Does Michael Steele Have the Worst Job in America?

Published July 15, 2009 at 1:48 p.m.

In mid-May, almost two-thirds of Americans said they approved of the job Obama is doing, a Gallup Poll found.  At his 100 day mark, Obama's strongest backers were blacks, with 96 per cent saying they approve of the job he is doing. However, Hispanics, supposedly a problem for him in the 2008 primaries, are nearly as supportive, with 85 per cent approving. Approval is a much lower 57% among whites, but still a solid majority.

Richard Steele, the new national chairman of the Republican Party, has the daunting, many would say impossible job of selling his party to the country's voters and to African-Americans in particular.

It is no coincidence that the Republican Party got its first black chairman at the same time the Democratic Party produced the nation's first black president.  Republicans wanted to put a black face front and center, and Steele was more than happy to take the job, beating a field of candidates that included a member of an all-white country club and another who passed out a CD with a "Barack the Magic Negro" song.

Poll after poll shows dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, with fewer than one-third of the people giving the GOP a favorable rating.  Against that dismal backdrop, Wisconsin Republicans invited Steele to keynote their 2009 state convention.  He does draw media coverage, and perhaps that was the goal.  But he didn't deliver much else.

When I wrote on my blog that the GOP was inviting Steele to the convention so there would be at least one black face in the room, I thought I might catch some flak.  But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story covering his speech confirmed it in print; there were no other African-Americans in the room.

Maybe if the convention had been in Milwaukee instead of LaCrosse it might have drawn Gerard Randall or Corey Hoze or McCain fanatic James T. Harris.  But what does it say when you can name, and probably count on one hand, with a couple of fingers left over, the prominent black Republicans in the state?  It says that African-Americans aren't buying.  And not many other people are, either.

So what was Steele's message to Wisconsin voters?  He told reporters that the party welcomed moderate voters but wouldn't abandon its conservative principles.

“If you want to be a part of this, welcome," Steele said. "If not, you have other choices.  All you moderates out there, y'all come. I mean, that's the message," Steele said at a news conference. "The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front. "Understand that when you come into someone's house, you're not looking to change it. You come in because that's the place you want to be."

So, things are just fine at the little tiny Republican table.  Sit right down, if you can find a seat.  Just don't ask us to change anything.  The problem isn't the message or where Republicans stand on the issues, Steele and others, including would-be governor County Executive Scott Walker said. 

Walker, exhilarated by a big straw poll victory at the convention, might want to reflect on the fact that there was not one black vote cast in that contest.  Republicans like to brag about how Walker won heavily Democratic Milwaukee County, but fail to factor in or mention that he won it in a non-partisan race, without being identified as a Republican.  November elections are a “horse of a different feather”, as one addled state legislator famously said once.

But back to Rush Limbaugh, as promised.  When he first took over as chairman, Steele got into a fight with the Rush man, asserting that he, not some talk show host, was the voice of the GOP, and that Rush was an entertainer, and sometimes not much of one at that.  He ended up, as a series of other Republicans did, making nice and licking Limbaugh's boots in apology. 

Who's less popular than Rush Limbaugh among most Americans?  Why, Dick Cheney, who now fancies himself as the spokesman for the Republicans and continues to hammer at Obama on almost a daily basis.  Limbaugh has a favorable rating of 31 per cent in the polls.  Cheney's positive number is 18. 

Now Cheney's joined Limbaugh in going after former secretary of state Colin Powell, too.  Powell, a lifelong Republican, endorsed Obama last year and Cheney hasn't gotten over it. 

When asked if Limbaugh had been right in saying the Republican Party would be better off without Powell, Cheney responded: "Well, if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican."

And Michael Steele?  He said he was staying out of it.  For once, he wisely didn't have any comment.