Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is accusing Planned Parenthood of providing abortions as part of a plot to “eliminate and limit” the African-American population.
“Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, who sought to control the population of the undesirables and black and brown Americans were in her crosshairs,” conservative radio host Laura Ingraham told Steele on Monday. “And somehow we got into a situation — I think a lot of this is the fault of Republicans — where African-Americans are voting in lockstep with a party that supports…”
“Their elimination,” Steele agreed.
“Look at the carnage in New York City alone with black children being aborted,” Ingraham continued.
“You are absolutely right about that,” Steele replied. “And it’s one of those twists of history that I have yet to understand how when you look at something like the NAACP signing up with an organization like Planned Parenthood that has a part of its history and its charter and its existence, you know, the use of abortion to eliminate and limit the number of African-American and other minorities in this country, I — to me, it’s just beyond the pale.”
Anti-abortion activists often misquote the Planned Parenthood founder as saying, “[W]e want to exterminate the Negro population.”
But in full context, the quote has the opposite meaning. In a 1939 letter to pro-birth control advocate Clarence J. Gamble, Sanger argued that black leaders should be involved in the effort to deliver birth control to the black community.
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs,” she wrote.
A 2011 Guttmacher Institute analysis found that only 9 percent of abortion clinics were located in predominately black neighborhoods.
Sources: Alex Jones Show, THE LAURA INGRAHAM SHOW, Mediaite, Raw Story, Wikipedia, Youtube
I Just Finish Viewing Video Clips Of The First 2012 GOP Primary Debate, Filmed In South Carolina & It Was Hilarious!!
Ok. Enough Of That!
Ladies & Gentlemen Meet Mr. Herman Cain!
New Token/ "Blackface"/ "Coon" For The Republican Party!
NO!
That Isn't How I Perceive Mr. Cain!
However Like It Or Not It IS How Many GOP & Tea Party Leaders Will Always See Him.
They Just More Than Likely Would NEVER Utter Such Degrading Words To His Face!
Last Year it Was Michael Steele.
This Year Its Herman Cain; A BLACK Business Man From Atlanta, Georgia.
How Sad It Is That Mr. Cain Really Believes Those GOP & Tea Party Leaders Actually Love Him.
When In Fact They Just Want To Pit One Black Man Against Another, Just As They Did With Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
But Where Is Mr. Steele Today??
For The Record I Have No Problem With Black People Voting For Republican Candidates Or Joining The Republican Party.
As A FREE, Legal Citizen 18 Years Or Older We Have The Right To Vote For Whomever We Please!
Black People Were Born Black NOT Democrats!
Furthermore Its The Republican Party That First Accepted & Allowed Black Voters To Participate In The American Voting Process.
Democrats Formerly Pegged "Dixiecrats" Refused To Allow Black People To Register To Vote.
They Also Created Illegal Discriminatory Voting Laws To Prohibit Black Citizens From Having A Voice At The Polls During Elections.
Thus The Reason For Historic Black Leaders Such As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Powell & Dr. Condoleeza Rice Being Republicans.
However Today's Republican/ GOP Party Is NOT The Same Political Party Which Previously Welcomed Black Citizens With Sincere Smiles & Bear Hugs.
Today The Political Tables Have Turned!
Now Its Democrats & Independents Who Embrace Black Voters With Open Arms, While Republicans Often ONLY Seek To Reach White & Sometimes Asian Voters.
I Have Voted For Republican Candidates In The Past & Will Probably Do So Again.
However I Won't Do It At The Risk Of Hurting The Entire American Black Community.
i.e., Presidential Candidates!
Which Is Why I'm Supporting Barack Obama In 2012.
GOP & Tea Party Leaders Know Without A Doubt There's NO Absolute Way Herman Cain Can Win Any Debates Against Pres. Obama, Nor Whip Him In The General Election.
But After Using Mr. Cain To Publicly Bash Pres. Obama, & Create Further Division Within America's Black Community, They'll Cast Him Aside Just As They Did Michael Steele.
Hmmm. I Wonder How Many GOP Leaders Are Standing By Michael Steele's Side Today??
I Believe Mr. Herman Cain Is Most Likely A Very Intelligent, Very Nice Man.
Which Is Why Knowing What McConnell, Cantor & Boehner Will Do To Him After They Finish Screwing Him Over, Is NO Laughing Matter.
Perhaps Like Donald Trump, Mr. Cain Is Just Seeking His 15 Minutes Of Fame On The Political Center Stage.
Unfortunately That 15 Minutes Could Ruin His Reputation. FOREVER!!
Besides NO One Is Going To Help Elect A Black Man With A Southern Accent As U.S. President! It Will NEVER Happen!
Remember Jesse Jackson??
At This Late In The Game, GOP Leaders Hate Pres. Obama So Much & Want To Get Rid Of Our Nation's FIRST BLACK President So Badly, They Would Recruit Their Family Dogs To Help Run Pres. Out Of Office If It Were Possible!
So Do You Really Think They Are Actually Going To Help Another BLACK Man Get Elected President Of The United States???
Is The Moon Made Of Blue Cheese, Green Cheese Or Caviar??
I'll Pray For Mr. Cain But I'm Voting For Barack Obama In 2012!!
Following his performance in Thursday night's 2012 Republican presidential primary debate, candidate Herman Cain has garnered considerable buzz. Participants in a Fox News focus group, conducted immediately after the event, declared him the winner for his plain-spoken delivery and "Washington outsider" status.
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, who has never held elected office, bested a field of seasoned politicians including Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson. Despite being seen as standing no chance of becoming the Republican nominee, the Tea Party favorite has a growing grassroots following-and he told The Root, when we interviewed him in March, that he's one to watch. See what he said, below.
In his 2005 book, "They Think You're Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It", Herman Cain commiserates with voters who have grown weary of Washington politics. Now he's petitioning that same electorate to support his (potential) bid to become the second black president.
So, who is he?
The self-described ABC -- that's American Black Conservative -- is a former CEO of the Godfather's Pizza chain. He has also served stints as an Atlanta radio talk show host, a mathematician for the Department of the Navy and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. So far Cain, 65, is the only prospective GOP candidate to form a presidential exploratory committee.
While he's far from a household name, Cain's advocacy of smaller government, steep reductions in corporate taxes and the so-called FairTax plan, which would replace the federal tax code with a national consumption tax on retail sales, has made him a Tea Party favorite. He's gotten additional buzz over his penchant for making provocative, sometimes outrageous, statements, particularly where President Obama is concerned.
Although Cain has no political experience aside from a failed 2004 run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, he is confident that his strong business background makes up for it. His experience rescuing Godfather's Pizza from bankruptcy, for example, has informed his plan for America's economic growth. And he says that his slow but steady grassroots ground game just might leave mainstream candidates eating his dust.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Root, Cain talks about race, policy and why he thinks you shouldn't rule out his chances of going head-to-head with Obama.
The Root: You made headlines this week with your comments about President Obama potentially hurting your chances of being elected: "Don't condemn me because the first black [president] was bad." In which ways do you think Obama is a bad president?
Herman Cain: Let's make sure we say his policies are bad. First, his economic policies have failed. We can't spend our way to prosperity. We have spent nearly a trillion dollars, and this economy has not been stimulated. He has promoted programs like Cash for Clunkers, which was a dismal failure, yet he tries to pretend now like it didn't happen. Second, he has broken a lot of promises that he made about transparency, for example, and about unemployment coming down.
The biggest failure, in my opinion, is the forced passage of the health care reform legislation. It was supposed to bring down costs, but it will not because it is not well-structured to begin with. It was supposed to increase accessibility, but it has not. When you have 1,000 companies ask for special exception waivers before it's fully rolled out, and they get those waivers, then something is terribly wrong with this legislation. I call that bad policy and bad leadership.
TR: At the Tea Party Patriots summit in Phoenix last month, you won the presidential live straw poll. Some critics have dismissed that as tokenism, claiming that Tea Party members only picked you as a foil for racism accusations, or that the Tea Party just wants its own version of a black candidate. What do you make of your support from the Tea Party and the skepticism surrounding it?
HC: I find the accusation that they voted in favor of me over the other candidates because they wanted to say they were not racist absolutely humorous. That is the most inaccurate assertion that I have heard. The first inaccurate assertion is that the Tea Party/citizens' movement in this country is racist. I have probably spoken at over 100 Tea Party rally events all over this country -- there's been no racism.
Why would they be giving me standing ovations? Why would I be winning straw polls? Now, to believe that they did it to say, "We are not racist" is an insult to my ideas, my ability to communicate, my track record of being a problem solver and what I bring to the party. That is what people are responding to.
They are responding to Herman Cain's message. They're responding to how Herman Cain delivers that message. They are responding to Herman Cain's proven record of being a problem solver in business, and they see how that can translate over to solving some of the problems that we addressed.
TR: How do you plan to take your message to black voters and convince them that the Republican agenda is good for them?
HC: First of all, I have a conservative agenda that is resonating with some Republicans. I separate the label of "Republican" from "conservative." I will run as a Republican in order to get the Republican nomination, but I am a conservative -- I have conservative ideological positions, and my ideas for dealing with problems come from a conservative approach.
The way you reach out to black people in this country, and Hispanic people in this country, is to tell them the truth and tell them how you're going to make life better for them. That starts with making this economy better. Outreach to the black community isn't to pander to them. The outreach to black Americans is going to be the same as the outreach to every other American.
The black Americans who have taken the time to listen to me have come back and said, "You know, you make a lot of sense." The ones who have never taken the time to listen to a speech or read one of my commentaries, those are the ones who want to condemn me and call me names simply because I happen to be an American Black Conservative. If they want to label me, use ABC -- that's my self-imposed label.
But the good news is this: I've had my own call-in talk radio show for three years up until the end of last month, and I have gotten hundreds of calls from African Americans who've expressed that what I have to say has resonated with them. When they got past the label of "Republican" and past the labels that some people want to put on anybody who has conservative views, it opened their eyes. That's what I'm most proud of, quite frankly.
TR: You've achieved tremendous business success, and I wondered about your thoughts on racism in America today -- does it still reduce the chances for African-American success?
HC: Racism in America will never be totally gone. There's always going to be one group that will look down on another group, but we have come a long way from where we were in the '50s and '60s. I'm a product of the '50s and '60s, and one of the reasons that I succeeded in corporate America is that I did not try to climb the corporate ladder with a victim attitude.
I think that one of the things that holds a lot of black Americans back in terms of succeeding in business and corporate America is that they have a victim's attitude. Whenever they are criticized or evaluated or whatever the case may be, they want to see it through the lens of color rather than take a hard look at their performance to determine whether or not the criticism is something they should learn and grow from.
Yes, there's still some racism in America, but I don't think it's the predominant factor that keeps black Americans from achieving some of the highest levels of success. We've had a lot of success, and the ones that have succeeded at the highest levels will tell you how they've dealt with racism along their career, just like I have. It's called performance. Outperform the next person, and they will forget about what color you are.
TR: You're also a stage IV cancer survivor, and you've hinted that your survival might not have been possible under the health care reform law. What adverse effect do you think Obama's plan would have had on your cancer treatment, exactly?
HC: ObamaCare is socialized medicine. Under socialized medicine, the wait time that people have for critical tests like CT scans can be extensive. In some countries with socialized medicine, it can take as much as six months to get a CT scan.
In Canada, the number of CT scan machines per 1,000 people is like one-tenth of what we have here in this country. That's why people have to wait. When my cancer was first diagnosed and I had to get a colonoscopy, if I'd had to wait six months for a CT scan, my chances of survival would have been zero to nil because the cancer that they discovered was very aggressive. When I say that, that's assuming ObamaCare is fully implemented. So, with ObamaCare I probably wouldn't be living today. As of now, I have been totally cancer-free for five years.
TR: Congratulations on beating it.
HC: Thank you. It is a blessing from God. And God said, "Not yet." I said, "OK, God, why are you keeping me around?" He's still answering that question. It might be to run for president of the United States. TR: In your only other bid for political office, you lost the 2004 U.S. Senate primary in Georgia. What lessons did you take away from that?
HC: First of all, I didn't lose; I just didn't win. There's a big difference. I came within two percentage points of forcing a runoff with then-Representative Isakson, with only a 50 percent name ID. He had over a 90 percent name ID. So the two big lessons that I learned: One, if I were to run again, start early. Second, if I were to run again, hire good people early. I've got an awesome team working with me in these early stages of this whole possibility of saying yes and running. It makes all the difference in the world.
TR: You're still "exploring" a presidential run. At what point will you be ready to declare whether or not you're officially in?
HC: I am not waiting on anyone else. I will make my decision within the next six to eight weeks, based upon some benchmarks that my team and I have established. So far we have hit four out of five majors that we wanted to hit in order to say, "Let's go forward." We've got one more that we need to hit.
I'm not going to identify what it is because I don't want my competition to know what I'm up to. But I can tell you right now, I don't doubt that we're going to hit it. We just have to hit it before we make our final decision.
TR: What are the four benchmarks that you've already hit?
HC: I'll give you two of them. One is the response by activists and grassroots people. I have gotten a strong reception with the Tea Party movement, the citizens' movement, and a lot of FairTax people are in my corner. The reason I won that straw poll that you referred to is because I have a strong ground game building. That was one of the things we were looking for.
Second, we've been able to generate considerable interest on the part of the alternative media. We have an Internet presence that is rivaled only by Sarah Palin, and that is because she is on a popularity road -- God bless her, and more power to her. But a lot of people don't realize that we have ways of measuring how commanding a presence I have with the Internet world. So those are two of our benchmarks that have exceeded our expectations, and we have one more river to cross. TR: You have a strong ground game, but what reception have you gotten from the Republican establishment? Do you think they'd work with or against you as a candidate?
HC: I believe they will work with me as I gain momentum. The good news is they have not tried to get in my way or discourage me. When I ran for the United States Senate back in 2004, designated hitters came to me that were part of the Republican establishment, and they tried to talk me out of running. They had already decided who they wanted to be the Republican nominee in Georgia.
The Republicans for a long time have played "Whose Turn Is It." That's why they keep losing. I don't believe in "Whose Turn Is It." You have to look at what is needed for the party and the country at that particular point in time. But they have not tried to discourage me or create any impediment, and that's all I ask at this point. Let's let the power of the people speak.
In an otherwise lackluster field of presumable Republican candidates for president, Herman Cain has stood out for his charisma and straight-talk.
Many of his statements may be somewhat divisive, and I certainly don't agree with all his views, but it is refreshing to see a candidate who unapologetically tells the American public explicitly what he stands for, take it or leave it.
He's not worried about or beholden to political correctness, and for this reason, I would strongly consider giving him my vote for president.
But, first he needs to be honest and upfront.
The American voting public, if nothing else, are no fools.
We are streetwise and know a hustle when we see it.
In America, actions speak louder than words, and we hold our politicians up to strict, demonstratable standards.
This is a populace that, three years into his presidency, demanded and got documented proof of citizenry from the man we elected our leader.
It is through this tough, but fair, standard that Herman Cain will have to do more than talk if he hopes to be elected our next black president.
Does it strike no one else as odd that not a single individual from Herman Cain's past (family, friends, classmates, coworkers, etc...) has come forward as having a vivid recollection of Herman Cain being black?
I'm not saying that I don't believe Herman Cain is black, but I am disturbed by his refusal to provide evidence that he is black, and his continued evasiveness only reinforces those doubts.
Herman Cain, if you truly believe yourself to be a viable black candidate for president, the American voters demand that you provide documentation that you are black, preferably with a long-form birth certificate, or at the very least a dunking exhibition.
This way, we can focus on the issues that will dictate the future of this great country, and avoid the drawn-out citizenship ordeal that defined Obama's presidency.
For Reince Priebus, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, politics has long been more than simply a hobby. It provided the entertainment for the first date with his wife.
More than a decade ago, when Representatives Henry J. Hyde of Illinois and James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin were delivering keynote speeches at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Kenosha, Wis., Mr. Priebus reserved two tickets and turned the event into part of his courtship.
“I know. Nerd alert,” Mr. Priebus said in an interview a few hours after he was elected on Friday to lead the national Republican Party. His voice was filled with self-deprecation as he recalled the moment “But we went to a movie after that.”
Humility was a key selling point for Mr. Priebus as he embarked on a two-month campaign to overthrow Michael Steele, the controversial party chairman, and begin the challenging task of rebuilding a committee that is more than $21 million in debt and competing for relevance in an age when the political establishment is no longer the most popular place to be.
The annals of national political chairmen are filled with former governors, senators and an array of well-established party elders. At 38, Mr. Priebus could well be mistaken for a junior member of the chairman’s staff, rather than the chairman himself, but he emerged as the leading choice to succeed Mr. Steele largely because of a pledge to crave the workload, not the spotlight.
“We need a lot of money,” Mr. Priebus said, setting a goal of raising $400 million in two years. “We need a chairman that’s going to put his head down and spend literally five, six hours every day making major donor calls, major donor visits, literally working like an absolute dog for the next two years getting our fiscal house in order.”
The chairman’s race was dominated by financial concerns, particularly how to rebuild the trust of major contributors and begin paying overdue bills and retiring the debt. Social issues that once dictated party elections were discussed only briefly. Mr. Priebus said he was conservative and opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage, but he added, “Right now, I think that we’re clearly focused on saving our country from walking off a fiscal cliff.”
While few policy differences surfaced among Mr. Priebus and his four rivals, he did not emerge as the winner until the seventh round of balloting on Friday, illustrating a divide inside the committee and the sentiment from some members that Mr. Priebus lacked experience, a connection to the grass roots and the vision to expand the party’s reach through new technologies.
As Republican chairman, Mr. Priebus will oversee the nuts and bolts of the party’s internal operations, the presidential nominating convention in 2012 and fund-raising efforts to strengthen state parties to prepare to challenge President Obama.
He said he had no intention of serving as the party’s leading voice, a duty, he said, better left to the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, or the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
But he knows he will have to spend a bit of time explaining his name.
A few minutes after his election was official on Friday, Mr. Priebus held his first news conference. The first topic was not his vision for the Republican National Committee, but a self-introduction and pronunciation lesson.
“My name is Reince Priebus,” he said, slowly saying his given name, which rhymes with pints (like pints of his favorite beer, Wisconsin’s own Miller High Life) and his family name (PREE-bus). He advised reporters to review an episode of “The Colbert Report” last week on Comedy Central, on which his name provided fodder for a full segment titled “What is a Reince Priebus?”
“I know it’s a tough name,” Mr. Priebus said. “That’s what happens when you have a Greek and a German for a parent — you get a name like mine.
The path to his election began in Kenosha. Mr. Priebus said his earliest political memory was from the third grade at Pleasant Prairie Elementary School there, when he was the self-appointed manager of Ronald Reagan’s presidential bid. Years later, after graduating from law school at the University of Miami, where he briefly overlapped with Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, he returned to Wisconsin and began climbing through the ranks of party politics while working as a lawyer at a Milwaukee firm.
He lost his only campaign for elective office: a State Senate seat in 2004. (“I came up short,” he said, “but I raised a lot of money.”) But he thrived at the insider’s game, serving as state treasurer and chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, which automatically placed him on the Republican National Committee.
He was a close ally of Mr. Steele’s, working as his general counsel, but other party leaders persuaded him to run for chairman and try to turn around the committee.
Mr. Priebus, who lives in Kenosha with his wife, Sally, and two children, Jack, 6, and Grace, almost 1, said he intended to move to Washington, site of the committee headquarters, with his family. As Mr. Priebus was handed the chairman’s gavel, Sally Priebus stood on the side of the room and called the next two years “a big adventure.”
“Reince has good motives,” Ms. Priebus said in an interview. “He has a good heart. He is humble. He works hard. He is very passionate about this. And I believe this is what he was made to do.”
The election of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Priebus after seven ballots Friday by the Republican National Committee provides the Party with a fresh start toward retiring its $21 million debt and preparing for the 2012 Election against a President with $1 billion swag.
Priebus, 38, proved to be a worthy leader. He ran a tight campaign, took several punches and showed himself both nimble with disillusioned supporters of Michael Steele and those eager for anyone but the incumbent. When Steele released his votes after the third round of voting and urged them to vote for veteran operative Maria Cino, most went to Priebus on subsequent rounds. The ballroom at the Gaylord National hotel was rift with rumors of efforts by Steele to cut a financial deal with Cino and former Ambassador Ann Wagner of Missouri. After Steele left the race, many urged Cino and Saul Anuzis to strike a compact, where Cino would emerge as chairman and Anuzis, the former chairman from Michigan and current RNC member, as co-chairman.
Anuzis, to his lasting credit, cut no deals and hoped for "second" votes. Priebus held his tally and steadily added to it. He proved he could count and keep his count.
Priebus was humble in his remarks and made the right call by canceling any post-election festivities. Most of the Members, worn out by a day of Conga-line voting and deal-making, got room service or made their way to the airport.
The new chairman is a hard worker by all indications and there was little rancor after the voting. The debt can be retired as major donors return to the fold and party activists get back into the rhythm of a Presidential cycle. It will take everyone to out the GOP back on the path but most of the RNC members were upbeat about doing it. The thought of a second Obama term has a way of motivating even the most reticent Republican.
Turning their attention to the 2012 presidential election, Republican leaders are digging in for a battle over control of the Republican National Committee, judging that its role in fund-raising, get-out-the-vote operations and other tasks will be critical to the effort to topple President Obama.
Some senior party officials are maneuvering to put pressure on Michael Steele, the controversial party chairman, not to seek re-election when his term ends in January or, failing that, to encourage a challenger to step forward to take him on.
So far, the effort has been tentative, with Mr. Steele’s most ardent opponents working behind the scenes to persuade an alternative to run against him — fearful that any overt moves will create a backlash in Mr. Steele’s favor among those committee members who tend to view the establishment in Washington with suspicion.
One man leading the effort is a Mississippi Republican Party committeeman, Henry Barbour, who is a nephew of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi — a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, himself. Governor Barbour is said by people involved in the discussions to be among those eager to see a change at the top of the party and recently criticized party fund-raising under Mr. Steele.
Officials close to the presumed new House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, and the Senate minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said that both men would prefer a new chairman as well, but that they were also resigned to Mr. Steele’s continued leadership should no clear alternative emerge to defeat him.
In an interview Tuesday night, Henry Barbour said, “I like Mike Steele, and I’ve worked hard to support him as chairman.” But, he added, “I do think we have to make a change, and I have actively talked to some other members in the last week or so and encouraged a few of them to consider running.”
Among those Mr. Barbour has approached is a member of Mr. Steele’s “kitchen cabinet” of advisers, Reince Priebus, who is chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and who helped manage Mr. Steele’s first election for the chairmanship two years ago.
Several officials involved in the discussions, all of whom requested anonymity to share details of the talks, said Mr. Priebus had recently warned Mr. Steele that a run for re-election could prove difficult this time around, and advised him to consider leaving the chairmanship at a time when he could point to big Republican gains nationwide.
But Mr. Priebus has made it clear that he is personally uncomfortable with the idea of challenging Mr. Steele directly for the post, given their friendship.
The effort to woo Mr. Priebus was first reported Tuesday on the Web site of The Washington Post.
Mr. Steele, who did not respond to interview requests on Tuesday, has said he has not decided whether to seek re-election when his two-year term expires in January. The 168 members of the Republican National Committee, who vote on the chairman, will convene then in Washington for their winter meeting.
But he is taking steps to build the support he would need in the face of deep opposition by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and beyond — making personal appearances and granting party money in visits across the country and even in territories like Guam and the Virgin Islands.
“Whether I run or not, I’m going to be judged by what’s happened over the last two years,” Mr. Steele told reporters last week, arguing that the party’s early investments in important states and races helped Republicans reach their historic victory of picking up at least 60 House seats. “I think you can safely say the party has re-emerged. It is a very different party. I think it’s a transcendent party.”
Mr. Steele conceded that his tenure had not been perfect, saying, “Everybody has a learning curve, and clearly I had mine.”
The moves against Mr. Steele are a result of a perception that has been developing for months among the party’s seasoned political hands in Washington. His critics say Mr. Steele has performed poorly at the helm. They argue that his fund-raising was lackluster and point to comments he made that at times proved distracting and were at odds with Republican orthodoxy, as when he said the war in Afghanistan was “not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
As Henry Barbour put it, “There’s just too much at risk in the next cycle not to make a change.”
Mr. Steele said last week that he had modeled his effort after the 50-state strategy conceived by Howard Dean when he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Dean also infuriated leaders of his party four years ago by directing money and staff members to every state, not simply places where Democrats had a stronger chance to win..
Mr. Steele, his party’s first black chairman, dismissed criticism of his financial stewardship, saying he had purposefully focused on building grass-roots Republican activism rather than courting high-level donors.
But those working to remove him say a focus on high-level donors is one of the most important roles for a party chairman — if not the most important role — in a presidential election cycle.
Saul Anuzis, who represents Michigan on the Republican committee and ran for party chairman two years ago, said he was considering running again. “There clearly have been many major donors who have dropped off and have not contributed,” Mr. Anuzis said. “That’s a problem.”
But Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, voiced tentative support for Mr. Steele. He said that while the national party gave less to states than it had in recent years, the resources it did provide proved critical in his state. “I don’t have any complaints,” Mr. Wadhams said. “I think there’s a chance he could be re-elected.”
"The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.” Richard Nixon
If there’s one thing we can predict with confidence about the upcoming election, it’s that Black voters will overwhelmingly vote Democrat. “This is perfectly rational political behavior—but in many ways it’s a shame,” writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post.
Yes, Robinson believes in the Democrats’ progressive platform, “but I also believe that in politics, as in business, competition is good. Monopolies inevitably take their customers for granted.”
Democrats have surely done that, but Republicans just haven't tried to capitalize. Their problems date back to Nixon’s “Southern strategy,” the idea that, as one strategist put it in 1970, “the more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.”
But that was long ago, and if Republicans would at least try to address black issues, they might make real gains with suburban or socially conservative blacks. Instead, African Americans will once again back the Democratic Party, “which at least asks for our votes.”
This has been such an unpredictable political year that it's hard to have confidence in any of the forecasts for November. How unpredictable? Well, I'd like to meet the pundit or prognosticator who imagined that a major-party candidate for the U.S. Senate would begin a campaign ad by declaring, "I'm not a witch."
Christine O'Donnell's sorcery problem aside, there's one thing I can say with confidence about next month's midterm election: African Americans will vote overwhelmingly for Democratic Party candidates at every level. This is perfectly rational political behavior -- but in many ways it's a shame.
Don't misunderstand. I'm firmly convinced that the progressive agenda championed by the Democrats is much better for African Americans, and for the nation as a whole, than the conservative agenda favored by Republicans. But I also believe that in politics, as in business, competition is good. Monopolies inevitably take their customers for granted.
And this, frankly, is what Democrats have been doing with black voters for decades. As far as African Americans are concerned, the only issue is whether they'll turn out in substantial numbers for the midterm balloting. No one wonders how they'll cast their votes.
African American support for the Democratic Party hovers around 90 percent. This qualifies as monolithic, even though black Americans are increasingly diverse -- economically, socially, culturally and geographically. There are millions of affluent black suburban households who fit the demographic profile of independents or Republicans. There has been an unprecedented influx of black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who view the political landscape with fresh eyes. Polls show that on some hot-button social issues, such as gay marriage, many African Americans are quite conservative. You'd think that somewhere, somehow, the GOP would have managed to get a foothold.
The problem is that the Republicans haven't tried -- not seriously, at least. And it will take a lot more than appointing a figurehead like party chief Michael Steele, or nominating a surprising congressional candidate like Tim Scott in South Carolina, to overcome decades of indifference and antipathy.
The history of the Republican Party's estrangement from African Americans is well known. In 1960, Richard Nixon won 32 percent of the black vote. In 1964, Barry Goldwater -- who had opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act -- received just 6 percent of the black vote. This dramatic shift made possible Nixon's "Southern strategy," which political strategist Kevin Phillips explained to the New York Times in 1970, using some archaic terminology:
"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that," Phillips said, "but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."
In other words, the idea was to capitalize on the racial fears and grievances of Southern whites -- by letting black voters drift away from the GOP and even encouraging them to stay away.
Ours is a different era, and I'm not suggesting that the old Southern strategy persists in unreconstructed form. The Republican Party's dominance among white Southerners is not based on the kind of raw, unambiguous race-baiting that we saw decades ago.
What I am saying is that the Republicans have made no serious effort to appeal to black voters. Such an initiative would begin with an acknowledgement of the specific problems that African Americans face -- including the legacy of centuries of oppression and discrimination -- and a proffer of policies to address those problems. But this would contradict the GOP's dogmatic stance that government should be severely limited in its ambition.
Democrats, at least, are much better at talking the talk. But is the Democratic Party offering any new ideas -- or even the promise of meaningful resources -- to eliminate the stubborn, multigenerational poverty and dysfunction in which far too many African Americans are trapped? Are Democrats addressing the vast gap in wealth between middle-class blacks and their white counterparts?
Given the stakes, I see no real choice for African Americans but to go to the polls in November and stick with the Democratic Party, which at least asks for our votes. The Republicans haven't offered an alternative. I wish someday they would.
Some two weeks before the midterm elections, Tea Party Activists are set to fire up their army of supporters to forge ahead in, what they see as, a political war.
Their prime tactic: crisscross the country urging voters to oust Democrats from office and purge the Republican Party of members deemed "RINOS," or "Republicans in Name Only" considered not conservative enough.
On Monday, that tactic is on full display in Reno, Nevada as the Tea Party Express kicked off its fourth national tour. The group's "Liberty at the Ballot Box" tour is their fourth since 2009 and their last of the 2010 election cycle.
It will make 30 stops over 15 days, ending in Concord, New Hampshire one day before the critical midterm elections.
The Reno kickoff is being headlined by none other than Sarah Palin. Hours before she was set to appear, fans of the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee streamed onto the site of the rally. Many in the crowd and on stage were enthusiastic to hear from Palin. However, the crowd was considerably smaller than the last rally Palin kicked off for the Tea Party Express, in Searchlight, Nevada in March.
Palin has lent political star power and considerable time helping to spread the message of Tea Party movement: smaller government, less taxes, deflating a bloated federal deficit and urging lawmakers toward more faithful adherence to the Constitution.
Palin, and other supporters of the movement, staunchly support Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle as she tries to unseat the most powerful Democrat in the Senate: Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Polls show the race between the two candidates to be essentially deadlocked.
Tea Party activists hope to help Angle surge ahead in the Nevada race as well in other races with Tea Party-backed candidates such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Rand Paul in Kentucky and others.
Democrats continue to push their own strategy to smack back the bids of Tea Party candidates. Vice President Joe Biden will also campaign in Reno, on Wednesday, for Reid. President Obama will appear at fundraisers on Reid's behalf on Friday from Vegas. This is in addition to campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons in Delaware, last week.
Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.
The U.S. House has not had a Black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years.
But now Black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary.
Party officials and the candidates themselves acknowledge that they still have uphill fights in both the primaries and the general elections, but they say that black Republicans are running with a confidence they have never had before. They credit the marriage of two factors: dissatisfaction with the Obama administration, and the proof, as provided by Mr. Obama, that Blacks can get elected.
“I ran in 2008 and raised half a million dollars, and the state party didn’t support me and the national party didn’t support me,” said Allen West, who is running for Congress in Florida and is one of roughly five black candidates the party believes could win. “But we came back and we’re running and things are looking great.”
But interviews with many of the candidates suggest that they felt empowered by Mr. Obama’s election, that it made them realize that what had once seemed impossible — for a black candidate to win election with substantial white support — was not.
“There is no denying that one of the things that came out of the election of Obama was that you have a lot of African-Americans running in both parties now,” said Vernon Parker, who is running for an open seat in Arizona’s Third District. His competition in the Aug. 24 primary includes the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, Ben Quayle.
Princella Smith, who is running for an open seat in Arkansas, said she viewed the president’s victory through both the lens of history and partisan politics. “Aside from the fact that I disagree fundamentally with all his views, I am proud of my nation for proving that we have the ability to do something like that,” Ms. Smith said.
State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of Black Republicans is far more experienced than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before.
Mr. Parker is the mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz. Ryan Frazier is a councilman in Aurora, Colo., one of four at-large members who represent the whole city. And Tim Scott is the only black Republican elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction.
“These are not just people pulled out of the hole,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a black conservative group. That is “the nice thing about being on this side of history,” he said.
He added that the candidates might be helped by the presence of Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee who is black and ran for the Senate himself in 2006.
“Party affiliation is not a barrier to inspiration,” Mr. Steele said in an e-mail message. “Certainly, the president’s election was and remains an inspiration to many.”
But Democrats and other political experts express skepticism about black Republicans’ chances in November. “In 1994 and 2000, there were 24 black G.O.P. nominees,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist who ran Al Gore’s presidential campaign and who is black. “And you didn’t see many of them win their elections.”
Tavis Smiley, a prominent black talk show host who has repeatedly criticized Republicans for not doing more to court black voters, said, “It’s worth remembering that the last time it was declared the ‘Year of the Black Republican,’ it fizzled out.”
In many ways, this subset of Republicans is latching on to the basic themes propelling most of their party’s campaigns this year — the call for smaller government, less spending and stronger national security — rather than building platforms around social conservatism.
“Things have evolved,” said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, who is heavily involved in recruiting Republican candidates. “I think partly the level of hostility to Obama, Pelosi and Reid makes a lot of people pragmatically more open to a coalition from the standpoint of being a long-term majority party.”
Many of the candidates are trying to align themselves with the Tea Partiers, insisting that the racial dynamics of that movement have been overblown. Videos taken at some Tea Party rallies show some participants holding up signs with racially inflammatory language.
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 25 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters think that the Obama administration favors blacks over whites, compared with 11 percent of the general public.
The black candidates interviewed overwhelmingly called the racist narrative a news media fiction. “I have been to these rallies, and there are hot dogs and banjos,” said Mr. West, the candidate in Florida, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army. “There is no violence or racism there.”
There is also some evidence that black voters rally around specific conservative causes. A case in point was a 2008 ballot initiative in California outlawing same-sex marriage that passed in large part because of support from black voters in Southern California.
Still, black Republicans face a double hurdle: black Democrats who are disinclined to back them in a general election, and incongruity with white Republicans, who sometimes do not welcome the blacks whom party officials claim to covet as new members.
This spring, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia was roundly attacked for not mentioning slavery in his Confederate History Month proclamation, which he later said was a “major omission.” Black candidates said these types of gaffes posed problems in drawing African-Americans to their party, but also underscored their need to be there.
“I think what the governor failed to do was to recognize the pain and the emotion that was really sparked by the institution of slavery,” said Mr. Frazier of Colorado. “As a Republican, I think I have a responsibility to continue to work within my party to avoid those types of barriers. The key for the Republican Party is to engage every community on the issues they care about and not act as if they don’t exist.”
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