From Ralph Z. Hallow at the Washington Times, quoting Michael Steele, RNC Chairman of hopefully last resort:
”There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort” zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. “We need messengers to really capture that region – young, Hispanic, black, a cross section … 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.”
But, he elaborated with a laugh, “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”
“Where we have fallen down in delivering a message is in having something to say, particularly to young people and moms of all shapes – soccer moms, hockey moms,” he said, though he insisted that party messages won’t be different strokes for different folks. “We don’t offer one image for 18-year-olds and another for soccer moms but one that shows who we are for the 21st century.”…
“We missed the mark in the past, which is why we are in the crapper now,” he said. “We had the White House, the Senate and the House and were not building a farm team over the last years. We could have been ahead of Democrats and their 50-state strategy.” …
“I am not afraid of being held accountable for my leadership,” he said. “The idea I am somehow going to handicap myself before I begin is nuts. I am not going to buy into this mind-set among a few people who probably have never run anything but their mouths.”…
“It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone – off the hook.”
Rachel Maddow’s deconstruction is like her – precious.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
A pig just flew very slowly by my window. And the hits keep coming:
Well, here’s a news flash: your Party’s over. Despite one finally intelligent move — tapping the eminent Michael S. Steele to head the Republican National Committee (and not just because he is black) — you’re still not the Party of Timeless Principles, small government, low taxes or “America First.”
FOX News plays it straight. That’s the problem with the GOP – no sense of humor.
This from FOX News, upon Steele’s election, is shameless:
In electing Michael Steele as the new Chairman of the Republican National Committee, the Grand Old Party has demonstrated a capacity for renewal and revival. After today, no fair-minded observer can believe the stereotype of the Republicans as the party of old white men.
Absolutely right. Now the GOP is the party of STUPID old white men.
Jesse Singal at Campus Progress doesn’t have a memo from Steele:
The commercial opens with a shot of four youths, each a different ethnicity—let’s call them Akira, Daquan, Miguel, and Moishe—“chilling” (spending time together) on a “stoop” (the steps oftentimes found in front of rowhouses and apartment buildings in urban environs).
“Yo, dawg,” says Akira. “This economy sure is whack!”
“Wiggedy-whack!” concurs Daquan.
“Super wiggedy-whack!” adds Miguel.
“You can say that again!” chimes in Moishe. The four exchange enthusiastic “high-fives” (a slapping together of the hands meant to foster camaraderie and affection).
“What do you think the problem is, yo?” asks Akira.
“I don’t know, dawg,” says Daquan.
“I have an idea, yo!” says Miguel, standing up from the “stoop.”
“What’s your idea?” asks Moishe, suddenly excited. “Are you feelin’ why our economy is illin’?”
Miguel steps forward from the stoop. He tears off his clothes, revealing a “dope” and “fly” tracksuit, and begins to “rap” and “break-dance”:
It’s taxes, yo
that are messing up our situation
It’s taxes, yo,
that are a threat to our nation!
Say WHAT?
[the other three kids, swaying in time to the “dope” beat:] TAXES!
Say WHAT?
[again, the other three kids:] TAXES!
It’s taxes, yo
liberals raise them on your family
It’s taxes, yo
this stuff is getting scandal-y!
Wikipedia has the short List of African American Republicans.
For an NC Uncle Tom, Rep. Dr. Tim Johnson of Buncombe County fits the bill.
Jimmy “Dynomite” Walker is on the list of shame. So is the great Sooner QB, Julius Caesar Watts. Fortunately, he’s way too wise for the bullshit:
Republicans want to say we reach out. But what we do instead is 60 days before an election, we’ll spend some money on black radio and TV or buy an ad in Ebony and Jet, and that’s our outreach. People read through that.
Republicans must get off of the Abortion issue as any more than a side item. They must also stop pandering to the Religious Right. Get back in the game by demanding accountability for all expenditures, get Sunset Rules put into all programs and reqpush the ethics issues
@ BB
And not one of those elements was anywhere in this post.
It’s no wonder some say the GOP is sliding into irrelevance from the electorate’s view.
But they pander to the corporate structure so there will be no noticeable change in Washington.
The GOP will always pander to the religious right. Old folks often get right with God before dying. They will always be against killing unborn babies even though most have daughters and granddaughters acting as brood mares. (Stolen from Boortz)
i didnt notice any bush/cheney stickers coming off of cars when the Constitution was being shredded, GOP representatives were abdicating their Constitutional responsibilities and voting to pardon themselves for future treasonous acts against the country. the Republicans who spoke out were marginalized and the party ran minions against them in primaries even though they had a 70% approval rating from their constituency. This is a Great Satanic maneuver. The party can hang Brooks Bros suits on every lawn jockey, hiphopper and change its name to the gangstah party and it won’t pardon them from the cynical action of tax cut mantra while tripling the money supply, leaving no child’s behind while burdening the child with a $180,000 debt before he learns the alphabet. Weapons of Mind Destruction were unleashed by the Republicans on humans already handicapped and burdened by a public school education. The humans were so softened up that didn’t recognize that their representive government was dissolved with the passage of the BushObamanation Acts that were not read by representatives before they were passed. Snap the fuck out of it.
its easy to get right with god when all the wrong stuff is getting stiff.
Michael Steele, ““It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone – off the hook.”
In other words, he’s suggesting the GOP become the Democratic Party… Yeah, right.
I’d like to think the GOP is making positive change and turning in a new direction but the recent appointment of Mr. Steele brings to mind a term I’ve heard thrown around by GOP types for the last 30 plus years and it has nothing to do with subways. Until the old guys who really run the GOP all die off there is little chance of positive change.
As a black friend once told me, “Sometimes you just have to let the old men die and their old ideas die with them.”
I’ve made a career of waiting for old men to die, or at least retire.