Michael Steele needs to get his act together

Sophia A. Nelson over at The Roots.com has a great article on GOP chairman Micheal Steele. She writes, Steele is all swagger and no substance these days. It may play well for the Republican powers that be, but not to those he claims to be reaching out to. Read More HERE

Hmm.. Sophia A. Nelson is not the only one feeling this way. There is also a great article on Steele by Dana Milbank at the Washington Post. He points out:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, working the room at a luncheon gathering of party officials yesterday, had the same parting words for each man he met: "Stay out of trouble." Or, if speaking to a couple, he would tell the woman: "Keep him out of trouble."

Coming from Steele, this advice had an ironic ring.

The RNC chairman has managed to get into trouble with comic regularity during his first few months on the job. His latest brush with trouble had come only minutes before the lunch, when Fox News broadcast an interview with Steele in which he complained that party leaders -- the very people he was about to have lunch with -- have "their knives bared" for him.

"I was thinking of changing my cologne," he confessed to Fox's Carl Cameron.

But it's what's coming out of Steele's mouth, not his pores, that's causing him trouble.

He called Rush Limbaugh "incendiary" and "ugly." He described abortion as an individual choice. He spent $18,500 decorating his office, which he had called "way too male for me." He offered some "slum love" to Indian American Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, and speculated that the GOP base rejected Mitt Romney "because it had issues with Mormonism."

Steele had promised to reach "urban-suburban hip-hop settings" as part of his an "off the hook" party-building effort, but party officials moved to give the chairman the hook: They called this week's special meeting of the party and were considering a no-confidence vote when Steele, trying to prevent a mutiny, agreed to have some of his spending powers stripped.

More HERE

I agree with Sophia Nelson, I like him. I want him to succeed, yet like Sophia, I am struggling with why this very intelligent man continues to go out and make TV appearances and speeches that continue to diminish him as a thoughtful person, instead of offering us a vision of hope. Good points Sophia!

But, then again, are black Republicans jumping ship before they are thrown overboard?