GOP Doesn’t Give Latinos Real Power

According to a piece from the National Journal, some Latino lawmakers are taking Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to task for not giving Latinos in the Republican party any real power. Gee, haven’t we heard this same story before with the Democrats?

The way it breaks down is this. After the 2008 election and Barack Obama’s historic win, the Republicans wanted to highlight their own ethnic diversity. So they elected Steele as RNC chair. He hasn’t really worked out that well because he didn’t really have a lot of experience, or support for that matter, so he ended up performing to the low expectations his “backers” had of him in the first place.

So now that the GOP are coming back in power, they want Steele to move over for someone else. Steele says he’s staying because, “Who you elect as our next chairman will speak volumes about our willingness to truly be the party of Lincoln.” Inspirational imagery aside, Latino Republicans are mad that Steele has totally copped out on the Latino issue since he’s been in power.

They say he hasn’t promoted a Spanish language media presence, hasn’t adequately supported key races, has let people like Newt Gingrich with his American conference fill the void and generally hasn’t taken a leadership role in recruiting Latino voters. Well, well, I guess there’s plenty of Latino courting to go around, ey?