Lawrence O’Donnell racially attacks Michael Steele?

H/T Dan Riehl. Via the Washington Times:

I don’t believe in reading racial tea leaves just for political gain, but what was Lawrence O’Donnell thinking? Here’s how he described RNC Chairman Michael Steele on his MSNBC program tonight:

“As the first congressional election during his party chairmanship approaches, Michael Steele is dancing as fast as he can trying to charm independent voters and Tea Partiers while never losing sight of his real master and paycheck provider, the Republican National Committee.”

Try, if you can, to imagine the outrage if Bill O’Reilly or some other Fox News personality had gone the air and said that the Democratic party was Barack Obama’s “master.” However, since Michael Steele is an African American who happens to be a Republican, I don’t suspect too many members of the media will be beating down Lawrence O’Donnell’s door and demanding an apology.

Below is the video so you can hear him say it and judge for yourself. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed it on my own but then I don’t go looking for this kind of stuff either. Whether you find it racially offensive or not, Hemingway makes a valid point. If it had been anyone on the Right who had said this re any black politico on the Left, it’d be all over the news for the rest of the week and on the Sunday news programs. And I would have said they’re making too much out of it.

And I think in this instance, while it wasn’t smart to phrase it like this, I’d say the same thing. Yeah, you can make it racist if you want to, but why? The Left only does it to beat Republicans over the head with race. Should the Right get all up in arms over this? Nah. We should fight legitimate battles with everything we have and keep it about substance. The Left will continue their ad hominem attacks on us, but we must be vigilant where it matters. And this…well, I don’t think so.

I just hope Michael Steele doesn’t play the victim card here. I think he’s done a good job recently and he needs to stay focused on the goal in November.


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