Steele’s Comments Won’t Cost Him Chairmanship, Just Donors
In what will only serve as additional ammunition for his more socially conservative detractors, RNC chief Michael Steele split with the party faithful and took a decidedly controversial position: That homosexuality was not, in his opinion, a choice.
“I don’t think I’ve ever really subscribed to [the] view [that homosexuality is a choice], that you can turn it on and off like a water tap,” he said in a recent interview with GQ’s Lisa DePaulo. Even going so far as comparing the static nature of sexuality to race, he said, “You just can’t simply say, oh, like, ‘Tomorrow morning I’m gonna’ stop being gay.’ It’s like saying, ‘Tomorrow morning I’m gonna’ stop being black.’”
Steele’s comments, while seemingly refreshing to moderate GOP members, highlight a serious concern among the fledgling chairman’s critics. His proclivity for embarrassing gaffes is forcing the RNC’s skeleton crew to work double-time to salvage what remains of his once sterling reputation as a polished spokesman.
“Lest we forget, communication was supposed to be his strongest suit,” writes an irritated Phil Klein. But why, then, must we be inundated with stories of clearly avoidable mistakes? Klein argues that Steele’s desire to portray a moderate-friendly image at all times, even at the cost of abandoning his own principles, results in the delivery of a “completely muddled message.”
Just yesterday morning Steele and the RNC were faced with the rumors that SCGOP Chair Katon Dawson was quietly gathering support among fellow committee members to hold a vote of no confidence after the NY20 special election, regardless of the outcome. Dawson has since emphatically denied the speculative “anonymous rumor,” but Steele’s comments yesterday will likely serve to embolden his many other rivals.
Greatly working to Steele’s advantage are the institutional challenges to ousting a sitting chairman. According to the rules adopted at the party’s convention earlier last year, Rule 5 states, “The chairman or co-chairman may be removed from office only by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the entire Republican National Committee.” Then, of course, is the public relations challenge to forcibly expelling the GOP’s first African American chairman – a move only the politically tone-deaf wouldn’t wince at.
Steele holds the chairmanship, and barring celestial intervention, that isn’t like to change anytime soon.
The problem for Steele, then, is not the potential for expulsion from his current post, but rather the extent to which these highly-publicized gaffes will upset the party’s fundraising. His predecessor, Mike Duncan, earned a reputation as a prolific fundraiser; consequently committee members will expect similar results from a chairman whose celebrity easily dwarfs the camera-shy Duncan.
Steele’s comments on abortion, of which I add were the most confusing from the GQ interview, will squarely pit him against social conservative activists and donors. And as such, he’s playing fast and loose with the committee’s large and small dolor donor database. March 20th — the release of FEC fundraising reports — will likely be the first of many bad days in the Steele administration, especially if he intends to keep poking the base in the eye with sharp objects.
By way of offering advice to Chairman Steele, a fellow RNC veteran quips, “He should be like Obama and carry his teleprompters wherever he goes.”
For obvious racial reasons, parallels between President Barry Obama and Steele have been drawn many a time. A more honest depiction, perhaps, would be to that of his loquacious side kick, the wordiest man in Washington – Vice President Joe Biden.
UPDATE: Steele’s GQ interview was conducted on February 24th — four days before his spat with Rush Limbaugh. The case can and will be made by Steele’s advisors that this was an early misstep as the new chairman worked to earn his sea legs in a rough squall. Tough sell, if you ask me, for the candidate who was pitched as the most polished Republican communicator among his many competitors for the top GOP post.
