Can you remember back just over one year ago when the Republicans were electing the chair of the Republican National Committee? The last three choices came down to Michael Steele, the guy who was a member of an all-white country club and the guy who sent the “Barack the Magic Negro” song to his buddies for Christmas. Out of that bunch, Steele looked like the best choice.
In the subsequent year Steele has said some very silly things, spent a lot of time enriching himself (remember the book he published that the Republican leadership had no idea he was working on), mismanaged money in the most embarrassing manner (lesbian sex bondage clubs) and just been generally incompetent. Democrats love him!
Steele is defending himself by claiming Republicans don’t like him because of race:
For his part, Steele spoke to George Stephanopoulos for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and the RNC leader said he would not step down from his post. Steele went on to say that race likely plays a factor in his on-the-job difficulties.
“The honest answer is, ‘yes,'” he said on “Good Morning America” today. “Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play and that’s just the reality of it. But you just take that as a part of the nature of it.”
This has the potential to make matters worse. Steele has plenty of detractors in Republican circles, and if they believe Steele is accusing them of racially-motivated criticism, they’re likely to push back aggressively.