Despite pressure from the right wing, ABC says it will not allow the Republican National Committee to run a series of Obama-bashing ads during the network’s healthcare special next week. Brushing aside criticism that the special would be nothing but an Obama healthcare infomercial, an ABC spokeswoman said, “ABC Television Network has a longstanding policy that we do not accept advocacy advertising.” Read more.

Steele Accused of Hiring Friends
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, who rules over a divided GOP, is being accused by a leading conservative newspaper of stacking his staff with friends and family and guaranteeing them salaries far greater than that of their predecessors. The Washington Times reported this week that when Steele agreed to become chairman, he brought along his longtime personal assistant, Belinda Cook, and paid her almost three times what the previous chairman’s assistant had earned. Then, according to the Times, Cook’s son landed a gig at the Republican National Committee. Steele then hired another family friend, Angela Sailor, to be the party’s outreach director, paying her a salary of $180,000, “more than double her predecessor’s compensation, though new responsibilities have been added to the job,” according to the Times. The newspaper, which is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, is known for its conservative stances on political and social issues. Moon once said that “The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world.”  FOX News, another conservative media outlet, also broadcast a report about Steele’s hiring practices. In that story, FOX interviewed Hawaii’s Republican chief, Willis Lee. “These salaries we hear about are way out of line for what staff should be paid for working for a political party, which most of us think of as a cause,” said Hawaii Republican Party Chairman Willis Lee. “And if certain staff at the national committee are making that much, then the public understandably might think they are examples of cronyism.” The Republican Party, which has had a longtime reputation of dissing Black voters, hasn’t quite figured out how to size up its new leader, the first African American to hold the post. Some party members were strongly against his appointment, arguing that he was not a true conservative. The former lieutenant governor of Maryland has expressed support for a women’s right to choose an abortion and bucked the longstanding party line by suggesting that gay people do not choose to be homosexual. He has since recanted those comments. In recent months, he has endured barbs from conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who casts himself as a true conservative and Steele as the wrong person to lead the Republican Party.

Michael Steele said that he’s “done” reaching out to Barack Obama, adding that the nation’s first Black president seems to have a problem with him in his role as the first Black head of the Republican Party. Speaking to CNN over the weekend, Steele said that Obama “has got a little thing about me that I haven’t quite figured out.” Read more.

By Ed Wiley III
 
Surely, Michael Steele had a completely different expectation of what it would be like to break through the ultimate glass ceiling and become the HBIC – the Head Brother in Charge – of the GOP. After all, he likely pondered, the Democrats had gotten an HBIC of their own, and they lifted him up as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. But when Obama ascended to his party’s throne, there wasn’t a 300-pound shock jock with a boat load of money and a following of 20 million listeners already heating the cushion. So the challenge for Steele has been to figure out a way to wrest the reins of power from that shock jock, Rush Limbaugh, who is proving much more formidable than Steele ever could have imagined. Click for the full story.

Michael Steele should resign, fellow party member says. The first Black Republican National Committee chairman can’t get a break these days. Not from radio propagandist Rush Limbaugh and not even from one of three fellow Black Republicans on the 168-member committee. North Carolina’s Ada Fisher recently e-mailed members of Steele’s staff asking that the former Maryland lawmaker “step aside in the best interest of the party and let us elect another chairman.” Fisher says she has “never seen such ineptness in our GOP leadership,” despite Steele’s chairmanship having lasted for only weeks. She also criticized Steele’s public back-and-for with Limbaugh over who leads the party these days. Steele called himself the “de facto” leader after Limbaugh suggested there was a lack of vision. He later backed down from his comments and praised Limbaugh.

The feud between Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and talk-show radio host Rush Limbaugh isn’t really a fight at all. After all, they’re as cozy as two bugs in a rose bud when it comes to conservative issues. But all the snuggling stops when the issue shifts to whom the party should crown as the official message deliverer. Read on.

 Hold on! So who’s really leading the Republican Party these days? This past weekend, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel insisted that Rush Limbaugh – the bombastic, liberal-baiting, Obama-hating shock jock – is the heart and soul of the conservative movement in America. Emanuel’s comments came a day after Limbaugh repeated to a GOP gathering that he hopes Obama fails in his efforts to reform the economy and transform American politics. But Michael Steele, the bona fide leader of the Republican Party, isn’t feeling Limbaugh, or those responsible for crowning the radio host king of the right wing. “I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party,” Steele snapped to CNN on Sunday. “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh’s whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it is incendiary. Yes, it is ugly.” Read Limbaugh’s response and Steele’s apology attempt.

  The Republican Party, refusing to be outdone by their staunch political rivals, landed a Black head honcho of their own. They chose former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to lead the Republican National Committee, bumping out the incumbent chairman and three other challengers. He’s the first African American to head the GOP. “As a little boy growing up in this town, this is awesome,” said Steele, who has been outspoken about his party’s failure to reach out. “We’re going to say to friend and foe alike: We want you to be a part of us, we want you to with be with us, and for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over,” Steele said. It took six rounds of voting before Steele was able to capture the victory.

Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele has been elected Chairman of the Republican Party. On a sixth ballot, Steele won 91 to 77 over South Carolina Republican Party chairman Katon Dawason. “It’s time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them,” said Steele, who ran for Maryland’s U.S. Senate in 2006. He is the first African American to hold the position. Another African American, Ohio’s Ken Blackwell, ran for the GOP top spot but dropped out after the fifth ballot.

Do you think Republicans elected the best man or are they just responding to Barack Obama’s win on the Democratic side?

Steele: My Party Don’t Care About Blacks One of the candidates hoping to lead the Republican Party says that the GOP “don’t give a damn” about Blacks, according to a report in the conservative newspaper The Washington Times. Republican Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, accused his party of “rolling out” token Black members as a way to lure African Americans into the GOP. “We’ve had this conversation for 15 years,” Steele said after the debate, “about bringing Black folks out. Well, do it. Don’t just talk about it. Do it.” The argument is ironic coming from Steele, because for the past several years he has been the loudest voice in conservative politics warning Blacks that the Democratic Party had systematically taken advantage of them. Speaking on FOX News in 2004, Steele said, “African-Americans are doing something that the Republican Party has asked them to do. …Don’t give your vote over to the Al Sharptons and the Reverend Jacksons and all the other folks who are advocating on behalf of Kerry just because.” Now, just two weeks before the Republican National Committee picks its next chief, Steele is looking like a realistic choice. But, since the Democrats have now elected an African-American president, the taken-for-granted contention is finding little traction.