Posted on 03/05/2009 9:23:17 AM PST by SolidWood
Michael Steele should resign as Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman, according to a committee member from North Carolina.
In an e-mail to fellow RNC members obtained by The Hill, Dr. Ada Fisher, North Carolina's national committeewoman, said Steele is "eroding confidence" in the GOP and that members of his transition team should encourage him to step aside. Fisher added Steele's personal e-mail address to the e-mail.
"I don't want to hear anymore [sic] language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn't going to win us any votes and makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish," Fisher wrote.
Fisher, who is one of three black members of the national committee, backed South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, whom Steele edged out in the final round of voting to win the chairmanship in late January. She has voiced repeated opposition to Steele, sending dozens of e-mails to committee members even after Steele won election slamming him for any number of chips that have fallen awry.
Fisher’s call for Steele’s resignation comes amid growing frustration in the GOP that the new chairman’s repeated gaffes are hurting the party.
It remains unclear just how much trouble Steele may be in with his own membership. While several RNC members have told The Hill that Steele remains popular with their bases, Washington-based strategists are grumbling, an attitude that is slowly filtering down to the states.
Steele appeared over the weekend on Hughley's CNN show, where he fought back against the assertion that radio host Rush Limbaugh was the "de facto leader" of the Republican Party. Steele said he himself was the de facto leader and called Limbaugh an entertainer whose program's content was "incendiary" and "ugly."
On Monday, Limbaugh shot back, saying on his show that Steele was not the leader of the party and that many conservatives would "hang up" when Steele's RNC came calling for contributions.
"Limbaugh has already promised that 'His Conservatives' won't be giving to the RNC. I would suggest to you that that is a real bet," Fisher wrote. "If we can't raise money and continue to allow the alienation of the few varifiable [sic] red states remaining, we are foolish."
Steele later said he had reached out to Limbaugh to clarify his remarks, insisting he meant no offense. But the incident elicited crowing from Democrats, who for weeks have pursued a strategy seemingly designed to elevate Limbaugh to the front of the GOP line. Democrats would enjoy contrasting themselves with Limbaugh's assertion that he wants to see President Obama's economic policies fail.
Calling the Limbaugh-Steele clash a "Republican Horror Show," Fisher expressed what some other GOP strategists have until now only said privately: "I have never seen such ineptness in our GOP leadership," Fisher wrote. "And I though we handled the 2008 elections very poorly."
Fisher could not be reached for comment Thursday morning, while the RNC did not immediately have comment on her letter.
Go drool in someone else’s lap.
It is amazing what I hear and see on the streets right now. Even during the late 1970s when the numbers were REALLY bad, high unemployment, inflation and interest rates was there not the talk like there is now, talk of revolution, of hoarding food, buying ammo and guns and all the other nonsense. This is not like anything we have seen before.
Many people are seriously worried about what is going on and the outlook for the next 12 months is very bleak.
So when you say give him a chance, fine. I do not want to be an alarmist, but not sure how many more chances we have.
schu
It’s refreshing to hear my beliefs expressed so clearly by someone in the RNC. Steele doesn’t have his head in the game, but Ada sounds like she does.
Precisely. Steele was an error; dump him. Jindal is not ready for prime time, but will be for the 2010 election. Give Sarah more face time. Forget Romney, he will never be more than a damned good bureaucrat. Dump Boehner. Give the Republicans in Congress four months to learn how to get tough. If there is no change, no dough. Do not fear the founding of a third party, it may be what the fossilized party system needs. The Democrats are already running as Progressives (the old code word for Marxist). It is time to do some serious re-thinking in the face of a serious Marxist challenge.
I disagree. I was happy to see Steele become chairman. But fell for the Democrats game hook, line and sinker and what he said, and the words he used were deplorable.
That was bad enough, but anyone under the pressure he is no doubt under, can screw up, and that could be forgiven IF he were man enough to stand up and say he was wrong, and he should never have said what he did, but no, he some lame excuse and then doesn’t want to discuss it anymore.
Therefore, he is no different than any other politician. Me first, mine 2nd, those close to me 3rd......and someone down the line the good of the country comes into play. That is BULL.
We need a person in this job that stands on principle. We need a person that has some GUTS. We need a person that is going to stand for what he believes, say what he means and means what he says.
I wrote to Steele days ago and said as far as I am concerned he is FIRED.
If the RNC does not shed itself of this mistake, forget it. He has been stumbling along since day 1, and finally he got trapped and turned around and used an uzi on US.
If we fire him, it will mean that we fired STUPIDITY.
I am really caught in the middle over this.
I don’t want to be in a state of mind to attack our own, but have been totally UNimpressed by Michael Steele up to now. I can dismiss his television gaffe with Rush, since Rush did that himself. And I can forgive his ‘hip-hop’ cool ‘skin in the game’ mentality that comes across as pandering to blacks and plays into the Dems attack dogs. I can draw the line for all of that and dismiss it as new job jitters.
But I want to know what he is doing for the Republican party. What is he doing to punish Snow, Collins, Spector? He ‘says’ punishment is on the table, but he has done... what...? about it? What is he doing to stop Dems from voting in our primaries and giving us McLame and the like? What is his response to the rumors of an assault on the 2nd amendment? What is he doing to pull us all together, unite us, and bring us back to a strengthened party?
I do not see Michael Steele doing anything positive to further our agenda and put forth our values and ideals. I do see him apologizing and pandering and doing the rounds on all the talk shows.
Again, I would like to support the RNC leader. But... I would need a leader to rally around. And while i don’t want to play into the Dems ‘divide ‘em and conquer ‘em” gameplay... unless Steele stops trying to be ‘cool, hip and now’ and starts being serious, responsible and CONSERVATIVE.... I don’t think I can get behind him.
And I guess ... if we are gonna throw him under a bus, it should happen now, instead of a year or so... before the Dems say we have never solidified. And I suppose that if we replaced him, we could always take the moral high ground and say that we rectify our mistakes while the Dems just put crooks in office anyway.
I guess it depends on what Michael Steele does and says in the next week or so. I would be willing to give him a little more time, but he would need to stop messing around and get to work.
My first choice was Ken Blackwell and after his comments this past week I’m no longer confident he can be a good leader for the RNC.
I’m grateful that we’re having this fight now rather than waiting until the 2012 primaries to have it. All of this in-fighting, and not just between Rush and Steele, but Levin and Frum illustrates one thing: are we going to allow the moderate elites to take over the message and direction of the party, or are real conservatives going to position our party towards the conservative principle for which many of us long?
The same thing happened to the Democrats: they were (and still are) fighting over the direction of their party – liberal left (Obama) or moderate left (Clinton). Their all-out brawl in the 2008 primary severely damaged the rank and file, so much so that many long-time Democrats voted for McCain or sat out. Many have changed their party ID to Independent.
We are going through the same dilemma, but our timing is better. Once the conservatives, in this case, personified by the leading talk radio show hosts, demolish the moderate elites of the party, we can move forward towards conservatism. Once we establish that conservatism is the answer (and always has been) to defeat the liberal left of the Democratic Party, we will be better suited to choose a leader in 2012.
GET RID OF STEELE, he is not our friend~~~ We need to get him out NOW!
BS, Steele needs to go NOW. He is NEVER going to represent the RNC. He’s weak and afraid to speak out. I think it’s a race thing and he will coddle to the half white president.
The RNC should have elected Ken Blackwell.
Well, one thing that did concern me was that Bob Beckel (Dem hack) was darkly praising Steele’s abilities.
I’m not sure how to take a Dem hack praising ANY Republican. It spells problems, so in this sense I can identify with your position.
Whatever changes from here on out isn’t going to come from the GOP. Don’t expect them to fix it. The salvation of the country is in the hands of Main Street conservatives right now, not the GOP. We can only pray that THEY will follow US.
That’s why I’m not concerned with Steele’s position. I think he won’t have much choice but to come around, because if he doesn’t, the GOP will become defunct anyway.
Steele never said he wanted the GOP to be more hip-hop. He said he was going to attempt to reach younger, black voters.
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He sucks, he needs to get the boot. He’s too soft.
“Society should draw lines. What do you need an assault weapon for, if you’re going hunting? That’s overkill. But I don’t think that means you go to a total ban for those who want to use gun for skeet shooting or hunting or things like that” -Michael Steele
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GET HIM OUT NOW! Another RINO
It is. Many conservatives just can’t accept the rest of the republican party.
Therefore the republican party is also dead and dems win.
Someone said circular firing squad??? No kidding.
We need someone like Glenn Beck to take over, imho. Someone who is NOT afraid to say it like it is, call it all out in the open and who has the balls to do what needs to be done to bring back true CONSERVSATISM!!!!
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AMEN! Steele is a RINO, no more RINOS
BTW: Rush just said Cramer in on WHouse enemies list.
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I bet my list is as long as their list.
Steele doesn’t get it and neither do you. You obviously care way too much about what the dims think. The rest of us (those with a spine) don’t give a hang. We know that being a conservative is living a lifetime of bad press.
With that said, you communicate with the class of a pig.
Sarah did not ATTACK a member of her own party. She gave a poor performance, quite like Jindal did the other night, but she was not so concerned about her position in the party that she tried to take another member OUT.
What he did was totally self serving. He could not stand the thought that some may look at Rush as the “leader” when HE in fact was “THE LEADER” of the Republican Party. He was on a power trip and his trip ran into something bigger than himself and since he is not man enough to overcome it he tried to kill it.
It is a matter of character. Character is important and character is the first thing we should look at when we start picking people to run for office, because as you can see, without that you have nothing.
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