Steele may have the edge here. Gingrich is the only person whose reputation for saying stupid things under pressure exceeds Biden's. And when behind the 8-ball, Republicans tend to run someone as physically and circumstantially similar to their opponent as possible...think back to Jeanine Pirro's aborted run for the Senate vs. Sen. Clinton. Finally, Steele would begin the separation of the GOP from the Confederacy, a necessary step for its survival. Not that he'd DO anything, just being there would set them off.
Republicans agree that their national party is leaderless and in desperate need of someone who has the force of personality and history of accomplishments to command national attention to take on Mr. Obama. Someone is also needed to unite disparate factions that, even in the best of times, generate internal friction among themselves.
EXCLUSIVE: Gingrich, Steele duel privately for RNC job
Ralph Z. Hallow
EXCLUSIVE:
A behind-the-scenes battle to take the reins of the Republican National Committee is taking off between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.
Neither man will acknowledge his interest in the post, but Republicans close to each are burning up the phone lines and firing off e-mails to fellow party members in an effort to oust RNC Chairman Mike Duncan in the wake of the second consecutive drubbing of Republican candidates at the polls.
A bevy of backers for each man, neither of whom is an RNC member, say the committee needs a leader who can formulate a counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama's administration and articulate it on the national stage.
"The Republican National Committee has to ask itself if it wants someone who has successfully led a revolution," Randy Evans, Gingrich confidant and personal attorney based in Atlanta, told The Washington Times on Monday. "If it does, Newt's the one."
Former California Republican Party Chairman Shawn Steel told The Times that Mr. Steele, chairman of GOPAC, a national organization once headed by Mr. Gingrich, "wants to be Republican national chairman."
"I've talked to him many times, and he definitely wants it," said Mr. Steel.
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Can they break that mold?
You know at first glance it seemed you were talking about that other Steele. ;-)
Now, why would they want to do this? I could see why they'd want to give the appearance of doing this, especially if they didn't mind writing off the rabid Palin supporters. Can you imagine a "counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama's administration" that doesn't at least implicitly embrace the Old South? How long before any suppressed racial subtext oozed through to the surface?
they're gonna give it to Newt
this isn't even a contest. they're just pretending because they need copy to fill space.
Michael Steele loves puppies...
”…Steele may have the edge here.”
(…I think I’d have to agree with you on THAT one!)
I thought Steele’s campaign ads were innovative and proactively broke the mold conceptually on the image of what it means to be a republican.
To counter, Ben Holder’s campaign really did no more than to continuously broadcast ads linking Steele and George Bush together.
With Steele already having visibility as lieutenant governor, it wasn’t an easy win for Cardin and, given Bush’s unpopularity at the time, he should have won by a far more.
(…Steele got Russell Simmons on board, for Pete’s sake!)
For the GOP to have a shot at regaining any kind of traction, I would venture that it has to push far more with ideology than with old time fear mongering and racial coding.
I would hold fast to the belief that Steele’s approach would be seen as far more forward thinking than Gingrich.