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Posted on 08/25/2012 10:26:37 PM PDT by smoothsailing
August 26, 2012
Byron York
TAMPA — Republicans gathered at the University Club in downtown Tampa Saturday night to honor GOP chairman Reince Priebus. The event was sponsored by the Wisconsin delegation, which of course represents Priebus’ home state, and the Mississippi delegation, home of former governor and former RNC chairman Haley Barbour. There were several major players there: Priebus himself, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Ron Johnson, Barbour and nephew Henry Barbour, former Virginia governor and former RNC chair Jim Gilmore, former chair Mike Duncan, and others.
With the presence of Priebus, Barbour, Gilmore, and Duncan, the event featured the current and three former chairmen of the party. But there was one very recent chairman who was nowhere to be found, and whose name didn’t come up: Michael Steele.
Steele was chairman when the party selected Tampa as the site of its 2012 convention. Steele was chairman when the GOP came roaring back after defeats in 2006 and 2008 to pick up 63 seats to gain control of the House in 2010, and also to gain six seats to greatly strengthen its position in the Senate. In addition, during Steele’s time in office, Republicans won key governorships in New Jersey and Virginia.
But at the University Club, Steele was not only not there; he wasn’t noted or referenced. In public remarks, no one said anything bad about him, and no one said anything good about him. He just didn’t exist.
“I have not been invited to the convention at all,” Steele says. “Their view is, the less we talk about him, we don’t invite him, we ignore him — it just didn’t happen. But those 63 seats in the House did happen. They may want to ignore me, but they don’t want to ignore what I did. It’s just sad.”
“I would have loved to have been there to salute the work of the party and see former chairmen,” Steele adds. “But I guess I’m not a member of that club.”
As it happens, Steele is in Tampa, but only, he says, in his role as an analyst on MSNBC. He won’t be attending any events in his role as former chairman.
In addition to the party’s electoral victories, Steele also left the RNC with a huge debt, and a number of Republican insiders accuse him of leaving the party in a terrible mess. “That’s a bunch of bulls–t,” says Steele. Other chairmen have also left debt, he says, and other members of the RNC concurred in the expenses that led to the Steele-era debt. “It’s just annoying as hell,” Steele says of the talk. “You get a little sick of the bulls–t after a while.” Priebus was a close Steele deputy at the time, but to say the two men have had a falling out is an understatement.
Asked about Steele’s situation, an RNC source noted that most past party chairmen are also part of their state’s delegations to the Tampa convention, and are thus part of events here. But the source did not specifically explain Steele’s absence.
Whatever bad blood exists privately, it is remarkable that the GOP’s most recent chairman has no role at all in the convention whose planning he initiated. He’s also the man who was in charge when the party won smashing victories in the most recent mid-term elections. And he didn’t gain power in a coup; he was elected chairman by a majority of members of the RNC. Finally, Steele is the party’s only black chairman at a time when Republicans are particularly worried about their continuing difficulties in attracting minority voters. Why not have him play some public role in the convention? And if there are still hard feelings — well, it would hardly be the first time that people who didn’t like each other joined hands and smiled in front of the crowds.
“Can we just say I’m part of the party,” asks Steele, “a leader of the party, and still an asset to the party?”
He made a deal with the devil. Let him revel in his contract and be discarded with the rest of them.
My my, isn't that special.
Steele sold his soul when he decided he would start his commentating career and started making just stupid comments
Steele was the one of the first black Pubbies’ to be shown the racist side of Dumocraps when he was pelted with Oreos..literally. Aside from that, he just sucked being the RNC head and got voted prez due to white guilt-ridden GOP-Ers.
yup. I was hoping that the GOP would have had the sense to pick Ken Blackwel instead but noooooo
Thank God we have Priebus and not Steele this time.
First good news out of RNC in years!
Steele is at MSNBC? That explains why I haven’t seen him in ages and why he doesn’t exist. No one sees him.
Grand old GOP loyalty at play again. I guess the GOP’s upset that Steele didn’t marginalize the Tea Party enough. Left them a lot of catch-up work to do like redistricting Allen West out of existence and banning him and other real conservatives like Palin and Gingrich from the convention.
The successes of 2010 were due to 1 - Obama.2 - the tea party. Steele was a bystander. Preibus accepted the tea party in Wis. That’s why he’s chairman and partly why Ryan is VP selection.
Steele was a walking, breathing gaffe
Steele should not feel bad. A better man than him who did more for Conservatism than Steele could ever dream of,was not invited either. Of course, I am talking about Sarah Palin who has more testosterone than Team Mittens and all the Pubbie elite snobs put together.
And now he can't keep his mouth shut. He's gotta whine to the press about being mistreated cuz’ no one will talk to him. I'm sure it's your skin color...couldn't be because you were a train wreck of a chairman.
RNC spends nearly $2,000 at sex-themed Voyeur nightclub
Steele can KMA.
Sarah Palin was invited and offered a speech during primetime and declined according to the party chair's interview with Mark Levin.
This is consistent with Palin's statements (on Greta talking about Akin) and activities on behalf of contenders down-ballot races--she'll be in Arizona.
This is consistent with Palin's statements (on Greta talking about Akin) and activities on behalf of contenders down-ballot races--she'll be in Arizona.
Hmmm.
LOL
You are the first black chairman and Sarah Palin is the first woman nominated as the GOP VP.
The one that did nothing during the mid-terms is calling all the shots and he does not like black people or women and that person is that lowlife scumbag
ROMNEY. And no Sarah Palin was not invited the convention.
Preibus is a lowlife scum and looks the part too.
Michael Steele not only proved himself to be an ineffectual spokesman, he was afflicted with a serious case of foot in mouth disease which plagued his entire chairmanship. His appointment reflected the vacuousness of the Republican Party which began with the second term of the Bush administration. The victories of 2010 were accomplished not under the guidance of Michael Steele but in spite of his unfocused and even chaotic leadership by the spontaneous upwelling of the Tea Party.
His appointment was all the more unfortunate at the time because the Republican Party controlled no branch of the federal government having lost The House as well as the Senate and the White House. This meant that the party chairman would have to play a very prominent role as a counterpoint to the president, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Speaker of the House. We chose a spokesperson because of his color rather than his forensic skills.
He not only fell short in the public arena but in the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts business of raising money and rebuilding the party as well.
Many of us pleaded time and again on this forum for his removal.
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