Steele should take RNC post

Word today (Washington Times) is that Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele will be offered the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. He also may be offered a Bush Administration cabinet post.

He should take the RNC job, for several reasons.

1. While he lost the Maryland U.S. Senate race - narrowly - and needs a good job, he showed extremely good skill as a campaigner and nearly pulled off what many said couldn't be done. His campaign ads were, in our words, "a hoot"! He has intelligence, common sense and a grasp of the English language that makes other GOP politicians (out of politeness we will not compare him to the president) look tongue-tied.

2. He has the fire for the job. Ken Mehlman may have done okay as a political director for Bush under the tutelage of Karl Rove, but he was less credible out there on his own. The GOP re-elect effort was too genteel, too lackluster, given the circumstances of the times. Steele is no "yes" man to Rove or anyone else. Frankly, given the loss of both houses in Tuesday's elections, Republicans do not "owe" Rove or the president any particular loyalty. Job One is preparing for 2008.

3. Only incidentally is race a factor here. Michael Steele is black. So what? He's a formidable voice, and that makes him a valuable commodity in any color. And if he can engage the African-American electorate on the issues, so much the better. We need more Lincoln, and Reagan, Republicans.

It is generally agreed that the GOP lost Tuesday's elections because the party began to revert to the country club, blue blood model that made it so wimpy during the first part of the 20th Century. Green eyeshade people, the bean counters for the Great Society. The party needs to rediscover its voice as an active champion of conservative ideals of limited government, lower taxes, respect for the nation's Judao-Christian heritage, and responsible human freedom. It should repudiate the globalist agenda that would see the United States water down its constitutional guarantees to its citizens and become just another mediocre cog in the great internationalist wheel.

With Michael Steele at the helm of the RNC, there must might be a chance that this could happen. He should run as fast and as far as he possibly could from any involvement in the lame duck administration. It would be a compromising and crippling move.