Slurs against Michael Steele

TODAY'S EDITORIAL

October 31, 2005

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20051030-100352-4066r.htm 

As a black Republican and rising Republican star, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele has been the target of racially motivated dirty attacks over the years. So, last week, after Mr. Steele announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, we were unsurprised to hear about a doctored photo posted to Steve Gilliard's "News Blog," a liberal Web site, depicting Mr. Steele as a minstrel and describing him with racially stereotyped slurs.

The slurs are unfit for a family newspaper and cannot be reprinted here. But they are the same old sludge Democrats have been throwing at Mr. Steele for years -- attempts to equate Democratic talking points with the black agenda and suggestions that Mr. Steele isn't authentically "black." It's telling that Mr. Gilliard, a black New Yorker whose popular site gets an estimated 15,000 hits a day, is a newcomer to Maryland politics, since that confirms what practically everyone already knows: Mr. Steele unnerves liberals and Democrats everywhere simply by being a black Republican.

This has been going on since before Mr. Steele was elected as Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's running mate. In 2001, Maryland State Senate President Mike Miller Jr. called Mr. Steele "an Uncle Tom."

In what must rank as one of its most shameful moments, the reliably liberal editorial board of the Baltimore Sun wrote during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign that Mr. Steele "brings little to the team but the color of his skin." It has since had to eat those words. Mr. Steele has gone on to be a leading member of Mr. Erlich's administration, as the Sun itself acknowledged Thursday in an editorial on Mr. Steele's Senate bid.

The political rabble has shown its ire in ugly racial terms, too. In 2002, during a campaign debate with then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Steele-bashers threw Oreo cookies at him.

There are a number of possible explanations for all this. The first, preferred by Mr. Steele, is that the Democratic establishment fears an independent thinker. "You know why I annoy them?" Mr. Steele explained to reporters in 2002. "I annoy them because I'm an independent-thinking black man who has not bought into their lies and rhetoric." There must be some truth to this explanation: Any Republican in Democrat-dominated Maryland is by definition an independent thinker, especially in the upper levels of the state's sclerotic political culture.

It can only rankle his opponents further that Mr. Steele stands a decent chance of becoming Maryland's first black senator and its first Republican senator since Charles Mathias, Jr. It's virtually impossible to tell where Mr. Steele will end up by November 2006, but as of last week, he stood second in fundraising behind Democratic frontrunner Rep. Benjamin Cardin, a 10-term veteran of the House of Representatives and a formidable opponent with $1.5 million already in the bank. In a statewide poll by the nonpartisan group Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies, Mr. Cardin led Mr. Steele 47 to 38 percent. In a sense, those numbers are very encouraging for Mr. Steele. They show he already appears to have more voters than even 100 percent voter loyalty among Republicans would afford in a state with a lopsided 2-to-1 advantage for Democrats. And the campaign is only just starting.

The stronger Mr. Steele gets, the more his opponents will realize they underestimated him. Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Timothy M. Kaine seems to understand this; after the latest flap, he pulled an ad from the Gilliard "New Blog," citing the injection of racial stereotypes into Maryland's race. But others, including the influential liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, editor of the blog "Daily Kos," do not. Mr. Moulitsas called the doctored Steele photo "edgy." If a Democratic opinion-maker like Mr. Moulitsas can defend racial slurs as "edgy," there is little doubt that some will continue to play dirty tricks with Mr. Steele.

My racist is less racist than your racist. Ha ha we win!! sigh.

you have proven my point well

*stunned, disapointed look* :|

As I mentioned to you, EI, the filthy hypocrites hide their racism (and/or self-hatred) unless it is politically safe to display against a conservative in public.

These paragons of liberal ideology throw oreos at Mr. Steele during public events, and taunt him with catcalls of Sambo, Uncle Tom, house ****, etc.

What hateful cowards!

Kudos to you for exposing this festering, pus- ridden display by the leadership of Maryland Democratic party and their legions of moral lepers!

I left the Republican party this last election but may be forced to reconsider in lieu of the alternative.

I also have no doubt that apologists and other twisted elements will defend this SANCTIONED behavior.

there is only one party (of the dems and reps) that benefits from racism issues. that relationship will ensure that racism is never defeated. i know i'll get slammed for this, but it's my honest opinion. the dems will keep racism alive as long as they can benefit from it politically. i really don't think i can be convinced otherwise, but everyone's welcome to try.

So, the Democratic party secretly sanctions racist agitators to keep racism in America afloat so they can gain more votes and increase their political clout? It's possible I suppose, seems far fetched to me however. I think the vast majority of racism occurs simply out of hatred by one group for people who look and/or act differently than they.

i think racism is fueled by those that want the issue to stay alive. people often cry racism when there is no real racism. that convinces some that racism is real enough for it to become . . . well, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"I think the vast majority of racism occurs simply out of hatred by one group for people who look and/or act differently than they."

You just described the leadership of the Democrat party

Hill's comment made no sense because most of the oreo/epithet flinging stooges in Maryland are black.

I kinda like the way he is trying to defend the indefenseable

Lofty, I think there are real, documented cases of racism out there. When I was studying medical statistics there were some pretty clear examples of racial inequality in income, access to medical care, education, housing, and general opportunity. If racism didn't exist illnesses, poverty, etc., would afflict all people, regardless of race, in the same proportions. It kind of made me feel sickish to see the direct evidence of it. I don't think it's some joke or conspiracy, but a real and measurable American travesty. I did participated in these studies a few years back, and they may be somewhat dated now, but racism does exist and has sad and tragic consequences, especially for kids.

Even Bush addressed this fact in his recent speech after Katrina. He's certainly not a part of the left-wing conspiracy your allude to. The political opportunists you refer to are scum and exist in both parties, but racism is real and still needs a bit more to go before we as a nation should feel too comfortable about it. I don't think advocates who fight racism are a major cause of it, although there may be some ripple affects from their PR as you say. After what I saw in the data I'm real glad I'm white, I'll say that for sure. Life's hard enough in America being white (pink actually). I sure wouldn't want to have to tackle it in boogey-man black/brown.

Good post doc

ahhhh peppers parrot makes an appearance and once again obfuscate's the issue

i didn't say that racism doesn't exist. i'm telling you that i believe it exists as a result of those who try to "fight" it. is the president going to say there are problems today with racism? of course. he's pressured by the media and the general public to do so. is there racism? of course. do people like al sharpton and jesse jackson really want to end it? i don't think so. i really don't.

you brought up an interesting point about how disproportionate (is that a word?) poverty is. let me tell you a story. my brother was doing some coaching for an american school in germany for some children. i think it was just some PE type class. well, this one black kid told him that he might was well not even try because he's black. him parents told him that he won't succeed because he's black. the fact that he believed it made it true. there are so many blacks that will stay in poverty because they don't think they have all the opportunities whites have. fact is, they have more. the problem is, the media and some uneducated older folks are telling them the exact opposite. if they can ignore the negative people and work hard, they will succeed, period.

yeah, racism exists. i'm sure of it. let's just remember that it works in both directions. let's also keep focus on what racism is, and not the supposed symptoms of it. the fact that there are more blacks in jail doesn't support racism. if it can be proven, however, that more innocent blacks are in jail, you have the beginning of a case. if racism is as bad as the media would have you believe, there would be a lot fewer poor whites, and a lot more poor blacks.

as i've always said, i could be wrong. you'll have to do some serious work to convince me otherwise on this subject.

WTF? How is addressing the statistics of racism in America obsfucating the issue? Racial bias appears in the collected data, I didn't put it there. If I'm a parrot your a hydrocephalic. I will tell you one thing, and it's just personal, any SOB that supports hitting women, Nazis, or racism is low scum to me. I know we live in a diverse world, but that's just where I stand on it. Anyone supporting that type of crap can rot as far as I'm concerned.

Having said that, data on racial bias in America is collected as mandated by federal law to monitor racism and hopefully provide solutions. Have you ever studied the statistical trends or racial bias in American healthcare EI? If you did, and you saw bias, what would be your reaction? I don't see how I'm obsfucating the issue. I can cite some of the studies if you like.

I'm not doubting that some folks might exploit racism, or any group conflict to make political hay. All I'm saying is that that activity, if it generates any racial bias at all, accounts for a minor fraction of the overall problem.

i think he was talking about tey.

Michelle Malkin gets the same treatment. On the back cover of her new book she prints the email addresses of people who have sent her nasty emails 🙂

Brilliant!

yeah.... I was

Wow .... little touchy there pepper

I definitely know racism exists. I see it as do most of us. Jesse and Al do nothing but exploit it.

Now statistics on the other hand tend to be a load of crap. Raw data is what you want.