Blue Steele

(That title actually doesn’t make any sense, except that I just rewatched Zoolander.)

A number of commentators have expressed dismay over Michael Steele’s media performances since becoming RNC chairman. I confess to being a bit flummoxed over their dismay. Being a native Marylander, I can recall Steele being plucked from obscurity to chair the Maryland Republican Party. I can also recall his unimpressive (and unsuccessful) performance against Benjamin Cardin in the 2006 Senate race.

Part of the excitement among movement conservatives, it seems to me, that has surrounded Steele has to do with the inability to think politically on the part of people whose jobs it is to think about politics. They approach all politics like an episode of Crossfire. Because Steele, as a black conservative, became a figure of media interest, it was assumed that he would be a figure of political interest as well.

To put it another way, I think some people, based on little to no evidence, somehow decided that the impresiveness of Steele’s credentials had to exist in some proportion to the shamefulness of the attacks on him (and there is an article waiting to be written on how black conservatives bring out the racism of certain white liberals, much the same way that Israel brings out the anti-semitism of certain gentiles).