Man Of Steele

Man Of Steele





By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, February 02, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Politics: The Republicans chose as the face of their party a sharp and principled spokesman who vows to engage the Democrats in all 50 states. The death of the Republican Party has been greatly exaggerated.

After two successive clock-cleaning elections, the Republicans needed to say goodbye to RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, a man so invisible on the national scene, it was said even the party's national committeemen could not recognize him on sight.

Michael Steele, who succeeded Duncan in a six-ballot contest, is a quite visible sign of change in the Republicans that the demoralized party faithful can believe in.

Steele, an African-American, is a rising star in a party regularly accused of racial insensitivity, if not outright racism.

With Govs. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, he adds to the Grand Old Party's diversified look.

In remarks in front of the RNC, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky noted that the GOP has largely become a regional and therefore minority party.

Indeed, national Republicans have tended to ignore both coasts and are seen in states such as California less often than sightings of Bigfoot.

Steele intends to change all that and take Republicans off the endangered species list.

In his speech accepting the job, he pledged: "To our friends in the Northeast, get ready baby, because it's time to turn it on. We're going to do what we always do well, which is win. We're going to win in the Northeast, and we're going to keep winning in the South. We're going to win with a new storm in the Midwest. In the West, we're gonna lock it down and win there, too."

Steele knows how to win elections. In 2003, Steele, in one of the bluest of blue states, became the first black and first Republican lieutenant governor in Maryland history.

Steele might very well have become a U.S. senator in the same year as Barack Obama did had it not been for the public's unhappiness over a pre-surge Iraq War and a GOP Congress that was spending itself out of power.

Steele, a Catholic who once trained for the priesthood, was inspired by Ronald Reagan's failed 1976 presidential bid to join the Republican Party.

In a speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention, he demonstrated that he has charisma, warmth and a keen grasp of public policy.

In his talk, Steele noted the progress made toward achieving Martin Luther King's dream of a color-blind society, adding that "we have come even further since a majority of Republicans in the United States Senate fought off the segregationist Democrats to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

After that, he stayed visible as chairman of the political action committee GOPAC and as a Fox News contributor and occasional substitute co-host on "Hannity & Colmes."

The party Steele takes over was philosophically rudderless in 2008.

He intends to change the RNC from little more than a political fundraising organ to a loud voice for the loyal opposition.

He criticizes party leaders who have "behaved like Democrats" and calls for a return to the pro-family, fiscal conservative message that was the bedrock of the Reagan Revolution.

"For so long we've allowed the Democrats to define us," Steele said. "We've allowed the media to define us."

Not anymore. Game on.