Don’t know if it is something in the coffee at MSNBC, vs something in the psychedelic moonshine at Faux – but Michael Steele, former chair of the RNC has had it with the Chumph’s racism.
Tag Archives: Michael Steele
Jay Leno Comments on Mizzou
The student protest at Mizzou has moved some folks, and changed some minds. Here, Jay Leno lays out the fact that the students indeed had cause for their actions…
Jay Leno tells Bill Maher: Mizzou protesters were right — school president was ‘clueless’
Real Time host Bill Maher battled panelists Jay Leno, Michael Steele and Dylan Ratigan on Friday when he complained about the recent anti-racism protests at Yale University and the University of Missouri.
Maher recounted the discussion at Yale that was touched off by a university email advising students not to use Halloween costumes based on cultural appropriation or stereotypes, which led to a faculty member, Erika Christakis, questioning whether the school was stifling students’ right to be “a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive.”
That, in turn, led to hundreds of students signing an open letter criticizing Christakis.
“Who raised these little monsters?” Maher said of the letter. Leno countered by saying that the pendulum in public discourse had swung in the other direction from the days when virtually any sort of slur would go unchecked.
“You could call a government operation ‘Wetback,’ and no one said anything about it,” the former Tonight Show host said. “Now the pendulum swung back, so now the other side gets a taste of what it’s like. Will it come back to the center? I believe it will.”
“That’s spreading — it’s not just Yale,” Maher insisted.
The host also expressed sympathy with protesters at Missouri, but questioned whether prompting the resignation of president Tim Wolfe was beneficial to their cause.
“Do we purge even clueless people from their job now?” he asked. “Is that where we are with the battle against racism?”
“I say yes,” Leno responded. “You know why? Because if you’re president of the university, you shouldn’t be clueless. When I saw the faces of those African-American young kids when they had won, they looked like Julian Bond in 1965. They looked like all the black students that protested when I was in college that did the sit-ins that didn’t think they would get whatever it was [that they wanted]. It’s just a different version of that. I applaud them. They looked like they won something. One of those people could be a senator.”
Ratigan concurred with Leno, saying that the protests were forcing conversations about racism “to permeate deeper into the system.”
“You have all this structural racism that we all know about and we talk about it, but it doesn’t get talked about as much as it should and it doesn’t get dealt with,” he said.
Maher then scoffed at the protesters’ efforts to set up a “media-free zone” at one point.
“They characterize themselves as the protesters in Tiananmen Square, but sometimes they look like the Chinese Army,” Maher protested. “Their right to never be offended does not supersede the First Amendment.”
“However irrational the response may be, the irrational response pales in comparison to the structural racism that still exists,” Ratigan shot back.
Steele also argued that the conditions that spurred the protests had not just developed over hours or days, but at least several months.
“This even goes back beyond a few months — it goes back over a period of time that these students have had to live in this environment where they’ve had to deal with this by themselves,” he said. “And after a while, enough’s enough. And cluelessness is no longer an excuse.”
Chris Matthews Hammers Michael Steele’s Replacement
Chris Matthews leaves Reince Priebus wishing he still had Michael Steele around to buckdance up some race cover for his party…
I mean – they didn’t even invite their former Chairman to the convention in Tampa.
Mikkie and “Republican Justice” AKA Lynch Mob
Mikkie talks about being a victim of the Republican Lynch Mob…
Mikkie is shilling hard for that new high-paying job on cable. Where he lands is going to be interesting. It would appear that Faux News is out, as his recent comments have effectively cut that string…
The new conservative Comcast directed MSNBC?
Michael Steele Explains…On Rachel Maddow Show
This one is pretty good. An interview of Michael Steele by Maddow. Unfortunately, the interview – to the point this clip ends, dodges the central issue of the motivations behind the folks who started the anti-Steele campaign. And how the majority of the RNC could come up with totally different views of Steele’s “success”.
Anther interesting issue is this:
Black RNC Members Not Backing Steele
Don’t expect the Republican National Committee’s two black members to support Chairman Michael Steele in his re-election bid in January.
Ada Fisher, the black RNC committeewoman from North Carolina, has been an outspoken critic of Steele since she voted against him and for former South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson in 2009.
“Nobody asked the black members of the RNC what they felt, and I don’t know that the other people were courted or asked for their votes,” she said of that contest.
Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, Senate candidate and state party chairman, was touted as Republicans’ response to the first black president, Democrat Barack Obama. And even more recently, Republicans see Steele promoting his race as an asset to the party.
When Steele announced his bid for re-election on a conference call, he concluded by saying, “Who you elect as our next chairman will speak volumes about our willingness to truly be the party of Lincoln,” according to the Washington Times. A prominent member of the RNC, James Bopp Jr., complained to the Times that Steele had used “the race card.” Steele responded by calling Bopp “an idiot” and accusing him of bitterness over a consulting contract the RNC canceled.
The racial tension comes after elections that saw huge Republican gains, including two black Republicans elected to the House. Reps.-elect Tim Scott of South Carolina and Allen West of Florida are the first black Republicans to serve in the House since Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts retired in 2003. Both Scott and West declined interviews for this story.
The chairman may be looking for new allies. Yet even the two black members of the RNC — out of 168 total members — have never rallied around Steele. Fisher, a retired physician, and Glenn McCall, a retired banker who serves as the committeeman from South Carolina, both supported Dawson for chairman of the RNC on all six ballots in 2009. Dawson, who was criticized for his former membership in a club that didn’t allow African-Americans, finished second to Steele. Fellow black Committeeman Keith Butler from Michigan, who has since left the committee, supported former Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis.
One of the central themes of Steele’s term was to make the Republican Party more inclusive – which included supporting the record number of black candidates running as Republicans, and resulting in the election of the first 2 black candidates to federal office in over a decade… Which were only the 3rd and 4th black Republican candidates elected out of the 6,525 House elections, and 500 Senate elections since Raygun. Yet black Republicans on the RNC didn’t support Steele…
Crabs in a barrel…Indeed.
SS Mikkie Sinking Fast
The vote tally for RNC Chair after three rounds: Priebus, 54 votes; Steele, 33 votes; Wagner, 32 votes; Cino, 28 votes and Anuzis, 21 votes.
UPDATE: The SS Michael Steele has officially sunk,
GOP Chief Drops Out of Race for Re-Election
Time To Pay The Piper for Uncle Mikkie
Michael Steele, AKA Uncle Mikkie faces his toughest critics today in an election for who is the new RNC Chair.
Rogue's Gallery of Choices - (l-r) Priebus, Anuzis, Steele, Cino, and Wagner
Zero hour for Michael Steele at RNC
When the 168 members of the Republican National Committee vote to choose a new chairman Friday, they’ll be selecting more than a political tactician-in-chief.
At the end of a cycle that left the RNC deeply in debt, battered by charges of financial mismanagement and undercut and overshadowed by a throng of GOP-aligned outside groups, the committee needs a prolific fundraiser who’s also a top administrator and communicator.
No one in the running exactly fits the bill.
While each of the four party insiders seeking to oust Chairman Michael Steele– who took office less than two years ago with a pledge to give the RNC “something completely different” – brings a unique set of skills, none have the national stature to compete with Steele’s TV-ready style.
Still, the former Maryland lieutenant governor enters Friday’s voting in a dire position, with a majority of RNC members less inclined to praise Steele than to replace him. Steele has already slipped behind his leading challenger in public vote counts of the RNC race.
On a tactical level, the race has come down to two questions: How quickly can Steele’s challengers leave him in the dust? And can anyone get a decisive edge if the chairman falters early?
Just for you, Mikkie!
Heezy-Sleazy to Re-run for RNC Chair – Michael Steele
Mikkie announced yesterday “I’m not going anywhere!” Mikkie becomes the real….”Rerun”.
Mikkie Toast? Report: Steele to Step Down
The NY Daily News and Politico are reporting that RNC Chair Michael Steele is set to announce he is stepping down as RNC Chair today, after increasing calls from donors that he resign due to corruption and serial failures. Mikkie is likely going to make a move to be the black Sarah Palin. Wouldn’t terribly be surprised to see him run for the Veep slot under Sarah. The Sno’ Ho’ and the Ho’ Ho’…
Indeed.
Time up for Michael Steele and RNC? Republican chairman rumored to be ending tenure in January
Michael Steele‘s time as Republican National Committee Chairman looks like it will come to an end on Monday, as supporters told Politico.com they expect the controversial politician to step down from his post.
Steele reportedly sent an email to RNC members over the weekend asking them to join him on a conference call Monday evening, where insiders anticipate he will reveal that he is not planning to seek re-election.
The former Maryland lieutenant governor was chosen to lead the RNC in January 2009, shortly after Republicans suffered heavy losses in the 2008 election, including the Presidency.
His term has been marred by a series of scandals and gaffes, and many Republicans have publicly called for his resignation.
Steele’s selection by his Party drew snickers from commentators and inspired spoofs on “Saturday Night Live” for being what many saw as an obvious reaction to the election of the country’s first black president.
It only went downhill from there.
In 2009, Steele was exposed as charging tens of thousands of dollars per public appearance, which many considered an unsavory use of his position as RNC chair.
He also called the conflict in Afghanistan a “war of Obama‘s choosing” in July – despite the fact that the conflict began under George W. Bush.
In an attempt to defend Tea Party candidates from their numerous gaffes during the election season, Steele told David Gregory on “Meet the Press” that he didn’t fault people for messing up words.
“Folks make mistakes,” he said in the October interview. “Lord knows I’m familiar with foot in mouth disease.”
His missteps, combined with his poor fundraising ability, caused Republicans to quickly tire of Steele.
While he hasn’t told any close allies of his plans to step down, Politico reported, he notably hasn’t assembled a known reelection team. If he did, he would face a large pool of candidates seeking to replace him.
“Clearly, the whole Steele administration has really been about promoting Mike Steele for whatever future role he was going to play in the American political debate and not really focused on what the core mission of the Republican Party is,” Connecticut Republican Chairman Chris Healy told the Los Angeles Times.
The RNC chairman will be selected at the party’s meeting in January.
Uncle Mikkie – Former RNC Chair?
Looks like the pissed-off Republican Illuminati are doing a bit of Michael Steele Head Hunting. One can only conclude that after the recent election where Republicans elected 2 (2.5 according to some folks) real Republican Negros…
The need for Mikkie to hold that lantern out on the lawn is over.
Michael Steele draws first challenger in RNC Chair race
Former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis announced this morning that he will run to be chairman of the Republican National Committee, becoming the first — though almost certainly not the last — candidate in the race against Michael Steele.
“We cannot be misled by our victories this year,” Anuzis wrote in anannouncement posted on his blog. “Chairman Steele’s record speaks for itself. He has his way of doing things. I have mine.”
Anuzis, clearly hoping to emerge as the choice of the anti-Steele forces within the 168 member Republican National Committee added that “I will NOT strive to be the voice or the face of our party” — seeking to draw a direct contrast with high profile (and gaffe prone) current chairman.
This is the second time Anuzis is making a bid to lead his party. He ran and lost in 2009, dropping out after the fifth ballot.
In addition to Anuzis, there are at least four other people making calls to RNC members to test the waters for a bid, according to an informed source on the committee. That quartet includes: Wisconsin Republican party chairman Reince Priebus, who managed Steele’s 2009 RNC campaign, veteran GOP strategist Maria Cino, Connecticut Republican party chairman Chris Healy and former Ambassador Ann Wagner.
While it’s not clear whether any — or all — of those candidates will run, many people are looking at next week’s Republican Governors Association gathering in San Diego as a time when people either need to be in or out.
This song is indeed… About Mikkie –
The HNIC Invites Brietbart to RNC Event
Just when you thought Mikkie couldn’t Tom anymore…
He raises the bar.
The RNC has scheduled a fundraiser where Michael Steele and Andrew Breitbart are the featured guests, and will speak at the opening.
A regular Uncle-Tom-athon…
TPM Exclusive: Steele To Hold RNC Event — Co-Starring Andrew Breitbart
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has a party fundraising event coming up in August that is scheduled to feature a very special guest: Conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart, according to a copy of the invitation exclusively obtained by TPM.
The fundraising event, billed as an “Election Countdown,” will take place from August 12-14 in Beverly Hills, California, and will also feature other politicians such as California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, and Nevada Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Sandoval. Steele and Breitbart are scheduled to co-headline a welcome reception on the first evening, August 12.
It’s certainly some odd timing for the RNC to be working closely with Breitbart, who, of course, has made headlines recently for circulating a video clip of then-Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod, an African-American, seeming to tell a story about how she would not help a white farmer who was down on his luck 24 year ago. Sherrod was quickly forced to resign last week. And as it turned out, the full video showed that Sherrod was telling a story about how she ultimately did not discriminate against the farmer — that this was a great turning point in her own personal story of race relations in the South — and she did help him. Indeed, the farmer himself has come forward to defend her and discuss their lasting friendship.
Sherrod has since received apologies from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and President Obama. Breitbart also said he felt sorry for Sherrod — despite the fact that he was the one who posted the questionably edited video in the first place.
RNC spokesman Doug Heye confirmed to TPMDC that the event is going on, but declined to comment further on the nature of fundraising events. We asked follow-up questions about whether Breitbart is still confirmed to attend the event, and also asking when this was first scheduled.
Heye did not comment further, but instead only referred us to the earlier confirmation of the event.
The Four Seasons hotel company, which owns the Beverly Wilshire, has also confirmed to TPMDC that the event is booked for those days, but was unable to confirm a guest list.
Andrew Breitbart did not return our requests for comment.
Come on down and get your award, Mikkie!
RNC Chairmain Michael Steele AKA the HNIC - for Sponsoring Event Featuring Andrew Brietbart
The HNIC and the RNC’s Cooked Books
The RNC has been reporting for months that it has taken in contributions, and is in a no-debt position…
Turns out the HNIC was lying.
And from their choice of attorneys to defend the RNC against Federal Election Commission fines – it appears the dirt on this one goes a lot deeper than just an accounting error.
Looks like the HNIC could be getting fitted for his very own Orange Jumpsuit!
Did Mikkie Cook the Books?
RNC fails to report $7M in debt to FEC
The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months – a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine.In a memo to RNC budget committee members, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen on Tuesday accused Chairman Michael S. Steele and his chief of staff, Michael Leavitt, of trying to conceal the information from him by ordering staff not to communicate with the treasurer – a charge RNC officials deny.Mr. Pullen told the members that he had discovered $3.3 million in debt from April and $3.8 million from May, which he said had led him to file erroneous reports with the FEC. He amended the FEC filings Tuesday.Campaign-finance analysts said that simply misreporting fundraising numbers to the FEC can lead to millions of dollars in fines and that criminal charges can be levied if the actions are suspected to be intentional. Read the rest of this entry »
McCain, Graham – Dropping the HNIC Like a Hot Potato
On this 4th of July it is heartening to see at least nor every Republican hates America. I mean, a lot of conservatives do the wave the plastic flag thing, and talk the talk about “loving our troops”…
But when push to shove are absent on every single Veterans BIll, absent in COngress or the Senate in making the hard decisions for a country in crisis, and absent during the most critical decisions of the day because the man who sits in the Presidency doesn’t look like them…
Who spew hate over the nations airwaves for black and brown people, and then demonstrate their patriotism with pepper induced tears…
Who accuse less fortunate Americans who have lost their jobs and livelyhoods (and often homes) of being “lazy”…
Nice to see on this Independence Day -a return to American values.
The Star Spangled Banner Over Ft. McHenry
More fallout for Uncle Mikkie’s Foot in Mouth on “Obama’s War” –
Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, denounced Mr. Steele’s comments, joining a chorus of Republican criticism.
Mr. McCain of Arizona said that Mr. Steele’s remarks, made at an event last week, were “wildly inaccurate, and there’s no excuse for them,” adding that Mr. Steele had later told him in an e-mail message that his comments were misconstrued.
“The fact is that I think that Mr. Steele is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee and make an appropriate decision,” Mr. McCain said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” broadcast from Kabul, Afghanistan, where he and Mr. Graham were visiting troops with a delegation of Republican lawmakers.
Mr. Graham of South Carolina said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he was “dismayed, angry, upset” over Mr. Steele’s remarks, calling them “uninformed, unnecessary, unwise, untimely.”
“This is not President Obama’s war; this is America’s war,” he said, adding, “I want to separate myself from that statement. And the good news is Michael Steele is backtracking so fast he’s going to be in Kabul fighting here pretty soon.”
Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, also described Mr. Steele’s remarks as “inaccurate” and “unacceptable.”
“Chairman Steele needs to apologize to our military, all the men and women who’ve been fighting in Afghanistan,” Mr. DeMint said in an interview on“Fox News Sunday.” “This is America’s war. It’s not Obama’s war.”
The HNIC in Hot Water… Again
Uncle Mikkie Steele just pissed off a whole bunch of patriotic Americans with his spiel about the Afghanistan War…
This may well be the straw that broke the Camel’s back – not only for Steele, but some of the over-the-top criticism offered by the right of President Obama. This smells of out and out treason.
Kabul Mikkie… Indeed.
Conservatives Say Michael Steele Should Resign Over Afghan War Remarks
Conservative strategist William Kristol, former South Carolina party chairman Katon Dawson and other Republicans are calling for the resignation of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele over Steele’s suggestion that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is doomed.
At a fundraiser in Noank, Conn., Steele blamed the U.S. troubles in Afghanistan on the Obama administration and expressed doubts about coalition forces’ ability to succeed in the violence-torn country.
“Keep in mind again, for our federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing,” Steele said. “This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
“It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan,” Steele said, referring to Obama’s insistence during the presidential campaign that the U.S. should be focused on Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
“Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”
Former president George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to Afghanistan in October 2001 in response to the Sept. 11 attacks by terrorists based there. Obama has said publicly for at least eight years that while he opposed the invasion of Iraq, he supported the war in Afghanistan. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Steele Buckdances Around Rand Paul Issue
The HNIC is having a bit of a rough time here, trying to come up with a defense (ANY defense) of Rand Paul’s position of Civil Rights…
He flatly refuses to condemn Paul’s viewpoint.
Now, this isn’t totally unexpected, as the RNC HNIC, Mikkie has to support his “team” no matter how repulsive and repellent they may be. What is sad is that he admits a number of other Republicans hold similar views…
Rand Paul expresses a Libertarian viewpoint which is why the vast majority of Minorities associate libertarianism with racism. Indeed, many white supremacists around the country have adopted libertarianism as a political viewpoint because it justifies their racism.
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