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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Further into the wilderness.....

16 states' GOP leaders are pressing Michael Steele to call Obama a "socialist." Steele refuses, and so those state party chairman are going to try to engineer "all 168 members of the Republican National Committee to debate and vote on it."

Seriously. This is where you're going to spend your time?

Later: There's also a move to limit Steele's power by restricting his discretion on party spending.

posted by mikevotes at 8:02 AM

12 Comments:

  • It's very important that Steele calls Obama a socialist, because Steele is so well respected nationally.

    If they can keep this up, Obama will be subjected to a diverse name-calling attack that could bring the Republicans back from the margins. By October, Steele could roll out his ultimate name for Obama: The Spawn of Satan.

    Combined with school-yard taunts and a tactic of extending one's tongue outside of the mouth, Obama could be in deep trouble halfway through his term. There are already GOP committees developing facial expressions that are deemed to be insulting and demeaning.

    There is virtually nothing that Democrats could do to retaliate from this viciousness because, as Katon Dawson recently said, the GOP "is rubber and you're glue". He further implied that any names the Democrats would employ against Republicans would "bounce off" and stick to the Democrats instead.

    Harry Reid is frightened.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 8:35 AM  

  • Wicked funny!

    But who's Harry Reid? Isn't he the guy who worked to get Democrats to agree to Republican demands under the Bush administration? If this is the same Harry Reid, the he probably is frightened...

    By Blogger -epm, at 8:46 AM  

  • But who's Harry Reid? You may know him as "Baghdad Reid", one of the vicious names previously used by wingnuts. It's clever because it's like "Baghdad Bob", except that it uses Reid's name instead. Tee hee! I'll wager the GOP paid a consultant a lot of money to come up with that bit of wit.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 9:07 AM  

  • Todd, Pretty damn funny. You're first line made me laugh out loud.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:20 AM  

  • A question....

    Just as the selection of Sarah Palin for VP was seen as a cynical ploy to get sympathy from women voters ("See, we're really the party that supports women"), so to the selection of Steele was seen as a sop to African Americans ("See, we're really the party who loves Blacks"). But, does Michael Steele's dismal performance -- both in the actual and the theatrical (faux "street cred" nonsense) -- actually reinforce the party's negative views of African Americans? Does Michael Steele -- who was looked to to broaden the membership of the GOP -- actually cause the part to contract further.

    I'm talking dog whistle stuff here... nothing overt, mind you.

    By Blogger -epm, at 12:39 PM  

  • I don't know if they really expected to win African Americans (How racist/stupid would you have to be? It's not like black folks haven't seen a token before.)

    What I really think they wanted was for themselves and others to believe they weren't an all white party.

    I think they wanted to present themselves as inclusive, not necessarily caring if they actually were.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:09 PM  

  • I know what you mean. But I'm wondering if the base becomes more openly dismissive of attempts to appear big-tentish and radicalizes even more. I don't know. In indelicate terms, I wonder if Steele's abysmal performance -- and at time bafoonery -- will play into the base's already swollen bigotry. Will this be an excuse for the base to become even more radical, more intolerant, and more "white."

    maybe not.

    By Blogger -epm, at 1:45 PM  

  • If they were honest they'd give Steele's job to Rush Limbaugh. Not that it would help them much.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:22 PM  

  • EPM, I've been wondering about that, too.

    I don't think anyone would ever get caught on camera saying that, but I definitely see your argument as something that might go on in people's heads..
    ....

    And, actually, Anon, it's gotta work better than Steele. At least Limbaugh has some kind of charisma that appeals to some segment.

    Who does Steele appeal to?

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:47 PM  

  • "Who does Steele appeal to"

    All of the other black Republicans...both of them, in fact.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 3:53 PM  

  • We don't dislike Steele for being black. We dislike him for being spineless,a condition that knows no color.

    By Blogger OpenMindedRepublican, at 4:17 AM  

  • OMR, definitely. He's been just awful.

    But there are those in the GOP who would have those feelings about Steele being black.

    You're definitely not one of them, but those people are out there, and, broadly, they're Republican.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:23 AM  

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