Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Former RNC rival takes shot at Steele: Race claims 'ridiculous,' 'disturbing'

By Eric Zimmermann / The Hill

One of Steele's rivals for the RNC chairmanship took Steele to task yesterday for attributing his problems to race.

Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio Secretary of State who ran against Steele for RNC chairman, said Steele's argument that he has a "smaller margin of error" beacuse he's black is "ridiculous."

"This notion that this disturbing pattern of gaffes and missteps is now being criticized solely because he is black, and that Barack Obama is being criticized for his big-government power grab solely because he is black -- that is nonsense," Blackwell told Fox News's' Neil Cavuto.

"And here's a person who is leading Lincoln's party, and now he's falling back on this crutch of race. That's disturbing," Blackwell added.

Blackwell, who currently serves as co-chairman of the RNC's redistricting committee, declined to call for Steele to step down, but urged the chairman to "right the ship."

"He can do that by saying, 'Look, there's a disturbing pattern that calls for transparency. It calls for greater accountability,'" Blackwell said.

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