The new Bennetton GOP (?) Redux

[ryberg]

Well, look who's splashed all over the front of Politico, this morning...

Steele trap? GOP fears grow

The article inside leads off thusly:

A month after Michael Steele became the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee, key party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake — one that will make it even harder for them to take back power from the dominant Democratic Party.

Steadily becoming a dependable punch line, Steele has brushed back Rush Limbaugh, threatened moderate Republican senators, offered the “friggin’ awesome” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal some “slum love,” called civil unions “crazy” and promised more outreach to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” via an “off the hook” public relations campaign.

He even threw a shout-out to “one-armed midgets.”

That’s in just 30 days on the job — and that’s just the PR part.

On the organizational side, Steele does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director. Last week, one of the two men sharing the job of interim finance director was forced to resign.

For now, “the fourth floor,” as the RNC’s executive suite is known, is being run by a pair of consultants.

“There’s frustration that there’s no discipline, no planning,” said a well-known Republican consultant...

Steve

[ryberg]

Obama folks seizing on this:

Minority Leader Limbaugh
By David Plouffe
Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top: Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness, and they wanted a government -- and country -- that would put the middle class first.

Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal.

Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

Limbaugh, of course, told his radio listeners that he's rooting for President Obama to fail -- and hoping the president's ideas for bolstering our economy fail with him. For many Americans, hungry for leadership and cooperation, this sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. When Limbaugh reiterated the sentiment this weekend, hundreds of Republican conservatives cheered him on. But instead of rebuking the radio personality or charting their own course, Republican leaders in Washington are paralyzed with fear of crossing their leader...

Steve

[roni]

Rush Limbaugh less popular then Jeremiah Wright

But ya'll on the far right just keep on keeping on. Please do.

The bigger, the better, agreed Carville. “It’s great for us, great for him, great for the press,” he said of Limbaugh. “The only people he’s not good for are the actual Republicans in Congress.”

If Limbaugh himself were to coin a phrase for it, he might call it Operation Rushbo – an idea that started out simply enough but quickly proved to be deeply resonant by a rapid succession of events, say Democrats inside and outside the West Wing.

The seeds were planted in October after Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling company run by Carville and Greenberg, included Limbaugh’s name in a survey and found that many Americans just don’t like him.

“His positives for voters under 40 was 11 percent,” Carville recalled with a degree of amazement, alluding to a question about whether voters had a positive or negative view of the talk show host.

Paul Begala, a close friend of Carville, Greenberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they found Limbaugh’s overall ratings were even lower than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and William Ayers, the domestic terrorist and Chicago resident who Republicans sought to tie to Obama during the campaign.

Then came what Begala called “the tripwire.”

“I hope he fails,” Limbaugh said of Obama on his show four days before the president was sworn in. It was a time when Obama’s approval ratings were soaring, but more than that, polls showed even people who didn’t vote for him badly wanted him to succeed, coming to office at a time of economic meltdown.

Rush Job: Inside Dems' Limbaugh plan - Jonathan Martin - POLITICO.com

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by roni

Rush Limbaugh less popular then Jeremiah Wright

But ya'll on the far right just keep on keeping on. Please do.



Rush Job: Inside Dems' Limbaugh plan - Jonathan Martin - POLITICO.com

And STILL we have no significant commentary from the conservative contingent, here?!? Come on, guys -- Rush Limbaugh less popular than Jeremiah Wright, and no comment?!?!?

I'm sorry. Really, it's just that it is... well, literally in-credible, all this stuff.

Getting back to the other point, just try to imagine what kind of reaction there will be if the GOP fires Steele, their first black party chairman, right after we elect the first black president ever... And I'm not saying anything about whether it would be right or wrong. Forget about his skin color and just read the kind of things he's been saying and doing -- or not doing, as that article pointed out, even in seemingly basic administrative terms -- and you may have an excellent argument for firing him. (I mean if such is even possible -- no idea how that works in the party mechanics and so on.) I'm just saying, the truth is that the reaction would be very much a knowing, "I knew it -- I told you so" sort of nod, only serving to underscore the all-too-lily-white image of the party that's already rather firmly in place in the public eye...

Steve

[roni]

This from the Arena section of politico.com, which has comments from a wide range of people on the day's topic(s). One has to feel some empathy for the difficulty of Michael Steele's job.


Larry J. Sabato, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia:

Michael Steele:

Steele has an impossible task. He is expected to restore the health of a party that insists it isn't sick. He is expected to cater to the GOP's very conservative base--the ones who insist that Republicans lost the 2008 election because they weren't conservative enough--while simultaneously making the party more appealing to the moderates and independents who swing elections. These swing voters increasingly view the GOP as out of the mainstream on a variety of economic and social issues. Steele's gaffes, while embarrassing, pale in comparison to the Republicans' huge demographic, generational, technological, and ideological challenges.

[ryberg]

Click it!

Steve

[melliedee]

Hey, still no response from conservatives? What say you, is Limbaugh a party leader or not? If so, why? If not, why do your officials treat him like one?

[ryberg]

The little sidebar at that link, showing Republican comments and ensuing scrambling to apologize to Limbaugh, seems rather telling...

Steve

[roni]

Rush challenged President Obama to a debate. On Rush's show, he said.

Well, I would advise the President's representatives to respond thusly:

Sitting Presidents do not debate the leader of the Opposition party in the USA.

Sitting Presidents do debate the presidential candidate(s) of the opposing party(ies) during the election campaign, however.

If Rush wants to debate President Obama, he should run for the Republican party nomination for the 2012 Presidential election.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Hey, still no response from conservatives? What say you, is Limbaugh a party leader or not? If so, why? If not, why do your officials treat him like one?

STILL no response from conservatives? I think we have scared them all off.....

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by roni

Rush challenged President Obama to a debate. On Rush's show, he said.

Well, I would advise the President's representatives to respond thusly:

Sitting Presidents do not debate the leader of the Opposition party in the USA.

Sitting Presidents do debate the presidential candidate(s) of the opposing party(ies) during the election campaign, however.

If Rush wants to debate President Obama, he should run for the Republican party nomination for the 2012 Presidential election.

Brilliant!

[horizon200]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Hey, still no response from conservatives? What say you, is Limbaugh a party leader or not? If so, why? If not, why do your officials treat him like one?

Originally Posted by roni

Rush challenged President Obama to a debate. On Rush's show, he said.

Well, I would advise the President's representatives to respond thusly:

Sitting Presidents do not debate the leader of the Opposition party in the USA.

Sitting Presidents do debate the presidential candidate(s) of the opposing party(ies) during the election campaign, however.

If Rush wants to debate President Obama, he should run for the Republican party nomination for the 2012 Presidential election.

Originally Posted by Jacko

STILL no response from conservatives? I think we have scared them all off.....

Slow news day...this is insignificant...I am with Roni...He means nothing until he throws his hat in the ring...but I will not vote for him regardless of his platform...he's a schmuck.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by horizon200

Slow news day...this is insignificant...I am with Roni...He means nothing until he throws his hat in the ring...but I will not vote for him regardless of his platform...he's a schmuck.

But, how can he mean nothing if even the highest party leaders fall over themselves trying to kowtow to him?

Steve

[Just Lucky]

Originally Posted by ryberg

But, how can he mean nothing if even the highest party leaders fall over themselves trying to kowtow to him?

Steve

They say he was one of the driving forces behind putting Palin on the ticket.

He is sometimes mentioned as the top intellectual in the Republican party.

I won't vote for him either.

Surprising ain't it?

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by horizon200

Slow news day...this is insignificant...I am with Roni...He means nothing until he throws his hat in the ring...but I will not vote for him regardless of his platform...he's a schmuck.

Roni is going to throw his hat in the ring?