RNC Chair Steele Refuses to Cancel Speech at Sharpton Event

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | April 13, 2010 | Peter Flaherty

[jazusamo]

Angela Sailor, the Republican National Committee’s Director of Coalitions, called me today to inform me that Michael Steele will speak as scheduled at the annual conference of Al Sharpton’s group, the National Action Network (NAN). On April 4, NLPC asked Steele to withdraw from the event, which takes place tomorrow through Friday in New York City.

When I went through each of our objections, Ms. Sailor gave me some permutation of the following:

Chairman Steele is going to New York to speak to 500-1,000 people in a ballroom to ask them to support Republican candidates.

When I asked if Steele might have better luck elsewhere, she claimed that many of the attendees are “independent,” who she characterized as “swing voters.” When I queried whether most attendees, who are paying for travel and New York hotel rooms, were more likely activists committed to Sharpton’s message, Sailor stuck to the script. She responded:

If we take time to talk to folks in a ballroom, they will support our candidates if we go and ask them.

Since I got nowhere with that, I asked if she or Steele regretted undercutting Sharpton critics like NLPC, she stated:

We are looking at this the same way as Newt Gingrich who has locked arms with Sharpton.

That’s exactly the problem. And that is why we criticized Gingrich well before the Steele controversy.

Of course, Ms. Sailor’s job is to build coalitions so I asked her whether Steele might offend Rush Limbaugh listeners by hobnobbing with Sharpton, who led the assault on Limbaugh’s NFL ownership bid, a campaign based on fabricated quotes. She claimed that the Steele speech “was not about Sharpton,” and then reverted to the now-familiar party line.

I was most anxious to get an answer to the most important question of all, whether responsible people should associate with a demagogue who has a history of accusing innocent persons of hate crimes, such as in the Tawana Brawley episode and the Duke rape case. I was told again that it was “not about Sharpton,” and that those incidents had “no relationship” to Steele’s decision to go ahead with the speech.

Even though the futility of my questions was already established, I followed-up by asking if Steele would speak at an event organized by former Klansman David Duke. I should have anticipated the answer: It is not about David Duke.

Related:

RNC Chair Steele Should Withdraw From Sharpton Event

Wall Street Journal Is Wrong About New, 'Pragmatic' Al Sharpton

Gingrich Must Sever Ties With Sharpton

Colgate-Palmolive Denies Supporting Sharpton Group In Wake of Rush Limbaugh/NFL Controversy

Sharpton's Corporate Supporters Funded Anti-Rush Limbaugh Campaign

Did Colgate-Palmolive Accept Sharpton Award — or Not?

Sharpton Fined $285K by FEC as Result of NLPC Complaint

New NLPC Special Report Exposes the Real Al Sharpton

Ford Bankrolled Sharpton Convention Featuring Biden

[jazusamo]

Steele shouldn't be getting within a hundred miles of the race baiter Sharpton.

[GeronL]

Steele is a worthless tool.

No wonder nobody wants to donate to the RNC!

[truthbetold11]

He doesnt need sharpton to advance the cause

[jmaroneps37]

http://www.collinsreport.net/2010/04/05/michael-steele-you%e2%80%99re-the-failure-i-predicted-you-would-be-resign-now-for-the-good-of-our-country/ I pegged this fraud last March 3 and I have seen nothing that would change my mind since.

[DallasSun]

I had not heard this. Little shocks me. This shocks me. I agree. Why is he having anything to do with Sharpton.

[windsorknot]

I certainly hope that Steele gives equal time for the next David Duke event.

[jpl]

Steele is a worthless tool.

I used to like him, but the way he's acting lately is so strange it almost makes it seem like he's trying to torpedo the party on purpose or something.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Time for him to go. It needs to be done, do it sooner rather than later.

[Tarpon]

Well I bet this will cut donations to the RNC. Isn’t there a new election on the way for RNC Chair?

[AmishDude]

Why not? As long as he tells them that, basically, Sharpton’s ideas are terrible and that Republicans are the party of freedom rather than slavery, I think it’s an example of going where the sinners are.

If he panders, well, that’s a different story.

[Digger]

The (R)s know full well how to lose to the other corrupt faction of the “Two-Party Cartel”. If luck as it ya all want to bet that if the (R)s take back the Congress that health care stays?

[GeronL]

Thats exactly what it seems like.

[jazusamo]

Agreed...I’ve lost the respect I once had for him.

[Oldpuppymax]

Those affirmative action picks never seem to work out quite as well as those chosen for actual ability!

[TexasFreeper2009]

Why would anyone with half a brain legitimize the race pimp Sharpton by attending anything he sponsored?

The GOP needs to boycott all racists organizations like this and the NAACP.

[r9etb]

Why not? As long as he tells them that, basically, Sharpton’s ideas are terrible and that Republicans are the party of freedom rather than slavery, I think it’s an example of going where the sinners are. If he panders, well, that’s a different story.

I guess you didn't get the memo, either.... apparently it is an inherently bad idea to actually speak to the people to whom we'd like to offer a contrary opinion.

Much better to rely on the MSM to tell them what we want them to hear.

[marron]

He’s going right into the mouth of the beast.

Beck had Sharpton on the other night.

I have never understood what it is that people see in Sharpton. I don’t criticize Steele for trying, for facing people who are going to naturally see him as a sell-out, at least some of them. What would be really cool, would be if he would go to a Sharpton event and take Colonel West with him. Now, that would be worth the price of admission just to see it.

I remember talking to a black preacher a couple of years ago, and he came out with a very ugly remark about Condoleeza Rice. It shocked me, but I knew that many blacks tend to see any black Republican as a sell-out (why is a tribute to the mind-control magic going on over at your local public schools, I suppose). I smiled and told him, you’re talking to the wrong guy. I’m in love with that lady. It surprised him, and he started back-pedaling. It had never occurred to him that there was anyone who didn’t hate Ms Rice.

Thats what Steele is up against.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I’ll tell you right now that it does nothing to help the GOP, or conservatives, to take back the country when we get embroiled in petty controversies.

As far as I’m concerned, Steele should be talking to as wide an audience as he can. Not everyone following Sharpton is a nut job. Steele might win converts from the sensible ones.

I’m still not giving them money, but Michael Steele is doing the right thing here.

[domenad]

On the contrary, I don’t think he should cancel it at all. I think he needs to be in front of people that blindly follow idiots like Sharpton, and show them just where determined, hardworking black Americans can go when they stop waiting for crumbs from the Democratic party table like hack healthcare.

[Vaquero]

If you’d rather be in power and actively steering the country in the wrong direction than out of power and pointing in the right direction you might be a RINO.

If you think Sarah Palin is — come on now, honestly — just a bit de trop you might be a RINO.

If you think the Tea Partiers are a muddled, ignorant rabble likely to flare out of control or give the party a bad name you might be a RINO.

If you think defining conservative principles and insisting candidates agree with them is a “purity test” — and a bad thing — you might be a RINO.

If you think it’s okay if the “Big Tent” is big enough to hold two people who agree on practically nothing at all, you might be a RINO.

If you think consensus and comity between members of opposing parties is an important political principle you might be a RINO.

If you think the Constitution is over two hundred years old and a lot has changed in that time you might be a RINO.