2006 Prognostication: He Is A Shoo-In
(We have begun the document analysis; Thomas' is below ... Scroll Down for it!)
Who am I referring to? Hmm ... I wonder. It would not happen to be the next senator from the state of Maryland, would it? Why ... Yes, I think it would be in an exclusive interview with Hugh Hewitt. The transcript you are about to read is courtesy of Generalissimo Duane.
03-17steele.mp3
HH: I'm joined now by Michael Steele. He's the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and he is also a candidate for the United States Senate. Just today on Neil Cavuto's show, I was touting the Maryland Senate seat as one of the possible pickups for the Republican Party. Lt. Gov. Steele, great to have you on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
MS: It's great to be with you. How's it going?
HH: Good, good, good. Now this is the first time we've chatted, and I really must confess. Though I'm a political junkee, when I lived back there, I was a Virginian. And I really don't know your state, and I didn't think Republicans were allowed to live there.
MS: Generally, they're not.
HH: Okay. (laughing)
MS: But I managed to sneak in, in the dead of night, and place camp, and I've been going ever since. And now, we're up to about 30 or 40 of us, and we're making a lot of noise.
HH: Michael Steele, tell people about this race, your likely opponent, and how Maryland came to be in play, previously a dark blue state, but a lot of people are looking at that and saying Michael Steele's the guy to make it slightly red.
MS: Well, you know, we're working for the color purple here. And that's the goal.
HH: That's very good.
MS: And Maryland is really much a state in transition. I've been Lieutenant Governor for about three years now, and we were elected, Governor Ehrlich and I were elected in 2002, first Republican ticket to be elected in 40 years. And I currently serve as the first African-American elected statewide in Maryland. And so, that dynamic, with that election, really began to change the ground a little bit. So Sarbanes retires, announces his retirement a year ago, and immediately, the speculation was well, who are the Republicans going to run? And a lot of my friends in Washington, and in the state, started talking to me about the potential of this race. And I'm a political junkee like you, so I know the numbers, I know the realities. And I evaluated it, and what I saw was something in the people that said they were ready for something a little different. They're ready for a change. And I think I represent that change, and I think that's why the Democrats have been so afraid of my getting into this race, and have been relentless in their pursuit of me. About eight months before I even announced that I was going to run, they were already at their typical usual tactics.
HH: In fact, yesterday, federal prosecutors announced that they would proceed against a Chuck Schumer staffer...
MS: Yeah.
HH: ...working at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who rifled your personal files, broke into your credit records. I hope she does some time. I hope they don't give her a slap on the wrist.
MS: Well, you know, they're...I doubt it at the end of the day. She'll do about 150 hours of community service, and then they'll look to expunge her record at the end of that, as long as she doesn't do anything else. But the question for me is what signal are you trying to send? In an age when everyone is clamoring at the President about wiretappings, and privacy, and protection thereof, here we have the Democratic Senatorial Committee, under the leadership of Chuck Schumer, stealing my credit report.
HH: Yup.
MS: And what's even worse...I mean, at least the government, the President's talking about wiretapping those who want to kill us. I mean, these guys are stealing my credit report for purely political gain.
HH: Right. Michael Steele, they don't try to slime people they're not worried about, so you must have the profile and the achievement behind you that makes them sweat at night. Have you got a likely opponent yet? Do you know who the Democrat's going to be?
MS: Ben Cardin, Congressman Cardin, is the number one choice. He is the darling of the leadership of the Democratic Party here in the state and nationally. The problem they have is a gentleman by the name of Kweisi Infume, who is African-American, former head of the NAACP, and former Congressman himself. And they've all but kicked him to the curb, so it's created an interesting tension within their base, in how they treat their only, and first and only African-American to run statewide here in Maryland against how the Republicans have responded to my candidacy. It's like night and day.
HH: I've interviewed Mr. Infume a number of times back in my television days with PBS. He's a tremendous orator, very charismatic. I doubt he'll go quietly into the night.
MS: He will not go quietly into that good night, trust me. And he plans to stay in this race right through the end. And so, they've got an interesting little pickle to work through. And my attitude's very simply this. I will be ready for whoever shows up the day after the primary.
HH: Now when you were Governor Ehrlich's running mate, how did you two do? Did you win by 500 votes, 5,000, 50,000? What was the race?
MS: We won by 66,000 votes.
HH: Okay, that's a good margin in Maryland.
MS: And it was...again, it was a shocker for folks, and we had about 9% of the African-American vote in our election, 2002. Right now in this race for the United States Senate, and this is what got the Democrats so worried, I'm carrying 31% of the black vote.
HH: Well, of course you would be. I mean, you've been out there talking about opportunity and achievement.
MS: Yup.
HH: And doing so without condescension, or without the tired old rhetoric of those people who've been around leading the civil rights movement for 40 years. Instead, you're out there actually talking opportunity. Michael Steele, how much do you have to raise to win this race?
MS: I've got to raise somewhere between eleven and fifteen million dollars.
HH: Man, that's a lot of dough.
MS: It's a lot of change, and we're working hard to do it. This is a national race, Hugh. You're going to be talking about this race, you're going to be following this race. Right now, it's the number 6 race in the country, and it's one of the best, as you noted on Neil Cavuto's show, one of the best opportunities for a pickup that Republicans have in this cycle. It's a dynamic race. We're going to make it a lot of fun, but we're all over the country, we're here at home working hard to raise the dollars that we're going to need. And a lot of people are responding. I've been very pleased with that. And we've picked up in the last...probably since last October when I officially announced, some 4,500 new donors to our campaign.
HH: Wow. How many of those are using the website, Steeleformaryland.com? Are they all...
MS: We're beginning to see that, and one of the things I'm looking for are opportunities where I can promote, let people know we're here, because a lot of people are calling my state offices saying hey, I hear he's running. How do I find out? So the website is www.steeleformaryland.com.
HH: And it's steel-e for Maryland. Yeah. Steele with an e for Maryland.
MS: Right. Steele with an e for Maryland.com. You go there, you can log on, you can follow what the latest is on what's happening in the race. You can donate, you can volunteer. I had a gentleman call, send an e-mail to the office, to tell me that he just contacted his buddy who lives in Bethesda here in Maryland, and he said he told his friend for the months of September, October and November, I'm planning to come and stay with you, because I want to work on the Steele campaign. He's from Wisconsin.
HH: You know, I hope everyone in that city as well, all those young Republican staffers, and all those young independent people down there, and government workers know they've just got to break with Maryland's past. I mean, it's really tough there. It's been such a culture of corruption in Maryland for so long, that you and the Governor are breaking rocks. But they're not going easily, are they?
MS: They're not going easily, and as they're putting up a fight, they're fighting us at the legislative level here in the state capitol. Certainly, they've put a big target on my back. I mean, I've already had a Democrat member of our Congressional delegation tell me that after the primary, in this general election, they will have every national Democrat in the country coming in here to take me on.
HH: When is their primary?
MS: September 12th.
HH: So they have a late primary, though, so they're going to be slugging it out right...
MS: Yup. Exactly.
HH: And they can't really come in against Infume until after that, can they?
MS: Right. It's all...and it's an interesting dynamic, because if Infume somehow wins this nomination, the politics in the state kind of shift, because he is very liberal, he is very left, and very extreme. And so, the moderate conservative, the Reagan Democrats in the state, of which we have quite a few, and the independents who tend to lean Democrat, aren't necessarily going to warm up to that, and I'll be there waiting.
HH: And you know, we'll be there covering it. Michael Steele, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, a great pleasure to have you on. We'll be back in touch repeatedly between now and November, as we look for the Turps to go red like their school colors in November.
This is something we cannot stress enough. There can be no misunderstanding in this. 2006 is as much a make-or-break year for the GOP as it is for the Democrats. The Democrats have a long road to haul in this upcoming election. A lot of people are not happy with them. John Murtha will face criticism in his home state from his opponent over his call for a troop withdrawal in Iraq. Lincoln Chafee is already facing a tough opponent in Steve Laffey. And if either Cardin or Mfume thinks they will have an easy go at Michael Steele they are nuts. He will not go away. Racist slanders like the Sambo comment made at a Democrat event, the theft and attempted exploitation of his credit record do not faze him. He is not going to be swayed, and as Hugh pointed out, by keeping a level head, it is out that Chuck Schumer is connected to that crime.
Now, of course we are not making an accusation towards Senator Schumer; that would be foolish without any proof. However, I question how he could let such a theft occur by a staffer out of his office. Anyway, when it comes to Maryland, this could very well end up being the number one race to watch. Thus far, his campaign has not been bad. He has had no slip ups. And as long as he keeps that appeal for change going, I cannot find a reason why the voters of Maryland would not vote for him. He is standing on his word, and that word has been kept throughout his political career.
This is one of those races we need to support. This election, as I said, is make-or-break for us, as well. The country is not too happy with us, either. They see a party where they cannot control their moderates, nor can they really stand up to the Democrats. Some may argue this, and cite the House. Ah, but the House has it's own problems. John Boehner has a ways to go in reform the House and cleaning the corruption in the party from within. The Abramoff scandal will still hang over many heads at the ballot box this November, and if you think the media will give the party a pass on that, think again. They had all the names released tarred-and-feathered from the moment their names were revealed. And yet they still turn a blind eye to Senator Reid's involvement in the scandal.
So, no, this year will not be an easy go for the GOP, either. We are going to have to really and truly work hard to ensure that two specific things happen:
The public must believe that our party is strongest not only in the war on terror, but also on the domestic front. This starts with the president's agenda, not theirs.
And, we have to show that, as the majority party, we will not be afraid of the minority and its ages-old, strongarm tactics. They cannot work on our party any longer for us to keep the trust of the nation.
Of course the agenda the GOP has to stand on must be a national platform. This must be recited and stuck to by every candidate running in the elections. We must be strong on national security, the military, and defense; only then can we win this war. We must be fiscally responsible, and control the spending in the Congress. Part of that fiscal responsibility comes from the taxpayers, and the taxpayer can help more with more of their hard-earned back in their pockets; the taxes must be cut, and further taxes cut to help the taxpayer in the future. Last but not least, our courts are still overrun by activist jurists, and we have vacancies awaiting a new jurist; we must work with the president to confirm those judges.
That is the national election agenda. Plain and simple. Steve Laffey is running on it. So is Michael Steele. If such a platform is truly embraced by those desiring a change from the status quo, then there is no Democrat that can stand in that candidate's path.
The Bunny ;)
(We have begun the document analysis; Thomas' is below ... Scroll Down for it!)
Who am I referring to? Hmm ... I wonder. It would not happen to be the next senator from the state of Maryland, would it? Why ... Yes, I think it would be in an exclusive interview with Hugh Hewitt. The transcript you are about to read is courtesy of Generalissimo Duane.
03-17steele.mp3
HH: I'm joined now by Michael Steele. He's the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and he is also a candidate for the United States Senate. Just today on Neil Cavuto's show, I was touting the Maryland Senate seat as one of the possible pickups for the Republican Party. Lt. Gov. Steele, great to have you on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
MS: It's great to be with you. How's it going?
HH: Good, good, good. Now this is the first time we've chatted, and I really must confess. Though I'm a political junkee, when I lived back there, I was a Virginian. And I really don't know your state, and I didn't think Republicans were allowed to live there.
MS: Generally, they're not.
HH: Okay. (laughing)
MS: But I managed to sneak in, in the dead of night, and place camp, and I've been going ever since. And now, we're up to about 30 or 40 of us, and we're making a lot of noise.
HH: Michael Steele, tell people about this race, your likely opponent, and how Maryland came to be in play, previously a dark blue state, but a lot of people are looking at that and saying Michael Steele's the guy to make it slightly red.
MS: Well, you know, we're working for the color purple here. And that's the goal.
HH: That's very good.
MS: And Maryland is really much a state in transition. I've been Lieutenant Governor for about three years now, and we were elected, Governor Ehrlich and I were elected in 2002, first Republican ticket to be elected in 40 years. And I currently serve as the first African-American elected statewide in Maryland. And so, that dynamic, with that election, really began to change the ground a little bit. So Sarbanes retires, announces his retirement a year ago, and immediately, the speculation was well, who are the Republicans going to run? And a lot of my friends in Washington, and in the state, started talking to me about the potential of this race. And I'm a political junkee like you, so I know the numbers, I know the realities. And I evaluated it, and what I saw was something in the people that said they were ready for something a little different. They're ready for a change. And I think I represent that change, and I think that's why the Democrats have been so afraid of my getting into this race, and have been relentless in their pursuit of me. About eight months before I even announced that I was going to run, they were already at their typical usual tactics.
HH: In fact, yesterday, federal prosecutors announced that they would proceed against a Chuck Schumer staffer...
MS: Yeah.
HH: ...working at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who rifled your personal files, broke into your credit records. I hope she does some time. I hope they don't give her a slap on the wrist.
MS: Well, you know, they're...I doubt it at the end of the day. She'll do about 150 hours of community service, and then they'll look to expunge her record at the end of that, as long as she doesn't do anything else. But the question for me is what signal are you trying to send? In an age when everyone is clamoring at the President about wiretappings, and privacy, and protection thereof, here we have the Democratic Senatorial Committee, under the leadership of Chuck Schumer, stealing my credit report.
HH: Yup.
MS: And what's even worse...I mean, at least the government, the President's talking about wiretapping those who want to kill us. I mean, these guys are stealing my credit report for purely political gain.
HH: Right. Michael Steele, they don't try to slime people they're not worried about, so you must have the profile and the achievement behind you that makes them sweat at night. Have you got a likely opponent yet? Do you know who the Democrat's going to be?
MS: Ben Cardin, Congressman Cardin, is the number one choice. He is the darling of the leadership of the Democratic Party here in the state and nationally. The problem they have is a gentleman by the name of Kweisi Infume, who is African-American, former head of the NAACP, and former Congressman himself. And they've all but kicked him to the curb, so it's created an interesting tension within their base, in how they treat their only, and first and only African-American to run statewide here in Maryland against how the Republicans have responded to my candidacy. It's like night and day.
HH: I've interviewed Mr. Infume a number of times back in my television days with PBS. He's a tremendous orator, very charismatic. I doubt he'll go quietly into the night.
MS: He will not go quietly into that good night, trust me. And he plans to stay in this race right through the end. And so, they've got an interesting little pickle to work through. And my attitude's very simply this. I will be ready for whoever shows up the day after the primary.
HH: Now when you were Governor Ehrlich's running mate, how did you two do? Did you win by 500 votes, 5,000, 50,000? What was the race?
MS: We won by 66,000 votes.
HH: Okay, that's a good margin in Maryland.
MS: And it was...again, it was a shocker for folks, and we had about 9% of the African-American vote in our election, 2002. Right now in this race for the United States Senate, and this is what got the Democrats so worried, I'm carrying 31% of the black vote.
HH: Well, of course you would be. I mean, you've been out there talking about opportunity and achievement.
MS: Yup.
HH: And doing so without condescension, or without the tired old rhetoric of those people who've been around leading the civil rights movement for 40 years. Instead, you're out there actually talking opportunity. Michael Steele, how much do you have to raise to win this race?
MS: I've got to raise somewhere between eleven and fifteen million dollars.
HH: Man, that's a lot of dough.
MS: It's a lot of change, and we're working hard to do it. This is a national race, Hugh. You're going to be talking about this race, you're going to be following this race. Right now, it's the number 6 race in the country, and it's one of the best, as you noted on Neil Cavuto's show, one of the best opportunities for a pickup that Republicans have in this cycle. It's a dynamic race. We're going to make it a lot of fun, but we're all over the country, we're here at home working hard to raise the dollars that we're going to need. And a lot of people are responding. I've been very pleased with that. And we've picked up in the last...probably since last October when I officially announced, some 4,500 new donors to our campaign.
HH: Wow. How many of those are using the website, Steeleformaryland.com? Are they all...
MS: We're beginning to see that, and one of the things I'm looking for are opportunities where I can promote, let people know we're here, because a lot of people are calling my state offices saying hey, I hear he's running. How do I find out? So the website is www.steeleformaryland.com.
HH: And it's steel-e for Maryland. Yeah. Steele with an e for Maryland.
MS: Right. Steele with an e for Maryland.com. You go there, you can log on, you can follow what the latest is on what's happening in the race. You can donate, you can volunteer. I had a gentleman call, send an e-mail to the office, to tell me that he just contacted his buddy who lives in Bethesda here in Maryland, and he said he told his friend for the months of September, October and November, I'm planning to come and stay with you, because I want to work on the Steele campaign. He's from Wisconsin.
HH: You know, I hope everyone in that city as well, all those young Republican staffers, and all those young independent people down there, and government workers know they've just got to break with Maryland's past. I mean, it's really tough there. It's been such a culture of corruption in Maryland for so long, that you and the Governor are breaking rocks. But they're not going easily, are they?
MS: They're not going easily, and as they're putting up a fight, they're fighting us at the legislative level here in the state capitol. Certainly, they've put a big target on my back. I mean, I've already had a Democrat member of our Congressional delegation tell me that after the primary, in this general election, they will have every national Democrat in the country coming in here to take me on.
HH: When is their primary?
MS: September 12th.
HH: So they have a late primary, though, so they're going to be slugging it out right...
MS: Yup. Exactly.
HH: And they can't really come in against Infume until after that, can they?
MS: Right. It's all...and it's an interesting dynamic, because if Infume somehow wins this nomination, the politics in the state kind of shift, because he is very liberal, he is very left, and very extreme. And so, the moderate conservative, the Reagan Democrats in the state, of which we have quite a few, and the independents who tend to lean Democrat, aren't necessarily going to warm up to that, and I'll be there waiting.
HH: And you know, we'll be there covering it. Michael Steele, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, a great pleasure to have you on. We'll be back in touch repeatedly between now and November, as we look for the Turps to go red like their school colors in November.
This is something we cannot stress enough. There can be no misunderstanding in this. 2006 is as much a make-or-break year for the GOP as it is for the Democrats. The Democrats have a long road to haul in this upcoming election. A lot of people are not happy with them. John Murtha will face criticism in his home state from his opponent over his call for a troop withdrawal in Iraq. Lincoln Chafee is already facing a tough opponent in Steve Laffey. And if either Cardin or Mfume thinks they will have an easy go at Michael Steele they are nuts. He will not go away. Racist slanders like the Sambo comment made at a Democrat event, the theft and attempted exploitation of his credit record do not faze him. He is not going to be swayed, and as Hugh pointed out, by keeping a level head, it is out that Chuck Schumer is connected to that crime.
Now, of course we are not making an accusation towards Senator Schumer; that would be foolish without any proof. However, I question how he could let such a theft occur by a staffer out of his office. Anyway, when it comes to Maryland, this could very well end up being the number one race to watch. Thus far, his campaign has not been bad. He has had no slip ups. And as long as he keeps that appeal for change going, I cannot find a reason why the voters of Maryland would not vote for him. He is standing on his word, and that word has been kept throughout his political career.
This is one of those races we need to support. This election, as I said, is make-or-break for us, as well. The country is not too happy with us, either. They see a party where they cannot control their moderates, nor can they really stand up to the Democrats. Some may argue this, and cite the House. Ah, but the House has it's own problems. John Boehner has a ways to go in reform the House and cleaning the corruption in the party from within. The Abramoff scandal will still hang over many heads at the ballot box this November, and if you think the media will give the party a pass on that, think again. They had all the names released tarred-and-feathered from the moment their names were revealed. And yet they still turn a blind eye to Senator Reid's involvement in the scandal.
So, no, this year will not be an easy go for the GOP, either. We are going to have to really and truly work hard to ensure that two specific things happen:
The public must believe that our party is strongest not only in the war on terror, but also on the domestic front. This starts with the president's agenda, not theirs.
And, we have to show that, as the majority party, we will not be afraid of the minority and its ages-old, strongarm tactics. They cannot work on our party any longer for us to keep the trust of the nation.
Of course the agenda the GOP has to stand on must be a national platform. This must be recited and stuck to by every candidate running in the elections. We must be strong on national security, the military, and defense; only then can we win this war. We must be fiscally responsible, and control the spending in the Congress. Part of that fiscal responsibility comes from the taxpayers, and the taxpayer can help more with more of their hard-earned back in their pockets; the taxes must be cut, and further taxes cut to help the taxpayer in the future. Last but not least, our courts are still overrun by activist jurists, and we have vacancies awaiting a new jurist; we must work with the president to confirm those judges.
That is the national election agenda. Plain and simple. Steve Laffey is running on it. So is Michael Steele. If such a platform is truly embraced by those desiring a change from the status quo, then there is no Democrat that can stand in that candidate's path.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 12:56 AM
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