Jack & Jill Politics

Apology to Rush Limbaugh aside, new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is coming under fire from his own GOP troops to shut up and focus on his job of organizing the party and raising money, not fighting with his own political kind. Several Republican advisers to Congress and the previous Bush administration told Whispers that they are worried that the war of words is fracturing the party when it should be healing the division between conservatives and moderates in the wake of the 2008 election.

“What is amazing is that Steele was elected because of his communications skills, and it is those skills that are damaging the Republican Party. Before people begin to completely judge him as worthless, Steele needs to focus and knuckle down on building a strong foundation at RNC so we can begin rebuilding our majority,” says a top GOP strategist who has worked for House and Senate Republican leaders. “If his implosion continues, RNC members are likely to call a special session to dump him for an effective chairman. There is not much patience for failure.”

Oh lordy lordy, I don’t have cable, but I am more entertained than ever at the utter collapse of message control within the allegedly-disciplined and together Republican Party. What amuses me is that some of these folks are reacting as if Steele is doing damage to the harmonious right-wing coalition.

Nah, it’s just time for all that to unravel. What connects an American Taliban fundamentalist to a neoconservative warmonger to a fiscal conservative Republican? Why is this a natural state of being? It ain’t but I’m amused that the transparent “we have a black guy too” motivations of this image-heavy, substance-light fraying coalition are being exposed.

Dear GOP, you can’t grab just any woman. You can’t grab just any brown guy. You can’t grab just any black guy. Your house is in all kinds of disarray, and in this time of chaos, when America has clearly voted for the more thoughtful, energetic, positive and analytical president, your party is lining up behind Rush Limbaugh, a loud hack and a drug addict who’s never lead anything, never organized anybody, never been held accountable for the words he’s said much less the actions he’s taken as a representative of anyone other than himself.

Good luck with that. Get at me when you grow up.