RNC Elects A New Chairman Today-- No Howard Dean-Like Salvation Figures Available

As usual, they've run a classy campaign

I think most Republicans who are even aware that their party is choosing a titular head today, would like to see all the contestants lose. The whole campaign-- or smear fest-- has been a tremendous embarrassment that's done nothing but point out that the GOP is almost as low on star power as it is on viable ideas.

The best news anyone's heard out of this traveling freak show is that one of the more disgraceful of a brace of really disgraceful dim lights, Chip Saltsman, hoisted the white flag yesterday and slinked back under his rock. Best known for his racism and extremism as the Republican Party head of Tennessee, his main campaign theme was a viciously bigoted CD he sent out over Christmas called "Barack The Magic Negro." The CD was played by the actual GOP leader, the pill poppin' pervert Rush Limbaugh, on his demented radio show. And it isn't that Republicans didn't love it; it's just that they were embarrassed to be caught loving it. Saltsman pulled out of the race yesterday because he couldn't even get the bare number of signatures on his petitions to qualify for the ballot.

His departure will probably help the next most vicious neo-Confederate racist on the ballot, far right extremist loon Katon Dawson, chairman of the most reactionary state party in the country, South Carolina's. Dawson is the candidate of the unreconstructed South and his membership in an anti-Black country club doesn't hurt him with his constituency. He is the voice of the old slaveholding coalition that dominates what was, ironically, once the party of Abraham Lincoln.

Still, the favorite-- at least for the first vote-- is the candidate of "No Change, Evah," the Bush appointee, Mike Duncan. Duncan is the champion of the status quo, which would seem to be a bad box to be in for a party that just got hosed on every level-- not just suffering a catastrophic electoral college landslide-- losing even GOP stalwarts like Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, etc-- but also suffering its second consecutive wipe-out in Congress, losing high profile incumbents like John Sununu (NH), Elizabeth Dole (NC), Norm Coleman (MN) and Gordon Smith (OR) in the Senate-- plus every seriously contested open Senate seat-- and House members Robin Hayes (NC), Ric Keller (FL), Tom Feeney (FL), Bill Sali (ID), Randy Kuhl (NY), Chris Shays (CT), Joe Knollenberg (MI), Tim Walberg (MI), Virgil Goode (VA) Thelma Drake (VA), and Steve Chabot (OH). But Duncan's strength is how absolutely hideous the alternative look.

Michael Steele walks down the hallway and simply exudes "loser." And for an extremely right wing group like the RNC... well, there are suspicions that he may harbor a tendency to work with Democrats and there's even a rumor that he's... well, you know (not white). Speaking of exuding loserability, Saul Anuzis is the Michigan party chair, and his state just lost all the seriously contested races it was involved in. And then there's Ken Blackwell, famous for having stolen the 2004 election for Bush when he played the Katherine Harris role in Ohio. He's a favorite of the non-Southern/non-racist neo-Nazi branch of the party, all 10 of them. His only role is to hold his 10 votes together and make sure they go to Duncan and not Dawson. He's hoping Dawson will give him some kind of job so he doesn't have to wind up on an unemployment lone, where he might get recognized and... well disrespected.

Right now the pledged votes are Duncan 36, Dawson 19, Steele 18, Anuzis 16, and Blackwell 13. Saltsman had zero. We'll know today but I'll venture that the Party of the status quo will vote for... the status quo, not out of enthusiasm for Duncan but just because he's there and the alternatives seem even worse. We'll post an update if whoever wins is reported anywhere in any reliable media today.

UPDATE: AFTER 3 VOTES... A LOT OF NOTHING

The establishment guy-- Duncan-- just dropped out! Time for an admission: we're half hoping Katon wins and leads his extremist followers in a sucessionist movement.



UPDATE: STEELE BEATS DAWSON 91-77

Looks like Rush Limbaugh's assistant at the RNC will be Michael Steele. I'm sure he's as surprised as you are. In the movie O’ Brother Where Art Thou, the political boss-- Pappy O’Daniel-- is being challenged by a fellow who uses a midget as part of his stump speech. Upon seeing the success the challenger is making, O’Daniel’s son opines, “Pappy, Maybe we oughta get us one of them midget fellers.”

Steele finally won something, likely to be not just a first but his last as well. He just announced he's going to bring the party to every board room. ROTFLMAO! By the way, today's Hill just released the final senatorial fundraising numbers for the last quarter. The Democrats stomped all over Rush's party.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised nearly $7 million, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raised just more than $1 million, according to numbers provided by the committees.

The drubbing concluded a two-year cycle in which the Democrats raised 70 percent more than Republicans, $163 million to $94 million.