Welcome back to my rants about politics. These seem to get the most attention on my site (except for maybe my rap challenges), so I’m going to try to rant a bit more whenever I have something legitimate to politically rant about. Here we go:

There is this character Michael Steele. He looks like this:

Who is This Guy?

Michael Steele is the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, which provides leadership for the Republican Party’s interests in donations and funding Republican candidates.

Michael Steele is also the guy I ranted about in this earlier post, where he said that he didn’t want to be Chairman, despite deciding to run for chariman of the RNC, announce his candidacy, run his campaign, win the election against five other candidates in a series of six run-off elections, make a killer acceptance speech with quotes such as “this is awesome” and “God bless our party”.

But that, and the other lies and half-truths, aren’t what we’re covering right now. Rather, it’s the other quote from the same post:

The problem that we have with this president is we don’t know him. He was not vetted, folks… He was not vetted, because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office.
– Michael Steele

Which is also known as “playing the race card”.

Steele’s Hatred of The Race Card

But Michael Steele hates playing the race card, which is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the act of bringing the issue of race or racism into a debate, usually with an intention to obfuscate the matter. For example, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) invoked slavery in a healthcare debate, Steele had quite the response:

I’m kinda sick and tired of the left and Democrats in this country when they get in trouble and don’t get their way and their backs are up against the wall on legislation or whatever it is their trying to do, they go to that card, they play that race card, that slavery card, that civil rights card.

And when Jimmy Carter discusses potential racism in the Republican Party, Michael Steele writes an entire article on Politico, in which he comes out very strongly against the race card, with statements like:

Voicing opposition to the president’s policy proposals is not being a racist. It is being an American. Such assertions by leaders of the Democratic Party are a pathetic attempt to shift attention away from the president’s wildly unpopular government-run health care plan that the American people simply oppose. Injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families [...] only divides Americans rather than uniting us to find solutions to challenges facing our nation.

Michael Steele Would Never Play The Race Card…

And Michael Steele not only hates the race card, he’s the first one to tell you that he’d never play the race card. For example, in a discussion about Glenn Beck’s claim that Obama hates white people, Steele declined to refute Beck’s statements, instead saying:

I don’t play the race card, I don’t play the race game, the way some tend to want to do.

So when Michael Steele is faced by crushing criticism — such as the news that RNC donor money was used to fund a $2000 trip to a Los Angeles bondage-themed strip club, and then later the news that a fundraising letter “mistakenly directed would-be donors to call a telephone number belonging to a phone-sex operation”, how do we expect Michael Steele to react? Would he play the race card? Never!

We know that Michael Steele is not new to bad weeks. He’s been criticized of having a spending spree that has angered donors, and he sparked a GOP feud when he called abortion an “individual choice”.

Michael Steele’s chairman missteps have gotten so bad that Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, urged members to stop donating to the RNC. Then, Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) complained about Steele in public, additionally refusing to say whether Steele “should step down or not.” Last but not least, a recent National Journal poll found that 71% of Republican “insiders” categorized Steele as a “liability.”

It’s the same as when Sean Mahoney, a businessman who has been thinking about running for Congress, expressed his dissatisfaction by resigning his position on the New Hampshire’s Republican National Committe, decrying the national Republican Party’s “out-of-touch, free-spending culture” in a message to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, which also stated that “the recent scandal involving RNC funds being used to entertain a small crowd at a Los Angeles strip club is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

And then to add insult to injury, one of the Republican Party’s top strategists Alex Castellanos called on Steele to resign, saying “I think a change in the direction now, at this point, would do the party good.”

So how do we expect Steele to react to all this criticism? Would he play the race card? Never!

…Except When He Plays The Race Card

Well, apparently he actually would play the race card. In an interview about the criticism, George Stephanopoulous asked Michael Steele if his race might be responsible for the criticism:

STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve got questions on my blog for you, this morning. One came in from Myron, he asked, do you feel as an African-American, you have a slimmer margin for error as another chairman would?

STEELE: The answer is yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why is that?

STEELE: It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for, you know, for me to play and others to play. That’s just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it. It’s not — it’s more because you’re not someone that they mow. I’m not a Washington insider, even though I grew up here in D.C. my view on politics is much more grassroots oriented. It’s not old boy network oriented. And so, you know, I tend to come at did stronger, streetwise, if you will..

You can watch it here:

But That’s Not All!

And that’s not even the first time race-card-hating Michael Steele has played the race card to fight back when he faced criticism. After Michael Steele refused to deny Glenn Beck’s accusation that Obama “hates white people”, Steele immediately changed the topic by saying that the real racism is in the black neighborhoods represented by Democrats:

You know, I’m looking at cities around the country where black folk live. Now, you showed me the Congress with all these wonderful black Democrats and white Democrats. But I go to black neighborhoods that are run by those same Democrats. And you tell me where racism really exists.

Racism In Reverse

But what makes Steele’s accusations of racism and having a slimmer margin when facing criticism is especially ironic as he has consistently faced the accusation that he got his position largely on his race, and the accusation that the only reason he hasn’t been fired over the criticsm is because of his race. Joshua Green, a senior editor for The Atlantic since 2003, writes:

Steele is hapless, solipsistic, and incompetent. When he isn’t embarrassing his party with his personal antics, or his staff’s, he’s setting it up for failure by driving away its top fundraisers and not keeping pace with Democrats. It’s impossible to imagine his magisterial display of buffoonery going unpunished in almost any circumstance–but it is going unpunished, and Steele appears to be in no danger of losing his job. Far from being a problem, his race is all that’s standing between Steele and a pink slip.

First Read confirms that Michael Steele is keeping his job despite his overwhelming failures and slip-ups, but that he will not be returning as chairman for the 2012 cycle.

We’ll miss you, Michael Steele.

I think that it is a very silly comment to make. I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card.
- Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary (Source)

As someone who has worked extensively in both the club and film side of the Adult Entertainment Industry, I know from experience that a mere $1900 outlay at a club with the reputation of Voyeur is a clear indication of a frugal investment with a keen eye toward maximum return.
– Stormy Daniels, Louisiana Senate Race Hopeful and porn star (Source)

Be Sociable, Share!

•