Welcome back to Simple Man Politics for yet another hump day post. The man of the hour today who may be bestowed his hump honor eventually but not today is the RNC (Republican National Committee) Chairman Michael Steele. I have been considering doing a piece on this man for some time but other topics have taken precedence till now.
Former Lt Governor of Maryland Michael Steele (R-MD) now chairs the RNC and has the almost impossible and unenviable task of reviving and rejuvenating the Republican Party. He must not only ensure greater success of the party’s wins in at least the next two election cycles, but he must get his party’s base expanded, energized, and actively into the fight to regain GOP dominance in D.C. as well.
To say the least Mr. Steele faces some opposition to these goals and not just from the Democratic Party. He faces critics and opposition from within his own party also. Since his appointment to the RNC Chairmanship he has been blasted by Rush Limbaugh, and had ideological differences with former VP Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich just to name a couple of his detractors.
In addition to these troubles he has had trouble with the RNC board who have attempted to place limitations or regulations on what he can and can’t do as Chairman including funding, which has caused him to say at one point that if they want a figurehead as the Chairman they picked the wrong man. As if all of this isn’t enough for the man to deal with he is now taking heat from within the RNC for hiring friends, which every Chairman before him has done.
Michael Steele also laid out his game plan Tuesday 05/19/09 for bringing back the GOP strong. He says that regardless of Barack Obamas immense popularity with the public that the Republican Party will attack the President and his policies head on. He says that even with a revamped Republican Party there will still be clear differences between Democrats and Republicans politically and ideologically.
He cites this stance as a comeback of the two party system and said that the GOP has turned the corner predicting a Republican resurgence and that the comeback has begun and it is not in Washington. He also stated that this comeback is underway with the rebirth of the American dream and the change came to the party in a teabag referring to the Tea Parties of last month. All of this however seems to fly in the face of the fact that less people now identify themselves as Republicans when compared to the 2000 through 2004 election cycles.
I personally hope that Michael Steele is successful in his endeavor to reconstitute the Republican Party, but until a consensus is reached within the leadership of the Grand Old Party and the figure out how to present a new streamlined fresh image of the party to the base and potential members this is all just rhetoric. Unfortunately this may also be how Steele gets humped and by no one and nothing else but his own party the GOP. I do wish him all the luck in the world and I hope he is careful about bending over to pick anything up right now.
That is all I have to write about for now, but I am sure I will come up with something very interesting for all of you to read tomorrow. I also hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and I will be back again tomorrow CIAO4NOW!!!!!
I really like this guy and even Gov Sarah Palin says he is a good man and a great leader for the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that he is very successful at getting the party on track by the 2010 mid term elections.
ReplyDeleteAs most know, I'm a republican. Yet, from the beginning I have had mixed emotions about this man.
ReplyDeleteNow it does appear he is all for attacking Obama and his policies, but only a few months ago he was urging republicans NOT to do this. He needs to pick and stick to it.
Michael Steele is a symbol of new ideas and perhaps a new era of the republican party. I only hope it takes it in a good direction.
As for the tea parties, Steele should be careful what he says about them. He personally had nothing to do with their organization.
I continue to have mixed feelings about Steele, and though I love Palin, an endorsement from her is not enough. Let's see what happens in 2010. Then maybe I'll get off the fence on my opinion about him.