Republicans Choose First Black Party Chairman
By ADAM NAGOURNEY (NY TIMES)
By ADAM NAGOURNEY (NY TIMES)
WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee chose Michael Steele, an African-American, as party chairman on Friday, putting a new face on a beleaguered party as it seeks the right posture to take on President Obama and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress.
The election of Mr. Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, means that both major political parties are being led by African-Americans. Mr. Steele is the first black chairman of his party, and his selection was particularly striking for Republicans, who have been criticized over the years as stirring racial animosities in an effort to build political coalitions, particularly in the South.
If history is any guide, Mr. Steele will be anything but a behind-the-scenes functionary, given that, with Republicans out of the White House and in the minority in Congress, the party has no dominant national figure.
Instead, he is likely to be, at least until the presidential race starts in two years, at the leading edge of his party as it makes its case against Mr. Obama.
Indeed, many Republicans said they were drawn to Mr. Steele because of his feisty public presence and television skills, and Mr. Steele made clear, from the moment he accepted the position after six rounds of voting that took up most of an afternoon, that he would move aggressively to take on the Democrats.
“It’s time for something completely different, and we’re going to bring it to them,” Mr. Steele said. “We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike: ‘We want you to be a part of us. We want you to be with us, and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ ”
Offering a hint of the tone he would take as his party’s spokesman, Mr. Steele said the Republican Party had been unfairly caricatured by Democrats “and the media” as racist and insensitive to the needs of ordinary Americans.
“We have an image problem,” he said. “I think how we begin to correct that image problem is defining ourselves to the people of this country.”
“We’ve been misidentified as a party that doesn’t care, a party that is insensitive, a party that is unconcerned about minorities,” he said, adding, “Nothing can be further from the truth.”
In deliberations that stretched over nearly five hours and six ballots, Republicans suggested that they saw selecting an African-American chairman as helpful in redefining the party’s image.
In a final ballot fraught with racial and political symbolism, Mr. Steele faced as his only remaining opponent Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina party, who had been criticized for belonging to a whites-only country club, a membership he resigned before this election began.
The party’s decision to step outside Washington also signaled the extent to which Republicans were looking to break with the recently departed president, George W. Bush. The incumbent chairman, Mike Duncan, who had been put into office by Mr. Bush, dropped out after the third ballot, acknowledging that he could not overcome party members’ concerns that it would be a mistake to put before the American public someone with such close ties to an unpopular administration.
Mr. Steele, 50, a lawyer, was notably reticent in offering criticism of Mr. Bush on Friday, even though he had been a sharp critic of the former president when running for the Senate from Maryland in 2006.
At the time, he appeared at a lunch with reporters where he agreed to be identified only as a Republican Senate candidate and proceeded to lambaste Mr. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and said the response to Hurricane Katrina was a “monumental failure.”
“It’s an impediment; it’s a hurdle I have to overcome,” he said of trying to be a Republican candidate in the political climate of that period in a Democratic-leaning state like Maryland. “I’ve got an R here, a scarlet letter.”
His remarks were recounted, according to the ground rules, in a humorous column in The Washington Post by Dana Milbank; within 24 hours, Mr. Steele acknowledged that he was the source of the remarks. He lost the election, 54 percent to 44 percent.
“The bottom line is the American people had lost faith in our leadership,” he said Friday in discussing what he had meant, adding: “That was then. This is now. This is a new moment for our party. We can take that scarlet badge off.”
Mr. Steele was one of two African-Americans among five candidates seeking the chairmanship. The other one, Ken Blackwell of Ohio, dropped out and endorsed Mr. Steele midway through the balloting. Mr. Steele made no mention of the historic nature of the moment in his acceptance speech, although he did in talking to reporters after the vote.
“I think this is a remarkable moment — some say it’s historic,” he said. “It’s just one more step, one more bold step, that the party of Lincoln has taken since its founding.”
And Mr. Steele suggested that he was looking forward to engaging Mr. Obama in the months ahead.
“I would say to the new president, ‘Congratulations, it’s going to be an honor to spar with him,’ ” he said.
He grinned and quoted the country singer Toby Keith as he added, “And I would follow that up with, ‘How do you like me now?’ ”
The election of Mr. Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, means that both major political parties are being led by African-Americans. Mr. Steele is the first black chairman of his party, and his selection was particularly striking for Republicans, who have been criticized over the years as stirring racial animosities in an effort to build political coalitions, particularly in the South.
If history is any guide, Mr. Steele will be anything but a behind-the-scenes functionary, given that, with Republicans out of the White House and in the minority in Congress, the party has no dominant national figure.
Instead, he is likely to be, at least until the presidential race starts in two years, at the leading edge of his party as it makes its case against Mr. Obama.
Indeed, many Republicans said they were drawn to Mr. Steele because of his feisty public presence and television skills, and Mr. Steele made clear, from the moment he accepted the position after six rounds of voting that took up most of an afternoon, that he would move aggressively to take on the Democrats.
“It’s time for something completely different, and we’re going to bring it to them,” Mr. Steele said. “We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike: ‘We want you to be a part of us. We want you to be with us, and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ ”
Offering a hint of the tone he would take as his party’s spokesman, Mr. Steele said the Republican Party had been unfairly caricatured by Democrats “and the media” as racist and insensitive to the needs of ordinary Americans.
“We have an image problem,” he said. “I think how we begin to correct that image problem is defining ourselves to the people of this country.”
“We’ve been misidentified as a party that doesn’t care, a party that is insensitive, a party that is unconcerned about minorities,” he said, adding, “Nothing can be further from the truth.”
In deliberations that stretched over nearly five hours and six ballots, Republicans suggested that they saw selecting an African-American chairman as helpful in redefining the party’s image.
In a final ballot fraught with racial and political symbolism, Mr. Steele faced as his only remaining opponent Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina party, who had been criticized for belonging to a whites-only country club, a membership he resigned before this election began.
The party’s decision to step outside Washington also signaled the extent to which Republicans were looking to break with the recently departed president, George W. Bush. The incumbent chairman, Mike Duncan, who had been put into office by Mr. Bush, dropped out after the third ballot, acknowledging that he could not overcome party members’ concerns that it would be a mistake to put before the American public someone with such close ties to an unpopular administration.
Mr. Steele, 50, a lawyer, was notably reticent in offering criticism of Mr. Bush on Friday, even though he had been a sharp critic of the former president when running for the Senate from Maryland in 2006.
At the time, he appeared at a lunch with reporters where he agreed to be identified only as a Republican Senate candidate and proceeded to lambaste Mr. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and said the response to Hurricane Katrina was a “monumental failure.”
“It’s an impediment; it’s a hurdle I have to overcome,” he said of trying to be a Republican candidate in the political climate of that period in a Democratic-leaning state like Maryland. “I’ve got an R here, a scarlet letter.”
His remarks were recounted, according to the ground rules, in a humorous column in The Washington Post by Dana Milbank; within 24 hours, Mr. Steele acknowledged that he was the source of the remarks. He lost the election, 54 percent to 44 percent.
“The bottom line is the American people had lost faith in our leadership,” he said Friday in discussing what he had meant, adding: “That was then. This is now. This is a new moment for our party. We can take that scarlet badge off.”
Mr. Steele was one of two African-Americans among five candidates seeking the chairmanship. The other one, Ken Blackwell of Ohio, dropped out and endorsed Mr. Steele midway through the balloting. Mr. Steele made no mention of the historic nature of the moment in his acceptance speech, although he did in talking to reporters after the vote.
“I think this is a remarkable moment — some say it’s historic,” he said. “It’s just one more step, one more bold step, that the party of Lincoln has taken since its founding.”
And Mr. Steele suggested that he was looking forward to engaging Mr. Obama in the months ahead.
“I would say to the new president, ‘Congratulations, it’s going to be an honor to spar with him,’ ” he said.
He grinned and quoted the country singer Toby Keith as he added, “And I would follow that up with, ‘How do you like me now?’ ”
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