Steele - They Love Him, They Love Him Not.

So Michael Steele is having to backtrack again. Remember when his party got their panties in a bunch about his "sea of white faces" comment at their convention? Then recently, he had to apologize for calling Rush Limbaugh's rhetoric "incendiary" and "ugly". Now he's in hot water for saying maybe abortion should be left up to the states, and implying that it's a matter of choice. Mercy. The Repubs had him backtracking so fast on that one, I'm surprised the man didn't trip over his shoelaces.

Watch out Mr. Steele - the far Reich isn't down with that whole marching to a different drummer thing. They prefer a nice uniform lockstep. Like the Borg. No dissension in the ranks.

I really don't see what all the apologizing is about. I mean, come on, Rush Limbaugh is a right-wing radio host. He gets paid to be incendiary. Saying he's incendiary is not an insult, it's a job description. And the Republican convention WAS a sea of white faces. I mean, damn, I'd have been scared to be there, and I'm white.

And states' rights -- aren't the Repubs all about states' rights? Wasn't that whole "war of Northern aggression" thing over states' rights? Well, when it comes to women's bodies, they're apparently not for states' rights. My bad. I guess big government up in your business is OK in that case.

Yeah, I'm pretty disgusted with that slum love comment he threw at Bobby Jindal, and some of the ways he's going about his mission of Republican change make me cringe, but I have to admit, I feel for the man. The Repubs are just salivating all over themselves, they can't wait for him to fail. They are on his ass like, well, white on rice.

I'm sure Steele knows what's up. Whether he can say so publicly or not, he's got to know the Repubs didn't give a good goddamn about diversity in the ranks until they saw the Dem candidates for president. Then all of a sudden, up they pop with Palin, Jindal, and Steele.

Kumbaya, y'all.

I think Steele genuinely does want to bring change to the Right. Granted, his methods are odd, but let's face it, ANY way the Right tries to bring hip hop to the ranks is going to seem odd as hell, right? I don't agree with most of his views -- hello, Republican -- but I can see that he sees his party imploding. He sees they need to branch the hell out, quit letting the wingnut evangelicals run the joint, bring in the young people. Balance out the old white men. So he's trying to make change to save his party, poor guy.

Problem is, the GOP doesn't really want to change. They know they need to -- thus their new shining stars -- but they don't want to. They don't want Steele to actually do anything different. They just want him to stand there, look diverse, and do what the hell they tell him to do.

Gee, Michael, we didn't expect you to take this Change thing seriously! Stop fooling around and get in step!

So as much as I'm delighting in the ongoing right wing implosion, I'm thinking what they're doing with Michael is pretty fucked up. They put him in place to illustrate change, but that's all they wanted to do - illustrate it. Once they saw him taking it seriously, using his position of power to do things differently, they got nervous. Now they're circling like sharks, waiting for him to step too far out of line, and at that point, it's win-win for them: they get that cookie for hiring the Black guy, without actually having to deal with him being in power. They can say it's not their fault. They tried, but gee, he just wasn't up to the task. The unspoken message being, of course, those people just aren't up to the task. Which allows the good ol' boys to get back to normal. I can see them now, mopping their brows with their handkerchiefs, "Whew! That was close! I thought he was one of the good ones, too!"

I'm no more a fan of Mr. Steele than I am any other right winger, but I hope he hangs tough. Either way, his party is pretty much in the toilet for the forseeable future. Come on, Mr. Steele, look around. Those old white dudes are basically pushing you out on a plank. If you decide to jump ship and come to Blue side, let us know.