The RNC’s juvenile fundraising plan: victory through fear and “Tchotchkes”!
Somebody at the Republican National Committee is getting paid to copy snarky/Obama derangement blog comments about “socialism” and paste them into a Powerpoint presentation for use with donors? Clearly, I’m in the wrong line of work … Meanwhile, a spokesman attempts to distance Michael Steele from the Powerpoint, since of course we all assumed something that lamebrained had to have come from him … (telltale sign it wasn’t a Steele special? No hip-hop references or tired, 1980s black slang.) Read more
Michael Steele plays the race card
Michael Steele with an RNC intern. What up!
The RNC chair, who isn’t above trolling in racial stereotypes in order to be loved by his fellow Republicans (actually, they’re just laughing at you, bro — or cringing …) now wonders if the reactions to him (by the press? By his fellow GOPers???) might be racist. Read more
Operation: Ignore Michael Steele
U.S. News & World Report’s Washington Whispers blog has a sneak peek at the GOP’s new strategy to contain the hip-hop-o-matic chairman of the RNC: just pretend he isn’t there, the way D.C. Democrats effectively marginalized then DNC chair Howard Dean back in the day:
“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.
Meanwhile, could Mitch McConnell already have gotten the ball rolling with his total contradiction of Steele’s take on Harry Reid?
Heck of a job, Mikey (in defense of Michael Steele)
Now this is going to be unusual for me … I’m going to spend the next few minutes defending Michael Steele. Mr. Hip Hop Republican. Mr. Rush Reversal. And the alternately goofy and overly combative and testy Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
UPDATE: Did Steele lie about when he wrote his book?
Steele is, at this point, so unpopular with Republicans on Capitol Hill, they’ve taken to begging his staff to please shut him up. His latest gaffe: committing an act of “truthiness” by admitting that Republicans won’t win back the House this year (they won’t. Even Charlie Cook doesn’t think so and he’s usually pretty bullish on Republicans,) and then telling his detractors in the party to either fire him, or shut up and get a life. (Be careful what you ask for…) Steele’s other transgressions include taking too long to staff up when he first got the post, spending too much money gussying up the office, spending too much money period, while not raising enough, and generally making a mockery of both himself and Black Republicanism with such gems as his promise to give the GOP an “off the hook” hip-hop makeover by applying conservative principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings…” you know, the stuff the kids are digging … and calling his column on the RNC homepage “What UP!?” (He was later forced to change that.)
Besides appealing to the worst stereotypes about Black people in order to make being a Republican seem cool, Steele has also done other things GOPers aren’t comfortable with. And now comes the part where I defend the guy. (I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m getting there.) Principal among these very bad things in the minds of Republicans is Steele’s tendency to tell the uncomfortable truth about his party — although he usually winds up quickly taking them back. Read more
Who you gonna call? Charlie!
If you were going to quit your governorship in mid-stream, and you were a winger, who would you call? If you’re Sarah Palin, add Rudy Giuliani (hopefully he didn’t propose to her too much… or drool into the phone about how much she reminds him of his cousin…) Dick Cheney (who apparently discussed the ogre-like family’s possible vacation trip to Alaska, during which ‘m sure Sarah and her kin will keep their whale guns at the ready…) [sidebar: Jesus, Republicans are creepy!] … and Florida’s very own Charlie Crist to the list. Reports ABC News:
Palin’s phone calls are shown on her official schedule for May 2009, obtained by Alaskan Andree McLeod through an open-records request with the state and shared with ABC News. McLeod has filed numerous open-records requests for Palin-related documents, as well as four ethics complaints against the governor and her aides.“GOV: Telephone Call Into Governor Crist,” reads a May 4 entry in Palin’s schedule. A spokeswoman for Crist said she did not know who had initiated contact, or what the subject of conversation was to have been, but the two did not speak. “It was a courtesy call. They know each other, both being governors,” said Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac.
Well she didn’t call poor Bobby Jindal… or Michael Steele…! There too, also:
Crist may have had his own reasons to chat with Palin: to promote his candidacy for U.S. Senate, which Crist launched one week after Palin’s phone call. Nine days later, Crist announced an endorsement by Sen. John McCain, Palin’s 2008 GOP ticket-topper.
So will the Barricuda endorse the tan guy in Tallahassee over the RedState base’s choice, Marco Rubio, or will she “go rogue” again and oppose McCain’s choice and add fresh drama to the Florida GOP Senate primary? (Hell, at least their party HAS primary drama …) The plot thickens…
Octodummies
Okay, so who was the RNC genius who came up with this one:
She’s the 69-year-old speaker of the House of Representatives
, second in the line of succession and the most powerful woman in U.S. history. But when you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.”At least that’s the takeaway from a video released by the committee this week – a video that puts Pelosi side-by-side with the aforementioned villainess from the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger.” The RNC video, which begins with the speaker’s head in the iconic spy-series gun sight, implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002. While the P-word is never mentioned directly, in one section the speaker appears in a split screen alongside the Bond nemesis – and the video’s tagline is “Democrats Galore.”
The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.
Supah … genius… here’s the video:
So far, the hit count is pretty low, but I’m sure the POlitico story will help Mike Steele and his merry band of fools out.
Michael Steele: Last, best hope of the Republican Party…
… or, total and complete boob. Tooootally up to you. Steele today resumed his Herculean effort to revive the GOP, first by threatening to quit if they take his RNC budget authority away, and then, by declaring that the era of Republican apology is OVER … unless of course you count the mandatory apologias to Rush Limbaugh whenever he feels slighted. Watch, and learn…
Fo shizzle!
For more bone headery, check out the ReidBlog Michael Steele page, son!
In case you missed it: Michael Steele is the gift that keeps on giving
Michael Steele’s ego propels him into yet another hilarious feat of verbal diarrhea (and that’s just the part about Obama supposedly hating on him…)
Please talk every day, Michael.
BTW, Steele’s reputation hangs in the balance in New York, as the District 20 race heads down to the wire.
Michael Steele’s super secret ‘gaffetacular’ strategery
Michael says: you see all those stupid things I’ve done since becoming chairman of the RNC? Pissing off El Rushbo and than crawling back to him on my hands and knees? Calling my party “drunks who need a 12-step program,” pissing off the lifers and planning that “off da hook” GOP makeover that would bring the midgets? It was all on purpose. Watch him work:
See, when Steele is making himself look like an ass? That’s when he has you right where he wants you… Can the Pubs run this guy for president in 2012? … Please???
While you’re here, check out my Michael Steele column in the South Florida Times.
And check out the ReidBlog Michael Steele page.
Michael Steele’s crazy train: who is Trevor Francis
The latest drama from the three-ring circus that is Michael Steele’s RNC, per Politico, the announcement of Steele’s new communications director, Trevor Francis, drew a collective “who is Trevor Francis???” from D.C. insiders. To whit:
“I don’t know who he is,” one senior comm staffer told us. Four more senior staffers agreed — staffers who, mind you, will be working with Francis daily.Now, he does have experience — he worked at the RNC during Haley Barbour’s reign, when Jim Dyke was working there, and he comes from the world of Burson-Marsteller, and before that he worked for Commerce Sec Don Evans. As one of the above four staffers told us, “I doubt reporters know him, and if people know him, they knew him from five years ago — he’s been out of the game since then.” Another staffer scoffed that he hoped he wouldn’t have to do a search to find political reporters’ e-mails on Day One.
This is not a good sign, despite his “12 years’ experience,” as one site boasts.
Dyke, now a consultant, is working with Steele, and the consensus is that Francis was chosen because, as one former Francis colleague put it: “Jim can control him.” Dyke laughed that off and told Shenan: “Like bananas control monkeys. Or do monkeys control bananas?”
Someone familiar with Francis declared coolly, “Trevor is in over his head” and added, “In this kind of atmosphere, they need a big shot.”
Yet another staffer reacted, “Can the RNC just stoooooooooop?!” The GOP-er familiar with Francis wondered aloud: “It’s like Michael Steele is a Democrat trying to do everything possible to screw us.”
Or maybe his plan is to make Republicans absolutely “bananans” — another middle aged hip-hop version of “off the chain…” See? There is method to Steele’s madness…
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