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.
McCain is where the blame should be placed. He should have voted NO on the stimulus bailout. He’d be president.
Right now, I wish he’d just shut up because he helped drag the GOP down at the ballot box, along with the liberal bills he co-sponsored.
OK beotch you asked for it with the mouth breather comment —
some us can remember not being able to buy an AK-47 or or magazine that did not require reloading on the range after 8 shots. Some us lived in a socialist hell hole like CA where a gun store kept your $$$ for two weeksd before the almighty state decided we could be trusted with our God given rights. Of course some of us also have greater than room temperature IQ’s that recognize that moderation and comprise of our rights have made them negotiable and erodable. ADo something new and use your brain for a minutes — if one is willing to negotiate away one chunk of the Bill of Rights, where are they going to stop? Religion? Search and Seizure? Speech? Speedy Trial? THINK, DAMMIT!
I am NOT going back to 1994 when my government decided that certain firearms are only fit for the police and military. My God given rights are non-negotiable and if you are an example of a Steele supporter than after today, I really can’t do enough to get this thing out of GOP leadership.
FU very much, braindeb
Ada Fisher.
You go girl.
She’s the one who ran the hard hitting ads that pu$$y McCain tried to squash.
Goodbye Mr Steele.
Ken Blackwell of Ohio would have been a superior choice, and we all tried to warn people about RINO Steele and his squishy record on RKBA, but noooooooo, everyone was in love with the one-term Lt Governor of Maryland, and we can now see just how UNready he was for prime time.
Resign Mr. Steele, you’re in way over your head.
And yer group?
Howlin, nopardons, sinkspur, etc...
pray tell where are they nowadays?
yep...and now some of the same folks who supported Steele from jump street just can’t let go.
they were wrong, misinformed, PC, naive and ignorant.
it must hurt..
We need to shoot each other until we get our act together. And the sooner the better.
Steele does not have the right stuff.
He needs to be knocked silly until he either ‘gets it’ or gets out.
Good for Dr. Ada Fisher. She is courageous and she is right.
How hard would it have been for Michael Steele to say to Hughley, “You know, it is OKAY for blacks to be Republicans. Really, it is okay.”
He could have illustrated by pointing to Justice Clarence Thomas, Larry Elder and himself for starters. And he could have pointed out that true freedom for black folks would include the freedom to choose one’s political affiliation.
Do you have trouble reading?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189116/posts
Steele: “We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”
You can’t handle the truth.
How did an anti-2A guy get into that spot in the first place?
“Oh, come on. Give the guy more than a month. The organization clearly needs to be shaken up a bit. His resigning would do nothing but cost us another several months of bad media coverage.”
What’s a few more months compared to the horrible media coverage of the past 40 years?
How did an anti-2A guy get into that spot in the first place?
____________
Don’t ask me. Me and a bunch of other freepers repeatedly posted his stupid assault weapons quotes and some other RINO red flags.
Some of us were even called nasty names ; )
Outstanding analysis, Hanna. Exactly right. I have noticed, on the RNC website he likes to be referred to as "Chairman Steele." Creepy.
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.
Amen. MS showed he would crumble at the slightest provocation. In addition, Rush had helped him in the past and look at how easily he turned on him. What has Hughley ever done for Steele?
As a person I like Steele very much, but right now the GOP needs not only a personable person to get out and about and put a face on the GOP we also need a strong business leader as well. Steele may fit about 35% of what we need and I worry this will lead to us having another bad result in 2010.
Come on. Do you really fault those races on the RNC members??
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