On January 30, 2009, the Republican National Committee (RNC) elected Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, as its chairman. It was a long and painful process, but on the sixth and final ballot, for the first time in its history, the Republican Party has an African-American at the helm. While Steele's selection is historic, it does not matter who is at the helm if the course that's being charted remains the same.

    After a string of devastating losses in the House, Senate and executive branch, as well as at state and local levels, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is charged with rebuilding a worn and battered party. His plan is to reach out to and attract new voters. Steele promises to "expand the base."

    Steele believes the Republican Party has an "image problem." He thinks that he will be able to bring the Republican message to African-Americans, Hispanics and suburbanites. "We are going to bring this party to every corner, every boardroom, every neighborhood, and every community" Steele says.

    This all may sound great, but the election of Steele raises a couple of questions that the Republican Party must answer for itself. First, what exactly does Steele plan to bring to African-Americans, Hispanics and others on these corners, in these boardrooms, and suburbs? Second, what was behind the selection of an African-American to bring the message?

    In his acceptance speech and on the Sunday morning talk programs, Chairman Steele stated, "It's time for something completely different ... we are going to say to friend and foe alike, we want you to be a part of us, work with us ... we're about winning elections...." The problem is that all Steele offered was the same tired rhetoric that his predecessors have offered. The same tired rhetoric that has resulted in major losses over the past four years. Steele never offered one substantive policy idea for people to consider. There was nothing different at all; it was the same old Republican wine in a new bottle.

    So far, it appears as though the Republican Party is demonstrating its ignorance of African-Americans, Hispanics and others who have been locked out of the party. They still refuse to acknowledge the need for innovative policy to help solve very complex problems, events and circumstances. Instead, they continue to rely on the same flawed policies previously rejected by African-Americans and Hispanics in the hopes of somehow obtaining different results. To its ignorance and detriment, the Republican Party continues to view the politics of African-Americans and other ethnic groups as devoid of substance, myopic, shallow and emotional; in fact, their politics are policy-focused and born out of a people's historical experience.

    Steele says that he is going to "&... build and grow the party in a way never seen before ... and redefine the conservative movement." The problem is that Steele and his Republican supporters see this as an "image problem" and not a problem of direction or a lack of substantive and inclusive policy content. They cannot "market" or sell their way out of this mess.

    A huge part of the Republicans' success in the past was based on their ability to market fear and sell it to the American people. After 9/11, they sold us the bogus "War on Terror" and "WMD's." They used Republican pollster Frank Luntz and his focus groups to develop "crafted talk" to make unpopular concepts palatable. They made the inheritance tax the "death tax," tax cuts became "tax relief," global warming became "climate change" and any legislation designed to provide funding for programs aimed at helping the less-fortunate among us were considered to be excessive government involvement.

    What "crafted talk" will Steele and the Republicans use to "re-image" record rates of home foreclosures, unemployment, business collapse, and bank failures? How about homeowner realignment, employment sector shifts, and major financial market corrections? How about homeowner realignment, employment sector shifts, and major financial market corrections?

    Steele says, "For so long we've allowed the Democrats to define us. We've allowed the media to define us." Last I checked, they've been very adept at defining themselves. It was Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin who tried to define who was American and who was not. It was Republicans who injected ideological Christianity into mainstream American politics, only to have Republican Bob Allen arrested outside the men's restroom of a Titusville, Florida, park for offering to perform a sex act on a plainclothes police officer. It was Karl Rove who, in an effort to counter real voting fraud concerns on the part of Republicans, urged the attorney generals to find and prosecute election fraud perpetrated by Democrats in states where there was no such fraud. It was Republicans who failed to see the victims of Hurricane Katrina as American citizens in need of help until public outrage demanded that they take action. It was the Republican Party that claimed the media were biased against them even as every independent survey pointed to just the opposite. Steele's attempt to blame the media and Democrats for their "image problem" is no more than old Republican wine in new bottles. Republican hypocrisy and policy failure is not an "image problem" or a creation of the media; it's a reality that the American electorate has come to realize and reject.

    The second question to consider has to do with race, and did race play any role in the election of Michael Steele as chairman of the RNC? Just three months shy of the nation electing its first African-American president, the RNC followed suit with the election of its leader. Is this coincidence, kismet or a concerted effort by the RNC to demonstrate that it recognizes, as its former head Mike Duncan stated, "Obviously the winds of change are blowing." If race was a factor, the RNC should be up-front and explain that it's proud of its vision, courage and new direction instead of trying to ignore the obvious.

    If the selection of Michael Steele as the first African-American chairman of the RNC is recognition that the winds of change are blowing; if the RNC needs to bring its message to African Americans, Hispanics, suburbanites and others traditionally locked out; if they are "… going to bring this party to every corner, every boardroom, every neighborhood, and every community," as Steele says, is he the person to do it?

    In order for a messenger to effectively bring a message into a community, that messenger must have standing or credibility in that community. Michael Steele may be smart, articulate and a wonderful American, but he has no standing in or connection to the communities he's targeting. The last time that Michael Steele championed a cause within the African-American or Hispanic community was never.

    If the RNC believes that it can promote the same failed messages and have African-Americans, Hispanics and others buy into them just because they're being presented by a Black face, they will be sadly mistaken. The targeted communities are much too savvy to fall for this political minstrelsy.

    While running for the US Senate in 2006 as a Republican, Steele agreed to an interview, but only under condition that his statements be attributed generally as a GOP Senate candidate, not to him personally. In this interview, Steele criticized the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war; he connected the war in Iraq to the increase in gas prices and violence in Lebanon, and criticized Bush's handling of Katrina, calling it a "monumental failure." When ABC News eventually attributed the comments to him and the Baltimore Sun later reported it, Steele tried to distance himself from his own remarks, claiming they were nothing more then a joke and insisting that Bush was his "homeboy."

    During Steele's same failed Senate bid, The Washington Post reported that the Steele campaign arranged for buses of homeless people from Philadelphia to distribute fliers at polls in majority African-American communities. The flyers contained statements that Michael Steele was endorsed by prominent state Democrats and African-American leaders who had not, in fact, endorsed him. The homeless people were falsely identified as volunteers although they were paid, and the campaign funds used for this purpose of hiring the homeless were not timely or properly reported or attributed to the campaign. Lastly, in radio ads played on "urban" radio stations during the campaign, Steele never identified himself as the Republican candidate in what has to be described as an attempt to mask his party affiliation, thinking that African-Americans would vote for him simply because he's "one of them." I think that's fraud.

    This past December, Republican national chair candidate John "Chip" Saltsman distributed a CD to fellow Republican Party officials entitled "We HATE the USA." One of the songs on the CD was entitled "Barack the Magic Negro." Instead of expressing outrage at Saltsman's vile and sophomoric attempt at parody, Michael Steele gave a very weak and safe response by stating the obvious, "Chip knows better ... You've got to be cautious, you've got to be smart, you've got to be appropriate. And, unfortunately, in this instance Chip was none of those things."

    In January, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said, "I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year and a half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed ... I hope he fails." Steele again gave a very weak and safe response by stating, "Rush will say what Rush has to say, we will do what we have to do as a party." In these perilous times, there is no space in the political dialogue for Limbaugh's comments; especially when they come from a spokesperson and champion of a major political party. When the president fails, regardless of his/her party affiliation, the country fails. As people are losing their jobs, losing their homes and pulling their children out of college; Americans have rejected the notion of party before country. We are all in the same boat, and when that boat is sinking, it's women and children first.

    RNC Chairman Steele's failure to articulate any substantive policy changes, his dishonesty during his failed 2006 Senate race, and his failure to condemn obvious sophomoric, ignorant if not bigoted actions and statements by fellow powerful Republicans indicate that going forward it will be the same ole' GOP.

    You can laugh at the Republican political minstrelsy if you like, but there's not a damn thing funny; the joke's on you. Again, it's just old wine in new bottles.

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