Man Of Steele

Michael Steele, who is cooperating with federal investigators (something you don't want in an RNC Chair) over post-election payments from his failed Senate run for work that was never completed to his sister, who happens to be Mike Tyson's ex-wife (something you REALLY don't want in an RNC Chair), is going on TV a lot to be the chief messenger for Republicans on the economy. This is a problem because he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Yesterday, Steele spoke to ABC's George Stephanopoulos about the Republican position on the economy, and inexplicably, stuck to the same position, arguing, "What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work."

When Stephanopoulos responded, "But that's a job," Steele added, "No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates."

Stephanopoulos, looking confused, asked, "So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?" Steele stuck to his guns, insisting that hiring someone to perform a service isn't an actual job because government contracts "have an end point." Apparently, a job is only a job if it's indefinite.

Stephanopoulos, still confused, said, "I guess I don't really understand that distinction." So, Steele kept digging, arguing, "If you've got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away." Stephanopoulos reminded Steele that "we've seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year." (If the possibility of a job "going away" is the standard for having a real "job," then we're all unemployed.)

Add in there the fact that he's in possible trouble with the law because he paid off his sister 11 months after she DISSOLVED her company (because the work went away, I guess) and you'll see the confusion. Also the fact that he was paid for a number of years as the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, which is, you know, a government job.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that he's trying to get down with the kids and go all street on yo' ass:

Just ran into new RNC Chairman Michael Steele who watched President Obama's town hall in Indiana and wasn't impressed.

The Obama-backed stimulus, he said, "is just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years.. to get a little bling, bling."

Ah, the Republican Party - where even the black people characterize black people as welfare kings and queens looking for a handout.