Been gettin' together with Michael Phelps and smokin' a big splif mon.

They've decided being hated by the majority of USians is the desired goal of politicians?

Steele (and the media) are working off the Rasmussen polls. DougJ has a post about how the Rasmussen polls differ from all of the other polls (Gallup, etc), and how his write-ups on this and global warming have a decidely partisan bent. While Rasmussen is okay on political races, he also has a history of conservative activism, and so his polls need to be taken with a grain of salt. But the media consider him a neutral actor and are treating him as such.

How does this differ from a thousand other arguments they make?

Sarah Palin is an expert on foreign policy because if you go someplace in Alaska she's never been you can see a part of Russia where 20 pwople live.

or

John McCain was above the fray and stayed away from negative politics in the past election.

Steele seems to fit right in!

Mr. Benen, what is called for here is not a GOP Nonsense Decoder Ring. Try using your imagination here. Try summoning up the vision of Steele in a frilly hoop-skirt, a lot of make-up, a white powder wig---and a name change: Michael Antoinette, His Royal Twitness of the GOP.

What is needed is not a Ring; what is needed is someone who can mass-manufacture a plethora of guillotines, and do so quickly.

GM, perhaps?

I think Steele and the repubs got rope-a-doped. They thought their spokesmorons were winning the day with the 24/7, insane gibberish about socialism and whatnot.
Steele and the repubs are going up against reality without much in the way of facts or evidence. All they can do is reach for whatever they hope might sound good.
If pressed for an assessment of last night's presser, I'll be impressed if Steele can form coherent syllables.

By using "bling," he's trying to be too severely hip.

Well, at least he didn't say, "For shizzle."

Knowing that his comments will be forgotten as soon as the new weather forecast or the cricket scores come out, Steele is free to say anything that pops into his mind. This guy is a weakling in a meaningless position.

I don't normally jump to conclusions about racially coded speech, but I think we've got some here. Consider the origins of the word "bling," and consider that Steele has to prove his creds to a largely racist party, many of whom wanted one of the white guys with the Magic Negro CDs and pink-only country clubs.

The fuller quote from Steele was this: "just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years.. to get a little bling, bling."

I hear that and think, "Attention, white Republicans! I'm not a welfare queen/king like other black people!" It's a smack at the poor, yes, but also at African Americans.

I'm willing to be talked down on this. Anyone?

This is the guy who thinks teachers and firefighters are unemployed -- what do you expect?

Steve, to get your new GOP BS decoder ring you'll have to buy a big box of (dirty) Trix. You may also want to procure some X-ray Specs to try and see into Republican thought processes, which are currently surrounded by dense fog.

Remember the goofy kid who so desperately wanted to be part of the cool gang and then when they let him hang around would start spouting this crazed nonsense that was his interpretation of what he thought he had to say to stay in the group?

Steve -
Play the whole thing backwards, like the Beatles' White Album. Some peculiar folks tend to uniquely hear messages and believe them. in their alternate reality.

I like Seth Myers line about steele and the republicans from SNL

"you do know it doesn't just work with any black man?"

Indeed.

A mene tekel:

In the long run nothing good comes out of an administration when nobody but goofies are opposing it.

GOP = Grand Old Pravda. They can't make any effective political decisions without either a: screwing over millions of Americans or b: betraying their conservative principles. So their only hope to retain relevance is to be obstructionist douche bags while convincing their base that it's all Obama's fault & the wheels are coming off his Admiistration, all theb bwhile hoping their braying drowns out thoughtful critics who are able to point out their hypocrisy. Every time Obama's popularity drops a point, they'll insist it's proof that nothing is getting better or will get better. If his ratings drop beyond a margin of error, they'll demand impeachment hearings "before it's too late." Their philosophies have failed, now they must actively make Obama's agenda fail and hope to convince 50-percent-plus-1 of the voters that we were all too impatient, had we just let tax cuts for the wealthy, gutting education & the enviornment, endless wars in the Midddle East and no government oversight on consumer goods foods & pharmaceuticals work for just 4 or 8 more years, everything would've worked out, but nooooo, we had to switch horses midstream...

It's all they have, to make our side look more inept & hope that enough people won't notice that they're actively trying to undermine the nation for their own partisan gain. Here's hoping we as a nation see this & they never succeed.

While Rasmussen is okay on political races - Walker

I have to quibble a bit here. Pollsters only get graded on the polls that coincide with actual elections. There are no pop quizzes. Look at the various poll results a week or so before an election and the day before the election, and you will quite consistently see them converge. I would conclude that the untested polls are largely used to deceive rather than educate.

"Obama is upside-down in the polls" makes perfect sense.

Remember, everything in repug world is backwards: Smirky the Deserter was a war hero, waterboarding isn't torture, Iraq had WMDs, and when his approval ratings fell below 30 percent, Smirky was the greatest president in history.

In repug world, Obama's 70 percent approval is indeed upside-down.

Shortstop's onto something.

I thought Steele's accession was due to the Republican party wanting to seem "with it." Now I think an added benefit is that they have cover to pursue racist dog-whistle rhetoric.

In the current climate, Steele's only real audience is committed partisans, mostly on his own side. In that context his job is to cheerlead. Walker and shortstop seem to have it right - a combination of selective citation of the Rasmussen poll and a coded appeal to Republicans.

Reading the Times this morning reminded me that the Republicans are the children of the Social Darwinists of the 19th century.

According to them, helping poor people will only degenerate the human race. Best to let them die out so that the select (the rich and powerful) can prevail.

Perhaps Steele conflates polling numbers with golf scores, thinking lower numbers are better?

I think the - what shall we call it? - autoracism theory makes sense. This was a dog-whistle.

Forget Elmer Fudd, Buggs Bunny would have a field day with Mr. Steele! -Kevo

When you live in Republican Bizarro World, everything appears to be the opposite of what it really is.

He's the perfect GOP chairman...if you are a Democrat.

Republicans are so obsessed with getting "their own Obama" that they picked a token leader who doesn't appeal to a lost demographic (black voters), doesn't speak the language of western swing voters (who like fishing and ATVs), and is only good at recycling the white Southern GOP rhetoric he's heard all his life in the DC area, only with an "urban" twist. Meanwhile the GOP blocks a Latina from joining the cabinet. Do women and Hispanics vote? I don't think the GOP can be troubled to answer that question, they are too busy staging their own 'Flavor of Love' reality show, staring one Michael Steele.

Anyone care to give me a hand?

The Obama-backed stimulus, [Steele] said, "is just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years.. to get a little bling, bling." [...]

Attention honkies! Attention honkies! : President Obama is black, I repeat, President Obama is black. Report immediately to the nearest gun store. Further, most Democrats are actually black people in disguise. Do not be confused by my skin color, you can dunk me in your milk! I repeat, President Obama is black!

Steele, before ducking into an elevator on on the second floor of the Capitol: "I thought it was very, very interesting. It looks like he's trying to very hard to shore up support from Democrats" because "he's upside-down" in the polls.

Attention honkies! President Obama is black. White people do not like black people, unless they're black like me, which isn't very black at all. Therefore Barack Hussein Obama is muslim terrorist and therefore a RABID PARTISAN. Honkies, please proceed to hide the liquor, the guns and the white women. Also, if you look at this chart of public opinion and turn it 180 degrees, President Obama is upside down! Which is a lot like being black, making Obama extra extra black.

(Democratic strategist Brad Woodhouse added, "Only someone who threw his campaign kitty around like a drunken sailor on make-work projects for his family while he was going down in flames at the polls would call assistance for the uninsured and food for the needy bling.")

Ah, but see, yachts are not bling, if they are paid for by sales of stock from companies that live off of government largesse. That's FREE ENTERPRISE. Whereas government money given directly to black people (there are certainly no poor honkies, and if there were, well, they're really black!) is SOCIALIZM and COMMUNISM. And SOCIALIZM has clearly resulted in a black President, so clearly SOCIALIZM is TEH EVIL. Whereas rich honkies are very very white, which is FREE ENTERPRISE.

max
['No doubt TEH SOCIALIZM will be be painting the town BLACK.']

"They're mad, I say mad!!!

Maybe by "upside down in the polls" he means Obama's 67% approval rating kind of looks like Bush's 29% if you turn the numbers upside down, and squint.

inkadu: Shortstop's onto something.

Yup, as usual.

Pop Quiz: The Republican Party elevates a state government politician with a less than stellar record to a national position...and said elevatee possesses certain physical characteristics that traditionally don't have strong representation within the GOP.

The name of person who has been elevated to national prominence is...?

(hint: there's more than one possible answer)

Shortstop, once again, decodes the message. Steele reminds me of Randolph Scott. Many years ago in Los Angeles, the private golf clubs were bastions of bigotry. Most of them were WASP. The Jewish community was not allowed, forget about any persons of color and even actors were not allowed to be members. So, Groucho and friends started Hillcrest for Jewish members. Hope and Crosby opened Riverside for actors. However, the Los Angeles Country Club wanted to show they were "open" to lessers, so they made Randolph Scott a member and asked him to sit near the entrance to the Club House, so the world could see their token "actor". Steele is being allowed to sit near the entrance to the Rattle Snake Den; no "bling" to be worn on premises.

max: Pretty funny. But what's with "TEH"? I keep seeing it in blogs and everyone can't be mistyping "the", can they? ROTFLMAO. See, I'm hip to the mod lingo. Except the teh.

But seriously, everyone should take the time to click the links in the original post. I'm thinking where there's that much smoke there's a bunch of fire. This Steele is not just an idiot but a small time corrupt one. Once again when the GOP goes looking for a Negro they end up necessarily scraping the bottom of the barrel. Just check out the Supreme Court for example.

The Republican thought process as exemplified in the movie Inherit the Wind:

"The high-minded Drummond also scores when he forces Evangelical Brady to declare that only his particular interpretation of the Bible is correct - Drummond shouts out: "The Gospel according to Brady! God speaks to Brady, and Brady tells the world! Brady, Brady, Brady, Almighty!"

Evangelical Brady blurts out, like a mindless, stammering buffoon:

All of you know what I stand for - what I believe! I believe in the truth of the Book of Genesis! Exodus! Leviticus! Numbers! Deuteronomy! Joshua! Judges! Ruth! First Samuel! Second Samuel! First Kings! Second Kings! Isaiah! Jeremiah! Lamentations! Ezekiel! -"

http://www.filmsite.org/inhe.html

Obama doesn't do well in the Free Republic polls. That's the only thing I can think of.

What is the origin of "bling" and what does it mean, anyway? I don't recall hearing the word before 3-4 years ago.

If the Democrats can't handle the triple threat of Steele, Palin and Limbaugh, then we are truly and royally screwed. (as opposed to just royally screwed, which is where we are now)

I guess the idea would be that they want to create this huge negative narrative for two years, and then fall back on "moderate" voices like Huckabee or The Guvernator or whomever to offer a civilized conservative alternative to the whacko socialists.

This relies on two big assumptions:

1) That people who are scared shitless of not being able to pay bills, keep their home or afford medical care will continue to listen to rants that offer no tangible solutions out of the desire to have an enemy (it's worked before)

2) That Obama and the congressional Democrats aren't smart enough to counter this with political Kung Fu of their own.

From what I've seen of Obama, I think he is a highly persistent and adaptive political fighter that learns from his mistakes and has more than one fighting style. If I'm right, this age old strategy won't work for the GOP this time.

I hope I'm right.

Virginia - Here's your bling explanation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bling-bling

It's a hip hop term describing flashy shows of jewelry or diamonds that came to has come to mean any ostentatious displays of wealth.

It's important not to overthink this.

To Republicans like Steele any government spending is considered "bling." The GOP doesn't care what the spending is for, what it's potential stimulus factor is, it's all just bling.

This is why the GOP failed the American people while they controlled Washington.

grape: The name of person who has been elevated to national prominence is...?

(hint: there's more than one possible answer)

You got it. And like Steele waving around his "Not a Typical Black Guy, Y'all!" credentials, Palin rushed to assure anyone who asked her whether she was a feminist that she "doesn't like labels."

I'm willing to be talked down on this. Anyone?

Posted by: shortstop on February 10, 2009 at 8:52 AM | PERMALINK
__________________

Well, shortstop, I think you were close to the point, but then came to the oppoosite conclusion I made. Which is not to say you're wrong, just that I'm right (ba-dum bump)

Yeah, it's code, it's dog-whistle racism, but it's not Steele trying to curry favor with the white Republicans. It is an admittedly pathetic attempt to ingratiate the Republican party itself to African-Americans, with Steele as the conduit.

Think of that well-meaning-but-socially-inept teacher you had in high school (we all had at least one), who every so often would insist on putting the desks in a circle, and having a "rap session" with the kids, get in their heads, dig where they're coming from. The hep cat lingo might change from decae to decade, but the principle's the same: "If I act like I'm one of them, they'll trust me, and be more inclined to listen to what I have to say." These attempts at outreach were usually pathetic, just as Steele's is to the African-American community. But that's the mindset. If Steele talks the language of the guh-heh-to, then "those people" will be more inclined to believe that tax cuts for the wealthy and lead in their childrens' toys is aiight, because a brutha is telling them so. Steele should be ashamed of himself, for so willingly taking a part not only in his own degradation, but in the degradation of his own race and a vast percentage of the American population. But that of course assumes Steele is capable of shame. 30 pieces of silver is a lot of bling, Steelie. Heckuva job.

Actually, Steel is irrelevant. What his election as RNC chairman signifies is that the Republican bigwigs have resigned themselves to the fact that nationally the party will be in the wilderness for quite a while.

At least during the initial phase of that period of time it doesn't matter who the nominal head of the RNC is, as the party doesn't plan on doing any programmatic rejuvenation. So, Steele is just a placeholder with the potential upside that he might improve the party's image with minorities if he doesn't screw things up too badly.

The sign to look for is when the party heavyweights kneecap Steel, and that is what they will do, because that will be the signal that they feel the RNC chairmanship may begin to have at least some beneficial role for their electoral chances nationally.

Yours was actually my first take, slappy, but then I rejected it in favor of what I think Steele sees as his most immediately pressing job: getting the white-as-the-driven-snow (what is driven snow, anyway?) GOP to trust him.

To do that, he has to dance upon the tightrope of disparaging other blacks while always acknowledging that he's black, because the people he's working with sure as hell aren't going to forget it. Completely out of touch as he admittedly is-and how could someone in his position be otherwise?--I think even Steele knows that phrases like "Bush is my homeboy" and this latest bling debacle aren't exactly endearing him to the black community. On the other hand, 99 percent of the RNC probably thinks that shit is cutting edge, and they're congratulating themselves on having this hip but sensible black man on their side. They're the ones who are expectantly waiting for the black voters to show up in droves. They're the ones who won't be able to understand why having Steele around just didn't do the trick.

Ever seen a black person start telling mild black jokes to an all-white, backwards crowd in a desperate and painful attempt to preempt and take control of the elephant in the room? I think that's what Steele's doing here.

Steele? All I can remember is something about "I'm completely innocent and I'm cooperating fully with the FBI..."

Anyone care to give me a hand?

He's doing what all the other Republicans - and the presstitutes that cover them - are paid to do: LIE

The Republican Motto:

Just Lie! Its easier.

I think he's talking about the future results of the pork bill, not the hopes of the true believers and groupies a month into the presidency. See what the polls look like when unemployment goes to 24% and the auto companies go down for the final count.