Salon News........second came Friday, at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, when former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was chosen as the party's new -- and first African-American -- national chairman. Held up side by side, these two votes demonstrate that Republicans remain unified in what they stand against, but, aside from sensing they might be a little too white, are far less certain what they stand for.
.......Steele has been falling upward throughout a career marked by a series of professional failures. He dropped out of the seminary, finished law school but never passed the bar, started a consulting firm that had no clients, and was rumored to have been let go from a job working for the Mills shopping mall firm because he was spending too much time engaged in party politics. When he ran as Robert Ehrlich's lieutenant governor running mate in 2002, the Ehrlich campaign put Steele on the payroll so he'd have a regular income.
But Steele has proved very capable in party and electoral politics, steadily graduating from Prince George's county chairman, to Maryland state chairman, to lieutenant governor and then leader of GOPAC, the organization founded by Newt Gingrich in the late 1980s to recruit, train and elect Republicans to national office. He is clever, telegenic and comfortable working a room. And he was the best-organized contender Friday: Team Steele had 15 whips among the 168 voting delegates working the floor. After he trailed Duncan by just six votes on the first ballot, his team built on his momentum. Steele was tied on the second ballot, later drew Blackwell's endorsement, staved off a late challenge by Dawson in the fourth and fifth rounds, and got the requisite majority on the sixth.
Lol, now this is good news all around if you have a twisted mind like my self.
You can take your pick.
You can say that this is another great day in the history of Black America by his selection.
You can say the GOP is finally taking a full step towards embracing black voters by show and proving with there selection of Michael Steele.
You can say they are shedding some of their fringe elements that have cost them this election like the Christian right, war hawks, big corporations.
You can say that this is a sign that they are redefining themselves and we will now see a more moderate party something more in tune with the world as opposed to small town America.
Or if your a cynic.....
He is just a seat warmer till the GOP figures out it's next move.
You can say he is a puppet and that the real shaker and movers are behind the scene rebuilding the empire while they use him to disarm the masses.
You can say this was just a "Sarah Palin" move and just proves further how out of touch the GOP really is. (And given his track record here, I am inclined to believe that)
Doesn't matter to me, the way I see it his election is a milestone and should be respected as such.
Now if you will excuse me I have to try to not die laughing.
