Archive for July 6, 2010

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Michael Steele: Recent News

Michael Tomasky: Michael Steele is in tuh-rubb-ull
I thought this was pretty big when I read it this morning, when Michael Steele said the war in Afghanistan was “a war of Obama’s choosing” to a Republican group in Connecticut. The Republican National Committee spokesman stepped in quickly to try to clean this poo off the sidewalk, saying the following (via Ben Smith, and if you click through, note Smith’s droll headline):The Chairman clearly supports our troops but believes that success of the war effort in Afghanistan requires the ongoing support of the American people.The responsibility for building and maintaining that strategy falls squarely on the shoulders of the President. Like so many Americans, Chairman Steele wants to hear an explanation from President Obama on what his strategy is for winning the war in Afghanistan. The Petraeus hearings were an opportunity – a missed opportunity – to do that. Instead, all we hear from the President is criticism of his predecessor for doing exactly the same thing.But now, TPM is reporting that Bill Kristol is calling on Steele to step down, and other conservatives and Republicans are on the way:Republicans are furious with RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who was caught on camera saying that the war in Afghanistan is a doomed effort launched by President Obama. Steele has no shortage of enemies in the GOP and many of them sense an opportunity here.

Michael Tomasky: Poor Michael Steele
Michael Steele actually said something sort of true on TV over the weekend:Steele was asked if he felt he has a smaller margin of error than others because he’s black.”The honest answer is yes. It just is,” the former Maryland lieutenant governor said. “Barack Obama has a slimmer margin than others.”"But you take that as part of the nature of it,” Steele added. “It’s more because you’re not somebody they know. … Not old-boy network oriented.

Michael Steele Likely To Keep RNC Chairman Job Despite Afghanistan Comments
When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared to suggest last week that there could be no victory in the war in Afghanistan, he once again sparked a round of calls for his ouster. Though Steele received sharp criticism from GOP leaders in the wake of his comments on Afghanistan — including from few key conservative commentators who called for his resignation — it is looking increasingly likely that Steele will be able to avoid forced removal from his RNC post. According to the Wall Street Journal, the process of toppling an RNC chairman is almost impossibly onerous: Republican Party rules could make it difficult for any of Mr. Steele’s critics to secure his ouster. Under the rules, two-thirds of the committee’s 168 members, or 112 members, would have to vote in favor of such a move. “It’s very hard to force a chairman out of his position,” Katon Dawson, former South Carolina GOP chairman who called for Steele to step down, told the Journal. “I don’t sense [RNC members] want the distraction,” he continued, noting that many GOP operatives were in the midst of priming the fundraising pumps for November elections and couldn’t afford to deal with these internal dramatics at the moment. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes that Steele’s latest gaffe has all but ensured that the RNC will have a new chairman following the 2010 elections, but that — at least for the moment — Steele’s tenure is shielded by the circumstances of the election season. “Most members have already come to the conclusion that they can’t have Steele as chairman in a presidential cycle,” a high-level GOP operative told Cillizza. “If you think his gaffes are a distraction now, imagine them in the heat of a presidential campaign.” Rich Lowry of the National Review appears to reach the same conclusion, but argues that Steele’s fate could be influenced by former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour: If there’s one person who could affect his fate it’s probably Haley Barbour, who is influential with the governors as head of the RGA (the governors, in turn, are very influential with the committee members) and who has a lot of sway with the committee members himself as a former RNC chairman. If Haley thinks Steele should go and works against him, it’d be a big deal. At any rate, Lowry sees the scenario of a divine intervention by Barbour as unlikely, leaving Steele extremely vulnerable.

Newsweek: Why does Michael Steele still have a job–
It’s not simple to fire him: RNC rules require a two-thirds vote of all committee members to remove a sitting chairman. Finding two-thirds of top Republicans to agree on anything specific, much less a plan to reshape their party four months before a potentially lucrative election, is extraordinarily difficult. Michael Steele – Republican – Republican National Committee – United States – Politics.

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