Cynthia Tucker: Steele Would Have Been Fired a Long Time Ago Were He Not Black

Crooks and Liars:

During the panel segment on This Week, Cynthia Tucker explains why we're not likely to see Michael Steele go even after this latest dust up where so many are calling for him to be removed as chairman of the RNC. As she wrote in her column back in April, affirmative action hire gone bad, they're stuck with him.


TAPPER: Cynthia, you once called -- and let me underline -- you once called Michael Steele an affirmative action hire gone bad. What's your take on this?

TUCKER: Well, Michael Steele is a self-aggrandizing gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black. Of course, the irony is that he never would have been voted in as chairman of the Republican Party were he not black.

Let's remember how the party wound up with Michael Steele. In November 2008, the party was devastated that the Democrats had elected the nation's first black president, while the Republican Party was stuck with being seen as largely the party of aging white people, with good reason, a party that was hostile to people of color, especially blacks and Latinos.

So the party needed a new face, preferably a face of color, and they didn't have very many officials to choose from, so they came up with Michael Steele. And it is very ironic, since the Republicans have been so critical of affirmative action, to watch them stuck with their affirmative action hire that they dare not get rid of, because that would generate even more controversy.