Prometheus 6

If Michael Steele was offered and was foolish enough to accept the position of Republican National Committee Chair, he would not last as long as Tyrone Willingham did as head football coach at Notre Dame University. If Steele needs a job then going to HUD is okay but if he wants to be effective and get things done, then taking over at HUD is the worse thing he could do. He will get credit for nothing and get blamed for everything.

It is impossible for Steele and the Republicans to craft any urban agenda together over the next two years that Democrats would feel obliged to support. Steele is between a rock and hard spot in terms of these two jobs. They are both potential graveyards for a black man.

ptcruiser.... how do you think Steele's possible position as chair of the RNC or as a presidential cabinet member would relate to Ron Brown's career as an African American who served as both chair of the DNC and as a presidential cabinet member--two positions now open to Steele that were held by Brown but under a different party title?  Depending on your politics, many people looked at Brown as either a failure or a success because of his role in leading the Democratic party to the center.       

Cobb wasted no time frosting this republican turd...,

The Democratic Party's relationship, for example, to African American voters at the time Ron Brown became the party chair is vastly different than what the relationship of the Republican Party has been and will continue to be even if Michael Steele becomes its chair. Brown seldom, if ever, had to devote his time or use his and the party's political capital to explain or justify the Democratic Party's past, or current policies with regard to the concerns or issues of black voters. (I am not arguing that such a discussion was not necessary.)

Brown would not have been selected party chair if he was not already part of and in full agreement with the policy of moving the Democratic Party away from its more traditional liberal base. Michael Steele will have not have the authority or the standing to move the Republican Party away from its opposition to policies that are generally favored, for example, by African American voters. In addition, he will be forced over and over again to explain away the Republican Party's use of coded racist symbols as part of its electoral campaign arsenal.

If Steele agrees with his accusers and interrogators then he will risk losing or alienating large elements of his party's base such as married Southern white men. In cities like Philadelphia, again for example, Steele will have to explain to black voters why a Republican controlled state legislature made up largely of rural whites will not allow the City of Philadelphia to impose gun control measures within the city's boundaries or why only Philadelphia is prohibited from declaring where it will allow gambling casinos to operate. In other words, why is Philadelphia being denied the right to local control when this is supposed to be a bedrock tenet of the Republican Party's political philosophy?

Steele cannot escape or minimize these and other related issues. As a consequence, he would simply be a figurehead. A spook to sit by door and greet people as they wander into the Republican tent but not a person with real authority. Ron Brown, whatever his shortcomings and failures, did not have to deal with these kinds of issues. His party was seen as being part of the mainstream of black political activity, not as an element that was hostile to black folks' aspirations and interests.

I don't think anyone emerges from HUD with a future in elected politics. It would be out the door from there into boardroom semi-retirement. Steele strikes me as someone who'd be better served keeping his face in the news, but not necessarily for any effect he would have on black voters, although that would come 'naturally'. Steele's ascent in the party leadership signals the rise of moderate conservatives. Steele has a much better chance of doing what GWBush promised to do before he was overtaken by geopolitical events, which is to be a uniter of the party. Paleocons and single-issue voters in the conservative base are already pissed off at Bush. The hard Right and fiscal conservatives are already up in arms and have been for a year. Steele will bring fiscal conservatives back. He's just the man to shift RINOs into the lead - the only question is how he gets along with McCain.

Steele's ascent in the party leadership signals the rise of moderate conservatives.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Steele has a much better chance of doing what GWBush promised to do before he was overtaken by geopolitical events, which is to be a uniter of the party.

Politicians who initiate wars against militarily and economically inferior sovereign nations that pose no credible threat to the security of this country cannot claim to have been overtaken by geopolitical events. It is far worse for their supporters to make this claim as well. 

That's light years away from what Bush supporters claim. We start with the basic question of whether the opposition wants to win the war or not. Which is why we use the cut and run rhetoric. What we respect is an honest defeatist like Mark Cooper. What we cannot tolerate is imbeciles who pretend to respect the mission but subvert it with risible strategies like Murtha, and plain disrespectful seditionists like Kerry. 

cf Belmont Club

Whether you agree with Marc Cooper or not, this is the kind of honesty that should have characterized the debate leading up to the election. I often wondered why the Democratic Party never articulated a warfighting policy on Iraq. What they would have done differently. Oil spot. More troops. Less troops. Unconventional warfare. Expand the war to Syria, Iran. Withdraw to enclaves. More training. Whatever. You know the stuff a more competent SecDef would have done. Now I understand that all that was irrelevant. Deep down though they never said it was the deep conviction that there was no good way to fight Iraq; that the original sin was to fight in Iraq at all. And Marc Cooper is not only entitled to that opinion, but welcome to express it. After all, he may have been right. The pity is that few others were as forthright as he is.

I'm not a member of the Democratic Party but I am continually amazed at those who supported this insane policy continually braying for the Democrats to come up with an alternative policy. The Democrats didn't start this act of high piracy and mayhem and they didn't vote for it either despite the propoganda to the contrary. Why in the world are folks demanding that the Dems fix a situation tht cannot be fixed?

Why doesn't George Bush come up with a policy that works? He went to war at a time and place of his choosing. He and his advisors should fix this situation. Stop trying to give this war to the Democrats!

What we cannot tolerate is imbeciles who pretend to respect the mission but subvert it with risible strategies like Murtha, and plain disrespectful seditionists like Kerry.

Anybody who calls two people who served in Vietnam and were wounded "imbeciles" and "seditionists" is someone who I will decline to exchange any further views with on any subject because that person is not serious.

Let me add here: the most vociferous proponent of this murderous enterprise that has put all of us at greater risk is Dick Cheney. While Rep. Murtha and Sen. Kerry were getting their behinds shot at Cheney was applying for military deferments. He requested and received five of them. His partner, George, simply didn't report for duty at the Alabama Air National Guard. 

So Cobb, you feel better now that you're bared your breast?

Is Michael Steele gay? I thought you had to be a closeted homosexual hypocrite to head up the GOP (Gay Old Party).

Tucker Carlson's got a panel which is asserting that Harold Ford Jr. will soon replace Howard Dean as the chairman of the DNC.., will embarrassments never cease?

I don't think anyone emerges from HUD with a future in elected politics.

Probably not if they are black but Andrew Cuomo, who was HUD Secretary from 1997 to 2001, was elected Attorney General of New York State this past Tuesday. The rules are different for black folks. I know black folks who held senior level positions at HUD in both Democratic and Republican Administrations who spent more time than seemed necessary looking for work after their time at HUD was over.

Shay at Booker Rising must be going crazy at this rumor. This new job would allow Harold Ford to chase white women in all 50 states.

Tucker Carlson's got a panel which is asserting that Harold Ford Jr. will soon replace Howard Dean as the chairman of the DNC

Ignore anything about Team A that you first hear from Team B unless you get evidence. 

This new job would allow Harold Ford to chase white women in all 50 states.

Isn't parting wealthy older white women, (oops, I mean parting them and their money) in the job description for that position? 

"Expand the war to Syria, Iran. Withdraw to enclaves. More training. Whatever."

I actually missed this bit of bloody romantic fantasizing on Cobb's part the first time around. What he is actually proposing here is the use of nuclear weapons on civilian populations. There is no way around this conclusion. Cobb and people like him claim to be democrats but in fact they are post World War II totalitarians.

They believe they have the right to do anything in the name of democracy even if it entails acting in an anti-democratic fashion. They really don't believe in politics because that would require them to accept the fact that other peoples live in this world and that violence is not a constructive option in resolving differences between nation states.

So advocating the killing of millions of Syrians and Iranians under the guise of fighting a global war against terror is an acceptable policy to them. Sooner or later, however, their foreign policy will become their domestic policy. Killing and imprisoning millions of Americans will be the inevitable result of such practices.

What Cobb is proposing we do in the Middle East to the Arabs and Persians is simply a continuation of the war of conquest that was waged here in North America against the indigenous natives. We killed them, drove them from their lands and seized the natural resources found on their lands. (Look at how the Department of Interior, for example, has fought for decades not to pay Native Americans the royalties to which they are legally entitled by treaties and statute to receive.) Cobb strikes me as little more than a modern pirate who has replaced the headscarf and eyepatch with Allen Edmond shoes and Oxxford suits.

"Cobb strikes me as little more than a modern pirate who has replaced the headscarf and eyepatch with Allen Edmond shoes and Oxxford suits."

Smells like long pig roasting on an open fire. 

"Expand the war to Syria, Iran. Withdraw to enclaves. More training. Whatever."

I needed to add that Cobb's insane and war mongering appeal also entalis a return of forced military conscription because in order to grow the American military to a size even close to the visions of world conquest dancing in his head the country government will have to forcibly drag young people into military service. They will not willingly go to die in the deserts and mountains of the Middle East or wherever Cobb and his allies think the so-called global war on terror should be fought next.

I know there are folks on the left and right who believe that there should be some form of universal service imposed on young Americans, although not all of them believe it should be in the military. I don't agree. I don't believe that this government or any government has any right to claim to your life either for the purposes of learning to properly handle a carbine or replanting deforested regions of Oregon.