Joe Ricketts, founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, is the billionaire behind this latest attack. The Obama-Biden campaign address the proposal in emails sent out to supports, claiming that it shows in “vivid and gruesome detail what the President and all of us are up against.”

Unsurprisingly, they plan to paint the president as “slick” and “cocky,” which amount to nothing more than an update of the “celebrity” and elitist” jargon of  ’08. And because people “still aren’t ready to hate this president” they need a token, an “extremely literate conservative African-American” so Africans-Americans don’t think they’re racists.

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Anyone remember Michael Steele and his Hip-Hopping debacle as chairman of the Republican National Committee? How did that work out for you, Republican strategists?

According to the campaign literature, we should expect to see images of the POTUS juxtaposed with Pastor Jeremiah Wright, the September 11th attacks (they forget that was on Bush 43′s watch) and other hot button imagery to remind us that Obama is out to “destroy America.”

The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, reports the Times.

“Joe Ricketts is prepared to spend significant resources in the 2012 election in both the presidential race and Congressional races,” said Brian Baker, president and general counsel of a super PAC called the Ending Spending Action Fund. “He is very concerned about the future direction of the country and plans to take a stand.”

There are three things that it might behoove the GOP ‘Super PAC’ and Republican “strategists” to remember:

1.) African-Americans are not a monolith. Those who support the president have their reasons, as do those who oppose him. Bringing up trivial, insulting language with the primary purpose of race-baiting is going to back-fire. Hard.

2.) Nothing you say or do is going to make President Obama look worse than Mitt Romney. Maybe you should spend your time in that corner teaching him how to remember what exactly it is that he stands for.

3.) You’re attacking a president who allegedly raked in over $1,000,000 within 90 minutes of his announcement that he supports marriage equality and $15,000,000 the next evening at a fundraiser at the home of Hollywood superstar, George Clooney. Bottom line: You need more people.

Oh, and President Abe Lincoln was Black — so there is no need to add the racial qualifier before his name.

As usual, I have to wonder if these “strategists” are actually undercover Democrats, because nothing that the Obama campaign could do would make them look more foolish than they already do.

SEE ALSO:

Obama’s Patronizing Visit To ‘The View’

10 Tips For Black Men Pulled Over By Police

The race for the Republican nomination is full steam ahead. The Iowa caucus weeded out Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and made Rick Santorum a credible contender, even though he lost — just by eight votes. With a win in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney may be pulling away from the rest of the GOP presidential candidates.

Former RNC Chairman, Michael Steele joined Roland Martin on the set of Washington Watch to discuss the GOP presidential race, Santorum’s “Blah People” comments and more.

During the skit Golden said: “And now a translation for the EIB brothers and sisters in the hood. Yeah, what up, my homeys? Check it out, yo. El Paso. Obama blazed up in there like a total O.G. and they took it to them Republicans like Team Six took it to Osama, up all in their grill dog, double tapped him, told ‘em the border under control, yo. We puppies ain’t gonna chill till they get a moat with some gators to keep those Mexies out, which, you know, a’ight, a’ight, I feel that. But, but, you know, there’s some’ about this that just ain’t — ain’t — ain’t right…..”

“I thought it was highly inappropriate,” Steele said. “It is stupid. It’s not something that furthers the conversation.”

Read The Whole Story

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Open Letter To Michael Steele, Drop The Slang And Stand Up To Racism

Steele Apologizes to Limbaugh: Rush’s Takeover of GOP Complete

“I know exactly how Caesar felt,” Steele says, without a hint of irony. “It is what it is.” He claims that Priebus had been planning to defect for six, seven, eight months before announcing a bid for the chairmanship. Steele was blindsided. “I trust my friends. Well, I guess the adage is right. In Washington, you should get a dog…We put a lot of resources in Wisconsin over the last two years…that’s what you do for [the] team.”

Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

Washington — After bowing out of the reelection race, former RNC chairman, Michael Steele had an interview with Hardball’s Chis Matthews and discussed the lack of African Americans in the Republican Party. The Hill reports:

What I tried to do [as chairman] was to broaden the landscape over which we could play, go into neighborhoods where we needed to be in, but hadn’t been in generations, and I think it made a difference,” he said, citing the election of African-American Reps. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Allen West (R-Fla.).

After “Hardball” host Chris Matthews noted he rarely saw groups of blacks congregating at Republican conventions, Steele replied with his usual candor. “We could have used a few more brothers in the house, there’s no doubt about that.”

Steele lost his bid for a second term as RNC chairman on Friday, with Reince Priebus emerging as the new party chief after seven rounds of balloting.

Looking ahead, Steele predicted the president would maintain the tone of his recent speech in Tucson in the upcoming State of the Union address.
“It’s an opportunity for the administration to lay out an agenda,” he said.

Read The Whole Story

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Source: Michael Steele Took Deal For Endorsement

Michael Steele Bows Out Of RNC Chairman Election

Steele got a standing ovation after his announcement following a rocky two-year tenure that saw Republicans notch huge victories last fall.

After four rounds of voting, Reince Priebus (Ryns Pree’-bus) was leading. Cino, Ann Wagner and Saul Anuzis also were competing.

Steele got a standing ovation after his announcement following a rocky two-year tenure that saw Republicans notch huge victories last fall.

After four rounds of voting, Reince Priebus (Ryns Pree’-bus) was leading. Cino, Ann Wagner and Saul Anuzis also were competing.

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Opposition To Michael Steele Mounts, Race Rearing Ugly Head

RNC Chairman Steele Seeks Second Term, Shocking GOP Insiders

GOP Chairman Michael Steele is fighting for survival atop the Republican National Committee, seeking to hold off four challengers accusing him of financial mismanagement and poor stewardship during his rocky, two-year tenure.

The 168 members of the RNC were set to vote by secret ballot Friday on who should serve as party chairman during the 2012 presidential election cycle, when Republicans will try to defeat President Barack Obama. Eighty-five votes are needed for victory.

Steele, who shocked many fellow Republicans by deciding to seek a second term, registered some level of public support as the RNC’s winter meeting convened this week. But many committee members were keeping their intentions private and several rounds of votes are expected, making it impossible to predict the outcome.

The victor will face an RNC debt $15 million to $20 million or more and demoralized donors who are frustrated with Steele’s management.

Among Steele’s challengers are:

-Reince Priebus, the Wisconsin Republican Party chairman who ran Steele’s chairmanship bid in 2009. He broke with Steele to run against him and has the backing of several GOP insiders. Priebus argues that fixing the RNC’s finances is a top priority; critics accuse him of ignoring the money problem when he was close to Steele.

-Maria Cino, a New York native and a veteran party operative who served in the Bush administration and was a top planner of the 2008 Republican nominating convention. She has cast herself as a turn-around specialist when it comes to fixing troubled national party organizations.

-Ann Wagner, a former Missouri state GOP chair who was an RNC co-chairwoman from 2001 to 2005 and was once an ambassador under George W. Bush. She argues that the RNC is broken and needs to completely re-evaluate how it operates.

-Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who lost to Steele two years ago. Savvy with social networking, Anuzis argues that the RNC must be competitive on the technology front to have a chance at toppling Obama.

Steele, the brash former lieutenant governor of Maryland whose tenure has been marked by financial woes and verbal missteps, argues that he should be elected because of the GOP’s record of coast-to-coast victories last fall, including winning control of the House, while he was chairman.

He doesn’t mention that Republican operatives formed a network of outside groups that adopted traditional national party functions out of a concern about the RNC’s ability under Steele to raise money and deploy resources to key races.

The GOP seems both anxious and angry that Steele is hinting at using his Blackness as an issue during the race, a move that could very well hurt the RNC heading into 2012 by hampering its ability to attract growing minority demographics.

And despite an electoral tsunami on Nov. 2 and a majority in the House, Republicans find themselves heading into 2011 with a party apparatus in disarray. At the center of it is Steele, the party’s first African American chair and a former Lieutenant Governor plucked by the GOP establishment as a counterweight to the election of the first Black President. Now, to the chagrin of that same establishment and an assorted chorus of high profile partisans looking to change direction, Steele has announced plans to run for a second term.

Read more at Politic365.com

Washington — Uncertainty reigns in the race for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee despite the election being less than a month away.

Conversations with a number of strategists close to the RNC – and its 168 voting members – suggest that none of the six candidates in the running are anywhere close to securing the 85 votes needed to claim the chairmanship.

Read entire article at WashingtonPost.com

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The RNC Chairman used the term to describe Indiana Committeeman Jim Bopp, Jr., a longtime RNC member and vocal critic of Steele, after Bopp suggested last week that Steele was “playing the race card” in his re-election bid. Bopp was bothered by Steele’s remarks during a conference call with RNC members to announce his bid for a second term, in which Steele said that his re-election would “speak volumes about our willingness to truly be the party of Lincoln.”

Asked about Bopp’s comment during an appearance on WBAL radio, Steele responded: “Well, Mr. Bopp is an idiot. If he took that away from, and I don’t want to be crass and I don’t want to throw stones at him but I just think that’s an idiotic statement to make.” Steele added that Bopp is bitter because he had a consulting contract with the RNC that was terminated.

Watch Steele’s Idiot Comment:

The exchange sent Gentry Collins rushing to Bopp’s defense on Tuesday. Collins, who served as the RNC’s political director under Steele before launching his own campaign for the chairmanship earlier this month, questioned Steele’s “temperament” and said the remark suggests “a complete lack of discipline demonstrating an unfitness for leadership of a national political party.”

“It’s no wonder major donors have been abandoning the RNC in record numbers,” Collins said Tuesday. “When the Chairman engages in name-calling of members of his own committee, he diminishes the RNC, the office of Chairman, and himself. For the good of the Committee, he should publicly apologize to Mr. Bopp. I’ve known and worked with Jim Bopp both on the committee and on campaigns – it would be hard to find a more principled leader in our Party. Mr. Steele should be thanking him for his service, not slandering him over the public airwaves.”

Read entire article at CNN.com

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Current RNC Chair Michael Steele is giving an indication that he wants a second term but members of the GOP are saying that he should not get the job. Republicans are setting up a scoring system called the 13-point “Leadership Criteria” test to determine if potential candidates line up with Republican principles.
VIDEO:

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Kanye West surprises Delta
passengers with an impromptu performance [from TheUrbanDaily.com]

Michael Jackson and Akon
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Kim Kardashian &
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Did Kanye choke
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Republicans did not do well in amongst African-Americans and Hispanics in the midterm elections. 95 percent of Black women voted for Democrats. 88 percent of Black men voted for Democrats and more than 60 percent of Hispanics voted for Democrats.

Even in Nevada, where Sharron Angle was believed to be beating Sen. Harry Reid, he took 90 percent of the Latino vote.

What can Republicans do to engage minority voters and garner support for GOP candidates?

WATCH: GOP Continues To Have Problems Engaging Minorities

On Revernd Al Sharpton’s nationally syndicated radio show “Keeping It Real,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was less than confident when asked about his future as the Republican chair.

“Well…we’ll see how it goes,” Chairman Steele responded to a direct question. “I’ve told them that they will get used to my leadership.”

To the idea that if Steele does lose his post, he will be the first African-American in government or elsewhere to lose a position after doing a good job, Sharpton offered jokingly to “march for him,” to which Steele responded with a nervous laugh: “Well, that would be very interesting.”

RELATED:

McCain hints Steele should resign as RNC chair

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“Oh, if I run, I’m going to win,” Steele said in an interview for the POLITICO video series.

VIDEO:

Steele said he has told committee members, “Yeah, I’m thinking about it, and I’ll let people know what I’m doing.

“I’m not playing coy or cute,” Steele added. “I’m going to assess and evaluate what I think the party needs based on how we do this week, where I think the party needs to go based on how we do this upcoming week, what additional work still needs to be done.”

Steele, 52, a lawyer and former Maryland lieutenant governor, was elected the party’s first African-American chairman on Jan. 30, 2009, when the GOP was gasping for air after the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Read entire article at Politico.com

Michael Steele was recently asked about Newt Gincgrich’s comment that President Barack Obama had a “kenyan, anti-colonial worldview and defended Newt’s comment, saying he did not see any racism or race baiting with the statement.

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Michael Steele has failed miserably to do the things you’re supposed to do: raise money, basically go out and articulate a message

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OPINION: Steele Is Trapped Behind Bad Timing & A Big Mouth

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From CNN.com:

Conservative activist and blogger Andrew Breitbart will headline a fundraiser this August hosted by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in Beverly Hills.

A Republican National Committee spokesperson confirmed to CNN a report in Talking Points Memo, which also published a copy of the event invitation.

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The Sad Shirley Sherrod “Snookering” Sage

From: Washingtontimes.com:

The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months – a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine.

In a memo to RNC budget committee members, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen on Tuesday accused Chairman Michael S. Steele and his chief of staff, Michael Leavitt, of trying to conceal the information from him by ordering staff not to communicate with the treasurer – a charge RNC officials deny.

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Michael Steele Names His Blog “What Up”

Michael Steele Said He “Ain’t Going Nowhere” After Afghan War

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. – In his first public remarks since his widely condemned comments on Afghanistan, Republican Party chairman Michael Steele said Thursday he “ain’t goin’ anywhere” despite calls for his resignation.

Steele’s appearance before Colorado Republicans was his first since he came under fire last week from within the GOP for calling the nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan a mistaken “war of Obama’s choosing.” The gaffe prompted criticism of Steele’s leadership, and some calls to resign.

“Every time something happens, people say, ‘Oh, you should step down. You should step down.’ The reality is, that’s not happening, so stop the noise on that,” Steele told about 100 volunteers and state GOP leaders.

Steele added that stepping down from his post is a bad idea with November’s general election just a few months away. “We have too much work to do,” he said.

Although he didn’t apologize for his Afghanistan comment, Steele affirmed his support for the war effort and told the crowd he is “foursquare, 1,000 percent with these troops on the ground … and that should’ve been very, very clear.”

He also joked about his outspoken nature, referring to it as his “individuality.”

That individuality, he said, “you know, from time to time gets me in a little trouble, but that’s OK, we understand how that works,” Steele said to laughter from the volunteers.

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In his remarks captured July 1 on camera and posted online, Steele criticized President Barack Obama and his handling of the Afghan war and suggested it can’t be won. Republican officials later confirmed Steele made the comments at a Connecticut fundraiser, which was closed to the news media.

“If he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed,” Steele said in the remarks last week. “And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”

“This was a war of Obama’s choosing,” Steele said. “This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”

Since the remarks, Steele has drawn sharp criticism from within the GOP, including calls for his resignation from some prominent conservatives. Responding to that, he issued a statement stressing his support for U.S. troops but did not acknowledge his factual error about a war launched by former President George W. Bush in response to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Steele’s gaffe was not his first. In the last year, he predicted the GOP won’t win House control this fall and criticized fellow Republicans in a book that party leaders didn’t know he was writing until it was published.

Republican Rep. Mike Coffman, who attended the Colorado event Thursday, was asked by reporters about Steele’s Afghanistan comment and said, “I certainly wasn’t happy about it.” But after a private meeting with Steele, Coffman said he supports him staying in place.

“I think he should stay on. He gave me the confidence he can lead this party forward,” said Coffman, who served with the Marines in Iraq, but added that Steele is charged with running the GOP, not making national defense decisions.

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Steele: Afghanistan Is “War Of Obama’s Choosing”

From TheGrio.com:

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

Once again RNC Chairman Michael Steele has taken his rhetoric a bit too far. Last Thursday while speaking at a Republican fundraiser Steele said he found the dismissal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal “comical.” Steele went on to say “Keep in mind … this was a war of Obama’s choosing, ….This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in … the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan …Everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed, …”

As a result of these comments Chairman Steele has come under heavy fire from within the Republican Party. Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol among others has called for Steele’s resignation. “I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican Party.” Sometimes, as with Steele, the problem is the messenger and the message.

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Amiri Baraka Calls Michael Steele A “Real Public Coon” At Black Writers Conference

Steele: Afghanistan Is “War Of Obama’s Choosing”

GOP Chairman Michael Steele: “I’ve Made Mistakes”

WASHINGTON — The embattled head of the GOP isn’t getting an endorsement from Sen. John McCain.

McCain says party chairman Michael Steele’s recent comments about the Afghanistan war are “wildly inaccurate” and inexcusable.

The Arizona Republican says Steele needs to assess whether he can still function in his job and must make “an appropriate decision” about his future.

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At a recent GOP fundraiser, Steele called the U.S. commitment of troops in Afghanistan a mistaken “war of Obama’s choosing.”

The war began after the Sept. 11 attacks, when George W. Bush was president. McCain tells ABC’s “This Week” that it’s “America’s war and we can’t afford to fail.”

Some Republicans want Steele to resign because of his remarks.

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Steele: Afghanistan Is “War Of Obama’s Choosing”

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WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele suggested the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is “a war of Obama’s choosing” and history should have told President Barack Obama that a ground war is unlikely to succeed with the current strategy.

Steele’s comments drew sharp criticism on Friday — including from a top conservative backer of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — as the Republican leader weathered the latest gaffe of his tenure. In remarks captured Thursday by camera and posted online, Steele had harsh words for the Democratic president and his handling of the 9-year-old war begun by Republican President George W. Bush in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the United States.

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“If he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed,” Steele said. “And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”

Republican officials confirmed Steele made the comments at a fundraiser in the northeastern state of Connecticut. Reporters were not allowed to attend the gathering.

“This was a war of Obama’s choosing,” Steele said. “This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”

The United States and allies overthrew Afghanistan’s Taliban government after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington. The war lagged as the Bush shifted its focus to Iraq, but Obama shifted the focus back to Afghanistan and planned to send 30,000 more troops there.

Steele did not say whether he agreed with that increase.

The Republicans have come under criticism from outside and within the party because of previous Steele gaffes during his 1½ years as party chairman. Elections in November will choose all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 36 of the 100 senators; such off-the-wall blowups would be unlikely to help Republican candidates.

“The chairman clearly supports our troops but believes that success of the war effort in Afghanistan requires the ongoing support of the American people,” committee spokesman Doug Heye said in a statement.

“The responsibility for building and maintaining that strategy falls squarely on the shoulders of the president. Like so many Americans, Chairman Steele wants to hear an explanation from President Obama on what his strategy is for winning the war in Afghanistan.”

Steele’s comments come as Obama’s new chief in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, earned Senate confirmation and arrived on Friday to take over the war. Obama dismissed the previous commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, last week after Rolling Stone magazine published unflattering comments by McChrystal and his aides about senior U.S. officials.

Steele called the dismissal a “very comical” event that shows the frustration military members have with Obama.

“The American people will be interested to hear that the leader of the Republican Party thinks recent events related to the war are ‘comical’ and that he is betting against our troops and rooting for failure in Afghanistan,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said. “It’s simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and that his words have consequences.”

Steele has been prone to gaffes that have enraged congressional Republicans. In the last year, he predicted the Republicans will not will not win control of the House of Representatives in the elections. He also drew ire from the party when he criticized fellow Republicans in a book that party leaders did not know he was writing until it was published. In-party critics were irked further when he told them to “get a life” and “shut up.”

Earlier this year, his oversight of the RNC was called into question because of lavish spending, including money to entertain donors at a lesbian bondage club in Los Angeles.

The criticism of the latest incident did not end at the political party level. Conservative leader Bill Kristol, writing for his Weekly Standard newspaper, said it was time for the chairman to step down.

“There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case,” wrote Kristol, a consistent supporter of the Afghanistan war. “But one of them shouldn’t be the chairman of the Republican Party.”

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From HuffingtonPost.com:

RNC Chairman Michael Steele on Sunday offered some of the most forceful disapproval of Rand Paul‘s libertarian positions to date from within the broader Republican Party.

In dual Sunday news show appearance, the Republican National Committee leader said he was “not comfortable” with Paul’s position on the Civil Rights Act — which he called “misplaced in these times” — and cautioned that if he were to be elected the Tea Party-backed candidate would have to temper his views accordingly.

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“He had a philosophical difference as many members who come to Congress have a different philosophies,” he said. “But when you get here, what you do and how you execute the job is what matters.”

Perhaps a reflection of his own personal history, Steele’s rebuke was remarkably direct. At the very least it dwarfed the muddled responses from Republicans in the Senate, who have largely skirted the question of whether they, like Paul, think the Civil Rights Act intruded too deeply in private enterprise.

Click here to read more.

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OPINION: Rand Paul Is A Conspiracy Theorist Lunatic

From SunTimes.com:

Why should an African-American vote Republican?

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night.

Steele — a former Maryland lieutenant governor and seminarian serving as the first African-American head of the Republican Party — offered a frank assessment of the American political system.

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A week after his Democratic counterpart, Tim Kaine, told 200 activists at an Ethiopian Restaurant four miles away that the Tea Party movement was causing a “civil war” in the GOP that could help Democrats in November, Steele said he is telling Republicans around the country to work with the Tea Party activists to elect Republicans this fall.

“I have advised our state chairs: Don’t turn your nose up, or turn away those who are active in the Tea Party movement. Embrace them. Welcome them. Talk to them,” Steele said. “Those activists have now become a very large part of our voting bloc. They represent a third or more of the voting age population, so they’re going to have a profound impact on elections and in some cases in the primaries this November and this spring. Both parties had better pay attention.”

Click here to read more.

RELATED:

Amiri Baraka Calls Michael Steele A “Real Public Coon” At Black Writers’ Conference

OPEN LETTER TO MICHAEL STEELE: Drop The Slang & Stand Up To Racism

Michael Steele addressed the National Action Network Conference yesterday and called Al Sharpton a “strong leader” and a “friend.” He also alluded to some of the Republican party being similar to an Elephant’s ass, saying:

“I work every day in this job, as I like to put it, to turn the elephant, Now, I don’t know if you ever had to turn an elephant, but the end you have to start with is not necessarily the best place to start.

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O’Reilly Booed At Black Convention

Al Sharpton Hosts National Action Network Convention To Address Racial Inequality

From NBCNewYork.com:

Hundreds of officials and influential leaders are participating in an annual national convention hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, which began Wednesday morning.

The four-day conference will feature prominent names in politics, civil rights, religion, business, education and entertainment addressing issues that impact people of color with a priority on racial inequality. Topics include health care, the racial achievement gap, labor and employment, the state of the Black Church, and others.

“We often teach our children, that the only way to garner change and advance society is to eliminate discrepancies in the social order of life,” Sharpton wrote in an online statement. “When there is equality across racial and class lines, we all benefit.”

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The major highlight of the convention is a leadership forum on the concluding day, “Measuring the Movement: Black Leadership’s 12-Month Action Plan,” where leaders representing constituencies across the county will pledge a plan of action to affect change regarding these issues over a 12-month period. This event will air live on TV One, and a special hosted by Joe Scarborough will air on MSNBC.

Click here to read more.

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O’Reilly Booed At National Action Network Convention

Al Sharpton Calls Meeting Of Black Leaders To Discuss Gov. Paterson

NEW ORLEANS — In damage control mode, GOP national chairman Michael Steele on Saturday sought to quell the furor over his management of the Republican National Committee by acknowledging errors and vowing to learn from them.

“I’m the first here to admit that I’ve made mistakes, and it’s been incumbent on me to take responsibility to shoulder that burden, make the necessary changes and move on,” Steele told GOP activists and party leaders, drawing a standing ovation.

“The one mistake we cannot make this November is to lose,” he added, and the crowd cheered in agreement.

Saturday’s speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference was Steele’s first public appearance since the disclosure of questionable spending — including a $2,000 tab at a sex-themed California night club — resulted in top advisers cutting ties with him and North Carolina’s state party chief calling for his resignation.

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Normally a bombastic showman, Steele struck a contrite tone before the supportive audience in the half-full hotel ballroom. He did not address the specific complaints. And even though he acknowledged his errors, he also blamed others.

“We can’t coast into the majority, nor can we assume it’s a sure thing. The liberal media are looking for any possible alternative narrative to tell,” Steele said. “They are looking for those distractions, and Lord knows I’ve provided a few.” He added: “The Democrats also know that they have some explaining to do, and they’d love nothing more than for us to keep pointing fingers.”

Outspoken and brassy, Steele is not a traditional buttoned-down GOP chairman and he’s been a target of criticism since he was elected last year. The complaints reached a fever pitch over the past week, causing both embarrassment and distraction for a GOP looking to take advantage of a troubling political environment for Democrats ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.

Still, for all the angst in the GOP over Steele, it’s unlikely he will be fired. Ousting a chairman is a complicated, messy process that requires votes of two-thirds of the 168-member RNC. And, while there are both hard-core Steele opponents and fierce Steele allies, several Republican officials at the New Orleans conference said that most committee members and party chairmen simply seem to want to move on from the controversy so Republicans can focus on November.

Attended by roughly 3,000 GOP activists and party leaders, the three-day conference wrapped up Saturday with speeches by prominent Republicans considering running for president in 2012 against President Barack Obama.

Conference attendees voted in a “straw poll” for their top 2012 choice; the results were hardly predictive and meant little. Many Republicans considering a bid were left off the list while others like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour asked that their names not be included. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney didn’t attend the conference but won by a single vote over Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Those who gave speeches downplayed talk of the next presidential election.

“We have got to stay focused on the election of 2010. Don’t worry about 2012 … We can’t wait until 2012 to start taking our country back,” Barbour told the crowd. Despite that message, he sounded every bit the presidential candidate and spoke after running a slick video that promoted his role as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Barbour also urged unity as the GOP wrestles with what to do about Steele and as the tea party’s emergence highlights divisions among Republicans.

“The wind is at our back. How are we going to make sure it continues to fill up our sails?” Barbour said. “We stick together.” He said Republicans should focus on the 80 percent of issues that unite them, not the 20 percent that may divide them. “We’ve got to let the things that unite us be the things that guide us,” he said. “We cannot let ourselves by torn apart by the idea of purity.”

Earlier, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is looking for a political comeback, took on the Republican Party, saying that when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House before Democrats won control: “We let America down.”

“Conservatism didn’t fail America, conservatives failed conservatism,” Santorum said, prompting huge cheers. “Let’s be honest: we were guilty of more government when we were there.”

Seeking to raise his national profile, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence — a darling of the party’s right flank — introduced himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican.” And, eying another run after his 2008 failed bid, Paul told activists that “the American people have awoken” because Washington won’t address the nation’s fiscal crisis.

Still, for all the appearances by likely 2012 candidates and excitement over the midterms, the RNC’s woes hovered over event.

“In life, you realize very quickly that you can’t please everyone. But you can certainly make them all made at you at the same time,” Steele said. “And that is a lesson well-learned. It is an opportunity as well. Because folks have been mad at us in the past and we have learned from that past, and we are now ready to move on to a brighter future.”

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON — Michael Steele was hardly the consensus choice to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, scrambling to the top early last year after surviving multiple ballots in a crowded field.

Mr. Steele’s supporters rallied around him as a compelling advocate at ease making the Republican case on television and someone who would be the first African-American to lead the party. His opponents were apprehensive about Mr. Steele’s equally strong reputation as a showboat, an inexperienced manager given to advancing his own ambitions and prone to bursts of indiscretion. Even as the committee settled on him at the end of hours of balloting, Republican leaders were never quite sure which Michael Steele they would get.

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Fourteen months later, the answer has become clear. At a time when the Republican National Committee is looking to take advantage of Democratic troubles and make gains in Congressional elections, Mr. Steele is commanding attention mostly for questionable expenditures by the committee, lagging fund-raising, staff defections and dismissals, an aggressive round of paid speeches and speaking appearances and politically inopportune remarks.

On Monday, confronting criticism of the committee for picking up a $2,000 tab for donors and staff at a West Hollywood strip and bondage club, Mr. Steele said in response to a question on “Good Morning America” on ABC that he and President Obama were being held to tougher standards because they were black.

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Michael Steele appeared on Good Morning America the Monday. When George Stephanopoulos asked him if he believed that he was being treated unfairly over bondage-gate due to his race, Steele replied:

The honest answer is, ‘Yes, 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.

When asked about this, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs replied:

I think that it is a very silly comment to make. I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card.

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