own kind, posted in January of 2006:
"For all of you who are whining about Bush, Roberts, Alito, Iraq, etc....Bush won. Get over it!
Posted by: Bob Skilnik | January 31, 2006 10:57 AM"
Surely the same applies to you now, n'est-ce pas? And you could also keep in mind that Republican vote margins have been going DOWN since the 2000 election.
Posted by: Op109 | March 8, 2009 5:41 PM
Rush Limbaugh may have 20 million listener's, but there are 250 million people that don't listen to his crap! I understand that there are about 20 million beer guzzeling, nascar cheering, whiskey sucking, dumb, uneducated, gun toting, church going hippocrates in this country that tune in to the "druggie screaming into a microphone. whiteagle38
Posted by: R. Juneau | March 8, 2009 10:30 PM
Michael Knight....right you are. We could use a few more educated people such as yourself around here. We have way too many disfunctional republican members of this Swamp family here, and they all need a good dose of education.
Posted by: Xcellentform | March 9, 2009 6:38 AM
And the democrats' opinion of who leads the GOP matters why, again? Would a journalist with any ethics list who the Boston Red Sox think is the real leader of the New York Yankees in his lead? One from Boston, at that?
Posted by: Jeff | March 9, 2009 2:06 PM
LIMBAUGH is more popular accordimg to the insidious polls of the NATIONAL ^SSHOLE MEDIA than the DEMBHOLE US CONGRESS, the morons in HOLLYWOOD, the UNIONS, or the NATIONAL ^SSHOLE MEDIA itself!!! Qwik get to a releprompter 'the OBAMA' is rambling on about MARXISM again described as his BUDGET FIASCO deficit funding and yet more STIMULUS-SCHEME SCHIESS/CRAPPOLA!!! Goodbye 'ESTADES UNIDOS' - hello SOCIALIST STATES of AMERIKA. Ugh.
Posted by: Zyskandar A. Jaimot | March 11, 2009 5:40 PM