Friday, January 30, 2009

Michael Steele Wins Republican National Chairmanship



(image via familysecuritymatters)

Although he was running against the popular South Carolina Chair Katon Dawson, Michael "Drill Baby Drill" Steele won the Republican Party Chairmanship in an upset after six rounds of balloting. At a time when the first African-American President has just taken office, it is astonishing that an African-American also has taken control of the Republican Party, a party that has not been -- how does one say this nicely? -- too hospitable if we are frank (The Republican party usually gets less than 10 percent of the African-American vote).

Perhaps this is the end of the trend?

The crucial moment in the balloting -- which went through 5 go-throughs -- was when Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a conservative from a crucial state, dropped out and endorsed Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. As geeky as it sounds, it was all very exciting, and chronicled -- via Tweets -- on Chris Cilizza's Hyperfix. What makes the whole thing so much more delicious is that former RNC Chair candidate Chip Saltsman destroyed his own chances and had to drop out of the race yesterday after sending out a racist -- or at least unbelievably stupid and offensive -- CD entitled "Barack the Magic Negro."

We've come a long way indeed.

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