Oh well, another day and another attempt by Republicans to make political hay over some remarks about an unremarkable politician -- Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. I’ve known Steele for about 10 years and, trust me, he ain’t all that.
Sure, Steele is the first African American to win statewide in Maryland but he won with 11 percent of the black vote. That’s the same baseline of black support that Republican candidates get unless they do something stupid (and here). Republicans are playing the race card to try to drive a wedge between voters and Steele’s eventual Democratic opponent in the 2006 election.
On “Meet the Press” yesterday, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman dealt from the bottom of the deck with this parting shot:
Well, one thing I was surprised not to hear was the Democrats around the country, there's been an utter silence in response to what have been vicious and racist attacks on Michael Steel [sic] in Maryland. Michael Steel is the first statewide African-American--it's my state; I grew up in Maryland--the first statewide African-American ever elected. He's now running for the United States Senate. Yet, the Democratic Senate president called this man an Uncle Tom because he doesn't agree with him on issues. He's had racial epithets thrown at him. He's been derided on a Web site that the Democrats have. And while some Democrats in Maryland have criticized him, there's been utter silence from national Democrats on this important issue. I would hope on this morning's program that Chairman Dean would condemn this kind of racist and bigoted activity. It's wrong. I would also hope he'd condemn the following. There are a whole bunch of Democratic candidates and Republican candidates around the country. But Charles Schumer and the Democratic campaign committee chose one candidate to go after his credit report and engage in identity theft against them and that's Michael Steel, this African-American candidate in Maryland. I think we should be welcoming him to the process as I welcomed Mr. Mfume to the process and I think it's a mistake to make these attacks.
As Tim Russert noted, the real “mistake” was President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina:
But your whole program of reaching out to African-Americans to join the Republican Party was dealt a pretty serious setback with the way the federal government managed the whole response to Katrina, an image that has really been indelibly made into a black consciousness that somehow they were left behind in New Orleans.
Though I’m bored with Steele, I also know that Republicans believe if they repeat a Big Lie often enough, it’ll become conventional wisdom -- at least in the mainstream media. So, they’re using attacks against Steele -- real or imagined -- to try to convince their target audience of swing voters that the party of Katherine Harris and the Confederate flag is now as pure as the driven snow and that Democrats are the new racists who can't be trusted.
