Michael Steele / Photo Credit: Rockville Central
Posted on 01/31/2009 5:53:09 AM PST by NYer
.- The Republican National Committee has chosen Michael Steele, a devout Catholic who is well-known for his charisma and strong work ethic, as its new chairman.
Steele, who previously served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland, is the first black chairman of the Republican Party. He was selected after six rounds of voting with 91 votes out of a possible 168. Steele beat out Ken Blackwell, Ohio's former secretary of state, and Saul Anuzis, Michigan GOP chairman, to win the chairmanship.
Some Republicans questioned Steele's conservative credentials during the campaigning for the chairmanship because of his past association with Christie Todd Whitman's Republican Leadership Council (RLC). Many conservatives within the Party ridiculed the RLC's "big tent" philosophy, which they say attempted to bring pro-abortion candidates onto the Republican ticket.
Deal Hudson, a Catholic political commentator, explained that he first became convinced of Steele's pro-life convictions by a 2003 meeting he invited Steele to with the U.S. Catholic bishops' executive committee.
According to Hudson, Steele spoke "very directly, but diplomatically, to the bishops about their need to promote the pro-life cause with greater vigor. He talked about his disappointment with their leadership and its consequences among the African-American community. When he finished talking there was a powerful silence in the room."
Steele's pro-life credentials were even further verified by his 2006 Senate run in Maryland, Hudson said.
The new chaiman was in good spirits Friday as he accepted the top post of the Republican National Committee. "It's time for something completely different, and we're gonna bring it to them," he said, according to FOX News. "Get ready, baby. It's time to turn it on."
"People like Mike," former Governor of Maryland Robert Ehrlich Jr. told the Baltimore Sun. "He's really charismatic. He's a really solid person. He's a solid family guy."
Michael Steele’s Catholic roots include attending Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C. and then, in 1981, entering the seminary to study for the Augustinian Friars at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
After completing the pre-novitiate period, Steele entered the novitiate for the Augustinians in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Six months later, he decided to pursue a career in law.
"Michael was a very bright, articulate man who I would say gave himself very sincerely to the whole process of discernment," Fr. Francis J. Doyle, who was Steele’s novice master and spiritual director, told the Baltimore Sun.
It's just not interesting to read the same attacks on President Bush or anyone else (like Michael Steele) who isn't a "perfect" conservative.
Amusingly, they often hold Ronald Reagan up as their idol, and Ronald Reagan would never have gotten elected if he had spoken to voters the way these folks post. And probably, had the internet been around during the Reagan years, they would have branded him as a traitor for having a drink with Tip O'Neill.
Hahah----we won.
RINOS and punkneos should be tarred and feathered, and run out of town on a rail for the damage they did to OUR party.
With Steele, pro-lifers now have a double whammy with which to advance the cause of the unborn.
Keep in mind, Pres Obama's most dedicated supporters are Black churchgoers----who are largely conservative. Obaba caters to his Black churchgoer-constituency. Pres Obama came out against gay marriage......despite his liberal proclivities. Black churchgoers vehmently oppose gay marriage---it is a paramount issue with them (some even switched votes to Republicans in earlier elections for that reason).
ANOTHER SIGN The Obama White House last Monday backed away from increased federal funding for contraception in the $825-billion stimulus bill.......this is VERY significant for the stated reason.
================================
Black churchgoers are the people who can move these issues.
We need to keep Black churchgoers on top of so/con issues......so that Obama will be pressured by the supporters who mean so much to him.
Start compiling EMAIL lists of Black churchgoers....post these lists on FR on issues that need pressure groups to move on. New investigations, and those in place, must go forward after Obama's canonization on inauguration day.
WEB SITE http://www.joshuastrail.org/contact08.htm
EMAIL jtorg@joshuastrail.org
The ONE saving grace for conservatives----but it must be employed correctly.
My point exactly.
A new day has dawned. It is our job---as so/con Republicans----to begin Steele's orientation.
Steele must be made to realize when he raises his Chairman's voice in defense of the unborn (and other so/con issues), he is also speaking to numerous Black Churchgoers who voted for Obama.
Pres Obama caters to this largely conservative constituency. Candidate Obama came out against gay marriage......despite his liberal proclivities b/c Black churchgoers vehmently oppose gay marriage---it is a paramount issue with them (some even switched votes to Republicans in earlier elections for that reason).
ANOTHER SIGN The Obama White House last Monday backed away from increased federal funding for contraception in the $825-billion stimulus bill.......this is VERY significant for the stated reason.
AT THE SAME TIME we pressure Chairman Steele, we will keep Black churchgoers on top of so/con issues......so that Obaba will be pressured by the supporters who mean so much to him. ..........
We now have a double-whammy to advance the cause of the unborn.
Huh??? The Obamination's priority one is passing a monstrous pork bill. I wouldn't call this catering to conservatives.
I pointed out Candidate Obama came out against gay marriage...... despite his liberal proclivities--- b/c Black churchgoers vehmently oppose gay marriage.
No, we are not going to win on every issue.....but we have an opening...... and we are going to use it.
Hi Liz. Good to see you and great observations. We need to stand up behind Steele and speak with one voice. Only then can we make a difference.
Opinion: Michael Steele, Black, Pro-Life Catholic Takes the Helm of the G.O.P.
Catholic Michael Steele (former seminarian) takes over leadership of RNC
VERY important statement----needs a repeat.
In this position, I amn looking for someone who fights and organizes. Someone who sells conservatism because it wins. Steele is a good choice. Anyone would have been better than Duncan.
What part of Steele’s biography makes you think so? Wake up!
Good post!
I am very concerned about Obama and his potential for evil, so I post on those threads, and also on Catholic threads. But I really avoid some of the issue-oriented threads because there are so many people in them who are full of hatred and obsessions. It’s possible to disagree with Bush, for example, without calling him hideous names and calling everybody who agreed with him or even liked him a “Bushbot,” which was one of the milder epithets.
I personally think that some of these people are Dem trolls, planted to keep conservatives divided. It worked. And the other sad thing is that it also made FR a much less interesting place, because people were afraid to discuss issues for fear they might draw the fire of the self-appointed arbiters of conservativism (or Dems posing as such!).
As for Steele, we shall see. I hope he’s not too much of a nice guy; that’s been a problem among our people, and was even one of Bush’s problems. I don’t think we have to go to the Rahm Emanuel-type extreme aggressive personality, but I hope Steele is strong enough to stand up for conservative positions.
RKBA. There is no middle ground.
Well pro life is good, but it isn't the main thrust of the enemy, and having him rinoish on the rest isn't a good sign to me.
Neo Kristol dumbly proclaimed that conservatism was "dead." Shows how little he knows.
Keep in mind, the punkneos were the masterminds of RINO Giuliani's losing effort----the nitwit kept saying he was "saving himself" for Florida (to avoid conservatives lurking in primary/caucus states). Meanwhile, the Mayor RAN AND LOST IN EVERY primary/caucus state.
In Fla, Giuli campaigned 63 days straight and came in a distant third. Giuli's campaign has gone down in history as the stupidest presidential effort ever. Giuli spent $60 nmillion and got one delegate (that he shared).
As for McC-----the political entrail readings showed the crucial conservative base stayed home.........the stupid pukes "forget" to tell McC that would be one outcome of the punkneo-RINO bi-partisanship.
AS FREEPER TADSLOS COGENTLY POSTED: "People forget that candy-ass neo Kristol, and his crony, metro-sexual Brooks are the original makeover artists for McCain post-2000...... McC's original groomers and media switch operators. As candidate McC's numbers tanked, Kristol urged McCain to fire his staff, to start all over at the 11th hour. Shows how how ill-conceived, advised, equipped and poorly managed the neos managed McC's campaign........what else to expect from a Republican candidate made up of neopunks' Kristol and Brooks."
Michael Steele is a top-notch guy who was rejected by Marylanders. Says about all you need to know about the state I live in. During campaigns he would be subjected to having oreo cookies thrown at him.
Whoever wins the nomination for the GOP candidacy in 2012, I hope Steele will be on the ticket.
Blago is a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Where did you get the idea he was Catholic?
During the campaign, I shared that thought. But, having seen his Senate campaign close-up, I wasn't quite so sure. It is more than likely, IMHO, that he would have done no better than McCain. His vague and deliberately uncontroversial and unmemorable speaking style is a little like Obama's, but not as good, and he has, again IMHO, absolutely no instinct for the jugular. Perhaps more important, he is not a programmatic thinker. At least he hasn't shown it. In his campaign, like McCain's, there was no theme ... no platform ... no sense what you're supposed to get for your vote. Confusion.
Tellingly, IMHO, he looked very bad in his MD campaign ... didn't even get much of the African-American vote.
Free Republic has become the site in which we eat our own and it is very off-putting
"Family" arguments are brutal. But I don't think you need worry about where FR votes are going. This is more like a revolutionary site, because we are together attempting whether or not to kill (OK "abandon") or cure the Republican Party. It is ironic that the political party that began with a strongly religious crusade to free African-Americans from slavery and paid over 300,000 union lives to succeed, now cannot even get 3% of their descendants to vote for it.
Nowhere is it written on stainless steel that the GOP will ... or is even supposed to ... last forever.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.