OKAY, MY MICHAEL STEELE TOLERANCE BAG HAS DRIPPED DRY

No, that sound you heard was not another tongue-clacking liberal demonstrating why leadership needs to be left to the adults.

It was simply Michael Steele … again.

With every ounce of due respect I can muster, this man’s act is painfully tired.

It’s time to pull out a “farewell to thee” out of petty cash.

I’m sure he’s a wonderfully personable guy – the kind you’d like to hang out with while watching the game, or share a platter of cocktail franks with – but so is the guy who replaced my shocks. That doesn’t mean he is qualified to be the head a political party.

I hate to be the one to break it to Mr. Steele, but it is not advantageous or strategically sound for the Chairman of the Republican National Committee to sound like a typical, non-substantive liberal whinycrat.

I’m out on a limb, I know.

Not that I have ever found him particularly motivating or very effective at his job. I don’t really care for the way he’s “led” the Republican Party – especially during this time of across-the-board Democrat implosion and plummeting poll numbers.

As the Obamacracy continues to sputter, you’d think one would realize, at least in theory, that the door is wide open for the GOP.

This should be the time when a real party leader steps in and makes things happen for the party. This should be a time when a real leader picks up the ball and marches it down the field – especially when the opposition’s defense is non-existent. Outside of a two-thousand foot tall, two-million watt neon sign outside of RNC Headquarters flashing, “Hey, Republicans, This Is Your Shot!” I’m not sure how much more obvious it can be.

Unfortunately, Steele has fallen far short.

One minute he’s convinced Republicans can’t win in November, the next minute he’s saying they can – maybe, sort of.

You may recall that, according to Steele, white Republicans are afraid of him. You may also recall his inability – or reluctance – to respond when D. L. Hughley said the Republican National Convention looked like Nazi Germany. Steele sat there like a soggy Wheat Thin and let it go.

Of course, Steele, by his own admission, never ever plays the race card.

On that point, he‘s absolutely right … except, of course, when he plays the race card.

Greg Sargent at the Plum Line blog writes:

It’s been awhile since Michael Steele has landed himself in the news, but this might stir things up again: In a new interview, Steele bluntly suggests criticism of his tenure — and all the media coverage it’s garnered — may be motivated by racism.

The story, called “Up in the Air,” is in the February issue of Washingtonian magazine, and it isn’t online yet, but here’s the key passage, buried way at the end of the piece, on page 96 of the mag:

Steele acknowledges that at times he has a tendency to take things too far. “And I get checked on that, just as when I was a young boy and I pushed the envelope too far and my Mama was there to check me.”

But there’s an edge to his voice when he talks about a double standard that he believes has been applied by his critics, and he posits racism as the cause: “I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

The larger context of the story is the tension created by the fact that Steele continues to take constant criticism, despite the GOP’s undeniable gains and the likelihood of more advances in the future.

There are two ways of reading Steele’s stab at an explanation: Either Steele is suggesting the media gives more ink to the RNC’s inner workings because a black man is chairman, or he’s suggesting that fellow Republicans are leaking damaging info about the RNC because a black man is chairman.
Either way, it seems at odds with his claim back in November that he doesn’t “play the race card” or “play the race game.”

On one hand, I agree whole-heartedly with the assertion that liberals are far more obsessed with race than conservatives. It is demonstrably so. And perhaps there is some truth in the notion that the left-leaning mainstream media pays a little extra attention to Steele because he’s black. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit. The media is always looking to pounce on right-leaning blacks for any sign that their “blackness” is inauthentic.

But Steele has been such a stunning disappointment to conservatives, and has shoved his foot in his mouth so many times, my initial reaction to all of this is to tell him (respectfully) to shut up, step aside, and allow a real leader to step in.

Incompetence is color blind.

Many of us on the right are disgruntled with him because he is bad. Not black.

Besides, Mr. Steele leaves himself open to easy pot shots. If criticisms of him are based on his color, as he suggests, Steele loses a whole lot of credibility when he says that criticisms of Barack Obama are not.

It makes our side look like Democrats.

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