Sean Mahoney and Michael Steele, Together Again

by: Dean Barker

Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 08:24:02 AM EDT

(Less blaring than the headlines is the simple fact that Mr. Mahoney cannot simultaneously run for congress and hold that position .  He announced a run very shortly after.)

Yet, Sean Mahoney and Michael Steele still have something in common.

After the full video was made known, and Shirley Sherrod cleared of the phony hit job that had destroyed her career, the former posted* on the website of the person who did it, and the latter is holding an RNC fundraiser with him.

* No, I'm not going to link.  You can search for it if you want; the datestamp on the post is  "Jul 21st 2010 at 8:43 am".

Replace Steele with Palin??

by: susanthe

Thu Jul 08, 2010 at 15:01:29 PM EDT

Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, is in trouble.

Yes, those words have been said before.  In fact, they have been said many times before.  But this time the chorus of those saying it's time for him to go is bigger and more vocal than ever.

Steele certainly does suffer from the foot-in-mouth syndrome. A lot of Republicans want him to disappear. Some are advocating a solution that is truly hilarious:

A Chairman Palin would help set the right tone for the Republican party without having to get herself entangled in the minutiae of policy-development, which has not been her forte.

Oh, please, please, please make this happen. I promise to be a good girl.  

Opposite Day

by: Douglas E. Lindner

Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 22:51:01 PM EDT

NYT: Michael Steele Criticized for Afghanistan Comments

WASHINGTON - Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, drew fierce criticism and a call for his resignation on Friday after declaring at a party fund-raiser that the United States was on the wrong side of history with its conflict in Afghanistan, a military fight he called "a war of Obama's choosing."

"It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be Afghanistan," Mr. Steele said, according to a video of his remarks that was circulated by Democrats on Friday. "Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?"

A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Brad Woodhouse, said Mr. Steele was "betting against our troops and rooting for failure in Afghanistan."

Though he speaks of calming the partisan divide, I don't blame President Obama for not being able to control his opponents' level of partisanship. But this is the DNC; that kind of rhetoric is emblematic of exactly what we have spent the past decade fighting, and it is beneath the Democratic Party.

Republican Party Boss Threatens Kelly Ayotte

by: Dean Barker

Thu Nov 05, 2009 at 15:26:59 PM EST

"We'll come after you."

-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an interview on Top Line, warning Republicans who support President Obama on economic stimulus or health care.

Catch Craig Benson protege Kelly Ayotte's promotion of a stimulus-funded program here.

NH-01, RNC impersonates census

by: hannah

Tue Oct 27, 2009 at 10:15:37 AM EDT

In 1960, any number of public officials didn't want the people they were supposed to serve counted, especially in the South.  So, one of the tricks they employed was to arrest the enumerator who was going door to door, preferably on a Friday afternoon, on a charge of "impersonating a census taker," and let him languish in jail over the weekend until the federal supervisor could be brought in on Monday to authenticate his employee.  No doubt, a weekend in jail was discouraging to some.  Which was why many neighborhoods had to be canvassed over and over again.

Now, almost fifty years later, the Republican National Committee has progressed.  Instead of charging enumerators with "impersonating a census taker," they're sending out documents to impersonate the census itself.  While, upon closer inspection, the overt purpose is to solicit monetary donations to promote the election of Republicans in 2010, the packet that arrived in the mail is so fraught with deceptions that it's hard to imagine what they're actually up to, or to know where to begin.  So, I'll just work from the outside in.

GOP Website-Unintentional Comedy

by: Jennifer Daler

Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 16:10:57 PM EDT

As I was surfing around some news sites, I came across this article from Columbia J-School's Daniel Sinker.

This was what got me:

My personal favorite part of the site? When Tiny Michael Steele comes strolling out from the right side of your browser window.

"Notice Anything Different?" he cries out, tiny hands pumping this way and that.

Why no, Mike, I didn't. Thanks for pointing it out.

I had to, absolutely had to have my own little Michael Steele prancing around my browser window. So I went here and there he was, although I had to press the "message from Michael Steele" button.

There was a photo of a young woman in June Cleaver pearls that changed into an Eva Longoria look-alike (kind of), then into other 20-something looking women.

In his Top Ten Reasons Why the GOP Weblaunch Site Is Fizzlin'" Marc Ambinder points out that the last GOP accomplishment on their accomplishments page was in 2004. And it was vouchers in DC. But before that,it lists "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the war based on lies that is still going on, the tax cuts for the rich that along with the war created ballooning debt and deficits, um, and "Operation Enduring Freedom" when we went into Afghanistan afer 9/11. And Osama Bin Laden was...where?

Then there's the historical snafu of claiming Jackie Robinson was a Republican when he was an Independent.

Sinker notices the graphics of "ethnics" atill have their clip-art "beta" on them

Techies will have even more fun exploring the site.

UPDATE (Dean): Did you know "Lt. Governor Tom Eaton" is a Democrat?  The new GOP does.  Hilarious!  (a really good catch by Pindell, who also has a screenshot for posterity).  

Inskeep Pwns Steele

by: Jennifer Daler

Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 10:09:56 AM EDT

INSKEEP: I'm still having a little  trouble with the notion that you're going to write that you're going to protect Medicare, that you're going to preserve this program to make sure that this government-run health care system stays solid in the long term...

Mr. STEELE: Let's get it to run right.

INSKEEP: ...and yet you are opposing quote, "government-run health care."

Mr. STEELE: Exactly. Well, wait a minute. Just because, you know, I want to protect something that's already in place and make it run better and run efficiently for the senior citizens that are in that system does not mean that I want to automatically support, you know, nationalizing or creating a similar system for everybody else in the country who currently isn't on Medicare.

Steele:... And sure, there are issues in the insurance market that we can regulate a little bit better and that we can control better to maximize the benefits to the consumers. That's something that, yeah, we can rightly reform and fix. If the...

INSKEEP: Wait a minute, wait, wait. You would trust the government to look into that?

Mr. STEELE: No. I'm talking about the - I'm talking about private - I'm talking about...

INSKEEP: Who is...

Mr. STEELE: ...citizens. I'm talking about...

INSKEEP: You said that's something that should be looked into. Who is it that should look into that?

Mr. STEELE: I'm talking about those who - well, who regulates the insurance markets?

INSKEEP: That would be the government, I believe.

You can also listen here

Good job Steve! (In the interest of full disclosure, I helped Steve make the audition tape for his first job in the WBGO news department.)

Fergus Cullen v. John H. Sununu: The Republican Infighting Continues

by: VABBY

Wed May 20, 2009 at 10:58:52 AM EDT

Fergus Cullen, the former NHGOP Chairman said of Sununu's flagrant disrespect for the GOP:

"It is unfortunate that New Hampshire is one of the states undermining the chairman of the RNC and challenging his authority," he said. "Some members prefer to act like a college debating society and argue about silly resolutions than to build a majority coalition that can win elections."

Cullen went on to say Sununu's behavior could jeopardize the Granite State's first-in-the-nation primary:

Cullen said national committee members should mostly worry about protecting the state's kick-off primary since getting "into fights with other members ... risks making enemies our state doesn't need."

"At a time when Republican voter registration has reached a 25-year low and national polls continue to show Democratic leaders enjoy widespread support, the GOP remains splintered because its party leaders, like John H. Sununu, have alienated moderates and moved their party dramatically to the right.  Between the rise in GOP defectors and John H. Sununu's blatant absenteeism, it's clear that the Republican Party has a long way to go before it is out of the woods," said NHDP Communications Director Victoria Bonney.

(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party)