No Mute Button for Steele
A recent meeting between GOP congressional leaders and party chairman Michael Steele painfully reveals that eight months after his election the “leaders” in the party still aren’t communicating well with one another or trying to coordinate a unified agenda or message.
According to Politico, GOP Congressional leaders took issue with Chairman Michael Steele's attempts to present policies to the public without consulting them first. Last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Senate GOP conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, and Senate GOP policy Chairman John Thune met with Steele and told him bluntly to leave the policy making to them.
Steele defended himself and noted that when he traveled, he was tired of not having answers to questions about the GOP’s positions on a variety of issues. Afterwards, Sen. Alexander described the meeting to the press as “a good discussion” and claimed that Republican congressional leaders and Steele now “see eye to eye on it.” He added that “what he’s [Steele's] trying to do is correct.”
If Senator Alexander believes GOP leaders need to be the ones setting policy because they “are elected to set the policy,” then they need to start doing their job and include the RNC chairman in this process. In the absence of these “leaders” taking action, Steele tried to fill the void with some concrete answers such as his “healthcare bill of rights” rather than the party’s usual chords of discontent.
Steele is trying to lead but this meeting raises one very uncomfortable question, why as the first black chairman of the RNC is Steele on such “a short leash” within the organization and among congressional Republican leaders. He’s admittedly made some loose-lipped comments to the media and public but why won't the GOP establishment fully embrace him?
It’s a question that hangs like a cloud over Steele’s election and I can’t imagine it would be easy for him to do his job if he always has to second guess everything he does and says and constantly feels the GOP establishment looking over his shoulder. A prime example was a resolution passed in April which requires Steele to get approval for any expenditures over $100,000. This rule wasn’t imposed on previous chairmen. If the RNC and congressional Republicans gave Michael Steele an unfettered vote of confidence, I think we would see a different chairman emerge and the party would be better for it.
Right now, the GOP's lack of leadership on issues such as healthcare, improving the economy, job creation, etc. and has led to a motley crew of misfits (Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck) to fill the silence with meaningless, often offensive noise. This is the problem with the Republican Party, it lacks a well sculpted identity. Not a good position to be in leading up to the 2010 mid-term elections.
The party wisely elected the first black chairman of the RNC but in giving him no real power they embarrassingly make Steele look like a political prop and cast the Republican Party as a group of insufferable politicians who can’t be trusted. As I have often said in this forum, in addition to presenting the American people with fresh alternatives to Democratic policies, Republicans need to acknowledge the “other people” in the room and pitch the GOP tent to a wider audience. The party can’t go whiter to win because the votes aren’t there. White men are endangered species in the electorate. In 1952, they represented 47% of all voters and by 2004, their share shriveled to 34% and it’s still withering.
You can’t have a “Republican Renaissance” if you keep looking backwards. Perhaps the RNC and the GOP “leadership” should start including Michael Steele in their discussions and really recognize him as the chairman in the room. Maybe then the road to the 2010 mid-term elections could start looking like something positive for Republicans.