RNC Chair Steele Proclaims An Image Makeover For GOP

Newly-minted RNC Chairman Michael Steele is gearing up to attract young and minority voters in order to stem the tide of these groups siding more and more with the Democratic Party. Though don't worry if you are an arch-conservative, the party is going to stick to their old, antiquated ideas that have failed the country for decades now. This is merely an image makeover, one that reaches out to whoever will listen, including those in “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” and even "one-armed midgets."

From The Washington Times:

Having been elected to the job that the Bush White House and its political guru, Karl Rove, once denied him, Mr. Steele is running the show his way. To those who claimed he can't make the trains run on time, he has this message: “Stuff it.”

He stiff-armed an attempt to get him to elaborate on his public relations effort, saying he would be an idiot to give his opponents too much information, but indicated the Republican Party needs to break out of being considered a regional party.

”There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort” zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. “We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section ... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

But, he elaborated with a laugh, “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”

Always nice to throw an un-p.c. term in the mix to bring in those new groups, eh? Other than that though, he really had nothing to say policy-wise and doesn't want to. Instead, he utters words with nothing behind them. He talks about a new image, a new G.O.P., but really it is more of the same, only this time as a minority party with a much weaker power base. Though that doesn't mean he can't make people laugh, especially with quotes like these:

“It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook.” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele says the Grand Old Party is in need of an "off the hook" public relations offensive to attract young blacks and Hispanics. Does that mean cutting-edge? “I don't do 'cutting-edge,' “ he said. “That's what Democrats are doing. We're going beyond cutting-edge.”

Steele may think he's being cool by using the phrase "off the hook," but really when you are beyond the cutting-edge, it simply means you've already walked off the cliff...an appropriate metaphor for where the Republican Party wants to take this country.