Michael Steele is 'bad,' but not in a good way...
Tony Norman
I'm beginning to think faux conservative Stephen Colbert is the only trustworthy presence on late night television these days. He consistently nails the pretentions of politicians and celebrities alike four nights a week on Comedy Central's never-less-than-hilarious "The Colbert Report." This week, Colbert challenged Republican National Committee Chairman Micahel Steele to a freestyle rap. Colbert is responding to Steele's plans to put the GOP through a "hip-hop" makeover.
"There's was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort zones," Steele told the Washington Times on Feb. 19. "We need messengers to really capture that region -- young, Hispanic, black, a cross section. We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings."
Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland is African-American, but that didn't stop him from pimping stereotypes about what blacks and other minorities look for in deciding which major political party to support. He promises that the strategy he will devise for the GOP going forward in appealing to blacks, Hispanics and young people will be "off the hook."
At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Steele said: "We know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad. But we go forward in appreciation of the values that brought us to this point." This encouraged Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachman, the most clueless white women in the U.S. Congress to respond to the chairman of her party with this gem of ebonic wisdom: "Micheal Steele! You be da man! You be da man!"
On ABC Radio Host Curtis Silwa's show this week, Steele sent out some "slum [dog millionaire] love" to his buddy, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who has been taking a pounding for his atrocious and condescending response to President Obama earlier this week. I know we just celebrated Darwin's 200th birthday, but is it necessary for the Republicans (best known for their Creationist proclivities) to evolve backwards in trying to appeal to a broader base? Why would Steele, a black man, single out Jindal's south Asian roots by making a connection between the American-born Indian America and the fictional film about the slums of Mumbai?
No wonder Colbert has challenged Michael Steele for the supremacy of the party. Steele doesn't have a clue of how to relate to the masses that elected Barack Obama the nation's first black president. Even more appalling, he doesn't have a clue about how to relate to the lost souls in his own party. The GOP doesn't need a hip-hop makeover. It needs a brain transplant. If Stephen Colbert usurps Steele's power, then at least the party will be in the hands of someone who knows how to get laughs on purpose. Michael Steele has set back the last 50 years of civil rights gains at least 75 years.