To clean house in the GOP, Michael Steele must start with the party's "southern wing", the Dixiecrats and Jesse Helms rednecks who drove away moderates and independents. Steele has a mountain to climb in trying to rebuild his party.

If Michael Steel thinks that as an African American he would bring in a large majority of the minority votes then he must be living in the GOP bubble and that is exactly why he couldn't win his bid for US senate in his state after serving as a Lt Governor

Mr. Steele I am sorry to say this, you are just a window dressing for the Pat and Bay Buchana's, Tom Tancredo, Rush, Bill Orielly, Sean Hannity, and the right wing zealots of the GOP.

i enjoyed the comment in his letter about government bureaucrats deciding what care i get instead of my doctor. as if my doctor doesn't already have to ask a faceless, nameless, totally unaccountable bureaucrat at a big insurance company whether a particular treatment will be covered. i think that a government bureaucrat, who's boss you can vote out, is somewhat more accountable and better than an insurance company bureaucrat. but logic over rhetoric? not likely with the gop.

Mr. Steele,

As an African American I find absolutely nothing appealing about your party. Forget reaching African Americans and minorities through the use of hip-hop, instead of focusing on what their real needs are. You are so far removed from the lives of AAs and minorities that if you met the average AA, in particular, you'd have nothing to talk about and nothing in common. You and your cohorts live in a state of constant denial. Denial of the right of others to get ahead in this society. Denial of the stranglehold that the financial sector has on this country. Denial that many people in this country do not have health-care. Denial that you have outsourced so many American jobs until America now produces only a fraction of the products it produced 25 years ago. Denial that you mislead those who are not very well educated so that they vote for your party, even though they are voting against their own best interests, so that their fortunes continue to decline while those of you and your cohorts continue to increase. Denial that your party is the party of NO, especially when it comes to having NO viable ideas for improving the lives of all Americans.

Yes, Mr. Steele, Reaganomics and trickle-down economics has worked well for the richest of you in America, not so well for the majority of Americans.

Mr. Steele, the best that you could do for America is sit down and STFU! This would lead to a better America. And by the way, please forward this message to all of your members.

Thanks,
majii in GA

The choice of Mr. Steele was a masterful choice to resurrect the Republican party, a party who abandoned its' conservative roots and became a zombie neither living nor dead, with soulless policies that pleased neither the left nor the right, and whose only real goal was to win reelection.

Choosing Mr. Steele succeeds at several levels. In the first place, Having a Black conservative expose the assault of Obamunism on all things American can now be done without enduring the continual smoke and mirrors of the "racism" trump card being played after every conservative criticism. Now the left will be forced to deal with ideas in the harsh light of the public square.

Secondly, modern Republicans would rather abandon principal than risk losing an election; the problem is it isn't working. Bush 41 long ago demonstrated that Republicans usually lose both when they compromise conservatism. Steele must clean house with all who have strayed from the true faith.

Mr. Steele's first test of principal will be his
ability to exact punishment on "The Three Stooges" who willingly gave up America to the Obamination of Desolation, also know as the "Stimulus Bill". If Steele is the leader we hope he is, those 3 traitors will become political lepers and be wholely excluded from the party, and all 3 targeted with massive amounts of money to purge them from government in the next elections and be made an example of in the starkest terms possible.

Finally, in response to a previous comment and the new attorney general's challenge to the cowardice of Americans and race, let me help them both have a Michelle moment by boldly addressing race. When some 90%+ vote for a candidate of the same race in an election, certainly we've found a gold strike of racism. Let me offer to you exhibit one in the seething underbelly of American racism today, black America. Where is found any more festering rage, public scorn and hatred than in the black community for people not of their race? Answer-no where.

Now that that's out of the way, since blacks vote Democrat about 83% of the time in any election, why would the Republican party bother reaching out? What possible benefit would come from compromising principal for party affirmative action when the payoff in votes would be nominal under any circumstance?

Also, as in the Asian community, when the second generation of Latinos begin to realize the fruits of American life through hard work and academic achievement, they will begin realizing the advantages of keeping their own money and become increasingly conservative. With the growth of Latinos as a percentage of the population poised to dwarf black America, Blacks ignore the Republican party at their own peril.

Tell me this; with whites no longer the majority, and Asians and Latinos feeling no sense of ownership for America's slave history, what will be left of those exploited black Democrat's when the Left's cult of victimization finds no willing ears to hear anymore. Better to follow Mr. Steele to the American dream of self reliance, small government, color blindness and prosperity than find yourself a political and cultural afterthought when the current rabble of Marxists are tossed onto the ash heap of American political failure.

Why is Mr. Steele’s race an issue to anyone? Typically, it is those who believe in trying to manipulate others, and society in general, through racial politics and portraying everything through a racial prism, believe that Mr. Steele being Chairman is a cynical ploy by the GOP to appeal to minority voters.

I have found in life that people, who believe others are always lying to them, are actually the ones who are liars. That is why everyone with whom they are acquainted, they believe lies to them. They see their own failings and faults in others, and believe others are at least as guilty.

Now to the primary issue. That Mr. Steele has a difficult task is indisputable. That he feels it is necessary to attempt to find the greatest amount of common ground for all the GOP is not surprising. My hope is that he will become an even greater proponent of defending individual rights, liberty, fiscal responsibility and the Constitution.

Fortunately for Mr. Steele, as the Democratic Party moves toward federal government power and control over of the economy and in favor of increasing domination over the daily lives of all American citizens, the more the American people will rebel and resist. Liberty is popular, and if Mr. Steele would simply embrace it fully, he would easily succeed in reviving the GOP and leading them to electoral victory.

The defeat of the statists, socialists and worshipers of government and the victory of the Constitution and individual liberty is inevitable. The question is only how far we must fall toward a fascist and socialist society before the American people learn the lesson that a government that can give you everything is powerful enough to take everything.

I am finished with the Republican Party. I am seventy and have always voted for and donated money to the party.
I live in MI and have seen the devastation the collapsing auto industry has wreaked both on our state and from a personal family perspective. When I saw the antics of Shelby, that great glob of stupidty and McCorker, an embarassment to Tennessee, I said that is it. I e-mailed the party in my state not to send anymore papers or e-mails to me...that I am finished. I am not turning into a Democrat either and voting third party is useless; I learned that the year Clinton was first elected.
Tom in Alabama is right. Unless Steele manages to climb that mountain, and soon, Republicans might as well close up shop.