RNC Chairman Michael Steele rumored to face a no confidence vote, segregationist to be elected in his place.

Michael Steele, the first African-American RNC chairman, is rumored to be facing a no confidence vote instigated by Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

This follows several media 'fiascos' on Steele's part; the largest being when Steele attacked radio show host Rush Limbaugh's hope that Obama fails. This catfight ends as suddenly as it begins. Limbaugh's response succinctly summarizes the RNC's concerns - by showing even the slightest support towards Obama, Pelosi, et al., he jeopardizes the GOP's chances in the 2012 election. Should Obama's economic plan fail, some feel his defeat is certain, though not in the way Limbaugh expects.

But the art of political gaffes is hardly limited to talk show disputes.

Steele's victory "marks a step away from the balkanized Southern white ethos of the party," Marc Ambinder [CBS News chief political consultant] said.

[...]

"We have been mis-defined [sic] as a party that doesn't care, a party that's insensitive, a party that is unconcerned about minorities, a party that is unconcerned about the lives and the expectations and dreams of average Americans," Steele said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Ironic words given Steele's current position: facing down Katon Dawson, loser in the RNC Chairman election and a man who entered politics in order to fight desegregation.

I’ve always been involved in politics. And I guess it goes all the way back to my school career and education. I, in the 1960s was a product of school segregation, where we took our schools and completely disbanded them, and made racial equality. Fifty-Fifty. And the kids had no choices. They closed Booker T. Washington, Blease [sic], down here. A pretty good school.

Government reached into my life and grabbed me and shook me at the age of fifteen. I remember how blatant it was that government just thought that they knew better, that government just thought they knew better what to do in my school.

The RNC's first elected African-American chairman is under the threat of replacement by a man who lived in a whites-only community for the last dozen years. Whether or not Steele understands the main motivation for his sudden political climb (hint) and whether or not someone who bends like a limp noodle in the face of conflict is at all fit to run a major political party, this is not the greatest way to shed accusations of racial insensitivity.

Certain fringe elements of the Republican party, perhaps the ones whom Limbaugh jokingly calls "informed, involved, engaged and caring", have drawn fire for their own ugly, inflammatory remarks during the 2008 presidential election. Michael Steele's election marks a supposed change wherein the GOP transforms into an equal opportunity racial utopia but instead the rumor mill is pushing for Katon Dawson, loser by eight votes, to oust him because they don't think he can handle the job.

For the record, Katon Dawson is hardly more qualified.

They made America a better – different – place. But you go look at the people... A protégé of mine, Lee Atwater. Lee Atwater was in his early thirties and one of the most powerful people in the country, with an office in the White House.

Dawson fails to mention that Atwater, apprentice and former RNC chairman himself, capped his infamous career by touting racism as a major political goal of the GOP's southern strategy.

Atwater : ''You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

''And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me -- because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'''

Luckily, this no confidence vote is just a rumor so far. One that Dawson has denied. It seems the RNC might continue its own image reconstruction. Whether or not Dawson can convince a single African-American to vote for him may in fact be a moot point either way.