If You Have To Say You Are the Leader of the Party, Then You're Not

Cross posted at A Political Season If you're in charge, you don't have to say anything. You just behave like you're in charge. This political truism was clearly demonstrated by the Limbaugh smackdown of Steele. This was Michael "Man of " Steele, so called leader of the Republican Party, on CNN's D.L Hughley show this past weekend: Steele belittled Rush as an "entertainer" and called his rhetoric ugly and incendiary. Here's an excerpt of Rush's response on his show on Monday 3/2/09. Note that Rush states in no uncertain terms that Steele is not the head of the Republican Party. This was Michael Steele today, talking to the Politico in a phone interview. “My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” “I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not." “I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.” “He brings a very important message to the American people to wake up and pay attention to what the administration is doing," Steele said. "Number two, there are those out there who want to look at what he’s saying as incendiary and divisive and ugly. That’s what I was trying to say. It didn’t come out that way. … Asked if he planned to apologize, Steele said: “I wasn’t trying to offend anybody. So, yeah, if he’s offended, I’d say: Look, I’m not in the business of hurting people’s feelings here. … My job is to try to bring us all together.” Steele has now been effectively demolished as a credible party leader as far as I'm concerned. This was not simply an apology, this statement goes further than that. This my friends is groveling. Read his quote again - “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” “I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said."It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. Are you kidding me? Steele calls himself inarticulate and essentially says that he didn't know what he was saying. This is a 64 year old, grown black man with a law degree from Georgetown. You cannot possibly expect me to take you seriously after you cave in such a cringing, spineless fashion. I thought Steele got off to a very poor rhetorical start from the jump with his Kool Mo Dee stylings when he won the post of RNC chair. My estimation of his rhetorical and party building skills dropped even further when he declared if we rap it, they will come. Now, he has written a check with his mouth that his behind can't cash on the bank of Rush that could endanger his post as RNC chair in just a few short weeks. Again, for the record, Rush told Steele "you are not the head of the republican party". Which begs the question, who is? Steele's done himself some near irreparable damage with this, because its hard to respect a guy who will backpedal that fast and that hard. I would have respected him more if he had stuck to his guns and I suspect that so would a lot of other republicans who don't care to belong to the ditto head crowd. He'll have to be stellar going forward to regain a modicum of the regard I had for him. Like the One himself, his promise seems outmatched by his reality. Steele had recently promised to roll out a beyond cutting edge PR campaign. If that campaign is as ill advised and clumsy as these most recent gaffes, the GOP is going to have a real problem. Then again, the GOP already has a problem that is pretty ginormous and of which Steele's humiliation (don't kid yourself, thats what it is) is merely a symptom. Simply put, the party is bankrupt, both in ideas and most sorely in leadership. Rush Limbaugh is indeed what Steele said. He is an entertainer. That is how he makes his living. His product is what John Derbyshire calls low brow conservatism. Here's why this sticks in my craw. For all his 2+ decades in radio and his audience of 20 million, Rush is not now nor has he ever been accountable to a single voter, has not held office nor run for any public position of responsibility. Yet, there does not appear to be a single republican in the House or the Senate who would dare disagree or be critical of him without walking those words back within 24 hours. Men and women elected by voters who do not dare to challenge anything Rush wants to say. Indeed, when Rush essentially calls republican lawmakers out as gutless, that comment appears to have some validity, because they won't say boo to Rush. Of what possible use is such a party? When one man commands such fealty? When no elected official dares challenge his opinion or voice a strongly held criticism or opinion contrary to his? I find it pathetic.

Black Republicans are getting very little respect from black folks or white folks

It don't make a difference how many billboards the paper tiger National Black Republican Association erects saying MLK was a Republican. Black Republicans are getting very little respect from black folks or white folks. There are many reasons why. Including the Republican National Party acting like the White Citizens Council towards black participation, even at the latest 2008 Republican convention. Here are just 10 of the most current ways black Republicans don't get respect from blacks or whites. 1. Among the party's 2,380 delegates gathered in St. Paul in 2008 only 36 were African Americans and very few other visible minorities were to be found on the convention floor. We see how the Republicans treat you. 2. That number marks a 78 percent decline from 2004, the lowest representation in 40 years and a huge deficit when compared to the 1,079 delegates at last week's Democratic National Convention. You get no respect. 3. The Maryland delegation, a state whose population is 29 percent black, did not have any other African American in attendance at the Republican National convention (except Micheal Steele). Ouc, that stat speaks for itself. 4. For the past six years there has not been a single black Republican governor, senator or representative in the US Congress. Getting the point yet? 5. Only one African American was given the opportunity to address the convention during prime time -- former Maryland governor Michael Steele. Black folks have no real voice in the National party. 6. The three states that track voting registration by party and race show Black Republican registration dropping slightly: Florida has lost 784 Black Republicans; Louisiana’s Black Republicans dropped by 907; and North Carolina has 2,850 fewer Black Republicans. More HERE No one is feelin the republicans, except for a few silly black folks. 7. Tavis Smiley moderated a Republican presidential forum at Morgan Sate University in Maryland, where candidates for the first time answered questions from “a panel exclusively comprised of journalists of color.” Controversy is surrounding the event, however, as the four Republican frontrunners — Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Sen. John McCain — opted to ditch the debate. Empty lecterns stood on the stage in their place. Republicans ignore Black People. 8. Blacks should listen to another Black Republican Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, one of the most prominent African-Americans in the GOP, who called the above PBS debate “an important opportunity for” candidates “to put up or shut up, when it to comes to minority communities in the country.” John Mccain, the leader of the Republican party was a no show. 9. As Smiley said, the refusal of the Republican frontrunners to appear at the All-American Presidential Forum is “serving up some disrespect to black and brown Americans,” whether they be Republicans, Democrats or Independents. AAPP: The Republican party don't like black people. 10. Blacks joining the Republican Party is a an oxymoron. its like Jews joining the Nazi Party. Cross posted on Independent Bloggers Alliance and African America Political Pundit.com

A Tale of Two Conventions

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated at RNC are Black Republican Party Still Segregated I like a number of black bloggers had the opportunity to attend the Democratic National Convention last week in Denver. I also had the opportunity to watch the Republican National Convention last night. Talk about tales of two conventions. At the Democratic National convention in was a sea of black folks, from all walks of life, people with disabilities, rich, economically challenged and the midde class. Candidly, I thought I was at a NAACP, or Urban League convention there was so many black folks. At the Republic Convention that I watched last night, all I saw was a sea of white faces. Blogger Shay of the blog, Booker Rising, reported about this earlier in the week. The Washington Post has a great article on how "Republican organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found the Xcel Energy Center depressing this week. Everywhere they look, they see evidence of what they consider one of their party's biggest shortcomings. As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white. Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years. "It's hard to look around and not get frustrated," said Michael S. Steele, a black Republican and former lieutenant governor of Maryland. "You almost have to think, 'Wait. How did it come to this?' ead More HERE Visit: African American Political Pundit. Com