Michael Steele now says he wanted a brokered Republican national convention. That a brokered convention was the point of his reforms of the GOP’s nomination process.
[D]uring his rocky tenure at RNC HQ, Steele pushed for and won significant changes in the rules for the party’s presidential nomination process and shaped this year’s turbulent race.
These reforms are now bedeviling front-runner Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment by preventing Romney from wrapping up the nomination and keeping him mired in a nasty fight for the support of the party’s hardcore base voters, an ugly and grinding tussle that is defining Romney (and the party) in a manner that’s not bolstering his fall prospects (or the GOP’s). Moreover, the rules Steele bequeathed the party could yield an outcome in which Romney finishes with the most delegates, but not an outright majority, necessitating a brokered convention.
“I wanted a brokered convention,” Steele tells me. “That was one of my goals.” Why in the world would a party chairman desire apparent turmoil? To create excitement and shake up the party, Steele explains. So far this year, he has indeed succeeded in one regard: The Republican race remains unsettled. And that’s unsettling many within the party’s upper ranks.
Not all of the RNC officials at the time craved such creative disorder. Steele, recalls Doug Heye, then the RNC’s communications director, “said in a few interviews that as a political junkie, he’d like to see a brokered convention, and I counseled him that the party chairman may not want to advocate for chaos at a convention he has to manage.” But, in what now seems a profound miscalculation, the Romney camp backed Steele’s reforms—and helped create the monster that now threatens him and the party.
Whether this is truth or revisionist history from Steele, it’s nuts. In at least one respect it’s almost surely not true. A brokered convention would have required a very strong hands-on chairman who could marshal a strong cadre of lieutenants to keep order, and Steele was not that. It’s definitely a symptom of Steele’s poor leadership and judgement. A party chairman’s job is not to create the conditions for party chaos. A chairman has three jobs: Money, manpower, and message. Steele might deserve a C or at best a B for manpower. He inherited a fairly corrupt mess of vendors and staff and cleaned that up, only to install a few cronies that brought their own messes. Money? An F — he left the party in debt and funders fleeing in droves. Message? If there was a grade worse than F Steele would deserve bags of it. He couldn’t stop stepping on the party’s message, at all, ever. He still can’t. Why is he even talking with Mother Jones? Because he wants to be seen as cool.
After his tenure, Steele just keeps stepping on the party’s message, in much the same way that Jimmy Carter can’t find a way to say or do anything positive for the nation that elected him, founding him wanting, and rejected him. Neither Carter nor Steele turned out to be suited for the trust that had been placed on them.
I’d always expected Michael Steele to take the VP slot after Hillary Clinton took the nomination away from Obama in a surprise upset at the Democratic Convention. It could happen; there have been no Democratic primaries, so it is entirely possible that Clintonians working behind the scenes have been lining up delegates in secret—and, if they did, they’d need somebody black to “balance” the ticket and soothe the feelings in the Democratic base. Steele would be perfect for that, and probably a good sell as VP; a former lieutenant governor, he’d be in his element presiding over the Senate. Plus, he’d be a “fusion” candidate, having formerly held the RNC chairmanship.
And, indeed, if Hillary does not attempt such an upset—it’s unlikely unless Obama does such a monumental screwup that even some of the mainstream media start calling for his ouster—Steele could fulfill the same role if she tries for the presidency in 2016, and probably will.
I’d love to play, but I have a dentist’s appointment. Or, maybe I have to take a cake out of the oven.
michael steele isn’t a republican or democrat or conservative or progressive.. he wants to be on tv on a gong show or something.. anything… he is a nothing and he always will be.. thank goodness we got rid of the arsewipe.. he is completely stupid.. he didn’t do anything on purpose.. crap just happened.. he just happened to be there (on tv somewhere if possible).. dumb dumber and dumbest.. you decide.
Steele was the Republican Party’s affirmative action choice in response to Affirmative Action election of Obama.
As chairman of MD Republican Party, his record was the same as his national record was later. Republicans knew what he was before, but chose him anyway. And there was no pleasant surprise. There never is. It only gets worse with machine politicians. The only “pleasant surprise” is when it doesn’t get worse.
Republicans: the Stupid Party
Republicans: the Stupid Party…yeeeeeeuuuupppp and don’t blame ol’ steppit fetchit Mikey Steele, he was just needing a paycheck!
– Morning Joe says “Dance!”, a wise man dances!
Steele was a mistake. An attempt by the GOP to throw up someone who was black to deflect the racism charges.
It was a stupid move since reality never had anything to do with charges of GOP racism.
You don’t win by putting up a good defense. You win on the offense. Steele couldn’t mount an offense and the GOP was, as it is now, totally lost on the offense.