Say Anything Blog

My guess is Gingrich gets it because he’s higher profile and better connected, but Steele should be the man as far as I’m concerned.

A battle to take the reins of the Republican National Committee is taking off between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steele.

Republicans close to each man say they are intent on ousting Mike Duncan when his tenure ends in January and to insert themselves to articulate a counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama´s administration.

A bevy of backers for each man, neither of whom is an RNC member, have been burning up the phone lines and firing off e-mails as they try to sway the 168 RNC members in the wake of the second consecutive drubbing of Republicans at the polls.

After the Republicans lost ground in the 2006 election Steele should have been the pick (and we should have picked different leadership in Congress as well, for that matter).  Picking Steele, a staunch conservative, instead of Senator Mel Martinez (a not-very-conservative pro-amnesty guy not at all unlike McCain himself in his policy outlook) would have singled to the party then that Republicans had gotten the message on election day and would be taking a new direction.

But the RNC didn’t pick Steele.  The RNC picked Martinez, signaling to the conservative base that they’d be getting more of the same big-government Republicanism for the next two years, and now the GOP has paid the price in yet another electon.

In the here and now, both Steele and Gingrich would probably be good choices to bring the party back to its conservative roots.  But I prefer Steele over Gingrich.  Gingrich endorsed the bailout, for one thing, and has spent far too much time of late flirting with the global warming crowd.  Plus, he carries with him a lot of political baggage from his days as House leader.

Better to make it Steele. and a fresh start.