March 6, 2009
RNC Member Dr Ada Fisher was on Rachel Maddow. She sent to 13 members of RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s transition team an email (which was leaked) suggesting Steele should consider stepping aside because the RNC hasn’t been doing their job - raising money for their candidates. Evidently there is a history between them - she not being a great fan of his, which Steele’s spokesman said publicly.
Bits of her email, which she did not realized was leaked. From The Hill:
FISHER: I don’t want to hear anymore [sic] language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn’t going to win us any votes and makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish.
Hughley called the Republican National Convention “literally looked like Nazi Germany“. Steele wasn’t fazed - said nothing and then went on to insult Rush Limbaugh
FISHER: Limbaugh has already promised that ‘His Conservatives’ won’t be giving to the RNC. I would suggest to you that that is a real bet. If we can’t raise money and continue to allow the alienation of the few varifiable [sic] red states remaining, we are foolish.
FISHER: I have never seen such ineptness in our GOP leadership. And I though we handled the 2008 elections very poorly.
She also reportedly called the Limbaugh-Steele clash a “Republican Horror Show”.
From the MSNBC transcript:
MADDOW: “U.S. News & World Report,” yesterday, quoted an unanimous top GOP strategist saying, quote, “If his implosion continues, RNC members are likely to call a special session to dump him for an effective chairman.”
….You will recall that Michael Steele offering the, quote “friggin‘ awesome” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal some, quote, “slum love.”
Recall Mr. Steele calling civil unions crazy. You‘ll recall him insisting that in all human history, government has never created a job. Hmm. Mr. Steele has also failed to hire staff to run the Republican National Committee and, of course, he memorably has promised more outreach to urban-suburban hip-hop settings via an off-the-hook Republican public relations campaign.
Now, in a new radio interview, Mr. Steele has also said that Republicans over the years, quote, “in trying to be, you know, cool and hip in a Democrat way, we failed.” Mr. Steele then went on to explain how he thinks of the task ahead for the party he leads.
“I‘m putting the party on a 12-step program of recovery. And this is going to take some time, it‘s going to take some effort.”
[...] On top of all this, Michael Steele continues to have a cloud hanging over him from his last run for public office. He’s currently under FBI investigation for possible fraud after he paid thousands of dollars in campaign funds to a firm called Brown Sugar that was controlled by his sister. A former Steele campaign official says that no work was performed in exchange for those payments.
In addition, WBAL in Baltimore is reporting allegations about thousands of dollars Mr. Steele paid to a different firm during that same failed 2006 Senate bid. It was more than $60,000 in payments labeled as political consulting fees, but they were paid to a company that traded commodities. Their business was like trading coffee and minerals and stuff. And the company had forfeited its license to operate in Maryland a year before the payments.
[...] Mr. Steele told the “Washington Post” in an interview publish today, quote, “I’m in the business of ticking people off. That’s why I’m chairman.” Steele also told “The Post”, quote, “Everyone has a role to play, but at the end of the day, all roads are going to lead to this desk.”
Then Maddow talked about how Steele threatened to financially sanction the Rep Senators who backed barry’s bill (Collins and Snowe from ME, Specter PA, ). Snowe asked him if it was true - he said no and then later said yes he wasn’t going to back down from it and then donated $1M RNC dollars to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Why he needs a staff.
Also, you might recall Steele was in the center of the “Oreo cookie” controversy when he was running for Lt Governor of Maryland that may or may not have happened. The cleaning crew, reportedly, never found a single chocolaty bit.
The interview proper from the transcript:
MADDOW: Joining us now is Dr. Ada Fisher of North Carolina. Dr. Fisher, many, many thanks for coming on the show tonight.
DR. ADA FISHER, REPUBLICAN NAT‘L. COMMITTEE MEMBER: Well, thank you for inviting me. I‘d like to also thank (INAUDIBLE) Hendersonville, North Carolina, for agreeing to let me meet here with you in this public forum.
MADDOW: Sure. You are the first Republican National Committee member to publicly call for Michael Steele‘s resignation as chairman. What are you main concerns about his chairmanship?
FISHER: Well, first of all, let me say that I sent a memo to 13 members of, people who I thought were on Michael Steele‘s transition team and not to the media. So, I was surprised to find that people are quoting from the memo about various things that I said. What I said to the transition team and what I stand behind is I believe that, given all the things that are happening, it would be a good idea for Mr. Steele to consider stepping aside and letting the—and letting the RNC elect a new chairman. And you can call it whatever you want to, but that‘s what the memo said.
My concerns are, number one—that the job of the RNC is to raise money and get our candidates elected. We also have to sit down and talk about what our strategies are. We have been diverted by nipping and sniping from a lot of different sides, and we have not gotten to our primary mission. And if we don‘t get to our primary mission, we won‘t be effective in helping our candidates get elected both in 2010 and 2012.
We also have a challenge, because we have people in local races, from school boards to county commissioners who need our help. And we need to be out in the counties, where I am now, trying to drum up support and get the Republicans energized to take on this task as well. And that is what our mission is and that‘s what we should be doing. And I don‘t think that we have put the time into that.
MADDOW: I know that your memo was not intended for the media. It did leak, which means that somebody who received it decided to let it—to let it get out to the media. What we got from the memo was reported in “The Hill” newspaper. I wonder—given that—what kind of response you have had directly from the people to whom you sent this memo, from the transition team, from other RNC members?
FISHER: I haven‘t received any response from anybody that I know of. And I checked my email at a different computer today about 4:30. So, I haven‘t received anything.
And when you called me, it was the first time that I knew that the memo was leaked. And that‘s just not standard operating procedure nor is it correct. And we need to tighten up our ship and do better.
MADDOW: Well, Mr. Steele‘s transition chairman did say publicly today that—essentially, that you just got a grudge against Mr. Steele, that you have been gunning for him essentially since he decided to run for chairman. That‘s the way publicly he‘s responding. What‘s your response to that?
FISHER: Well, I think that his response is absolutely wrong. I don‘t have a public grudge against anyone. My role at the RNC National Committee woman from North Carolina is to help get our candidates elected.
And if we are not about that business, then we are not doing what we are supposed to. I‘ve also said that we must have transparency in all of our operations because I am accountable to my state and the people in this state. And people want to know what‘s going on. Now—that‘s it.
MADDOW: OK.
FISHER: And I don‘t have a grudge against anybody.
MADDOW: In an e-mail that you wrote—in this email that you wrote, you said and I‘m quoting here from, again, something you did not intend to be public but it is. “I don‘t want to hear anymore language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn‘t going to win us any votes and makes us, frankly, appear to many blacks as quite foolish.”
I mean, Mr. Steele made history as the first ever black party chairman. You are one of only three members of the RNC who are African-American. Why do you think he specifically makes the Republican Party look foolish to black people?
FISHER: I think that he makes people—he makes us look—first off, we have an 11th commandment. And that commandment says we should not speak ill of other Republicans. Mr. Steele has a right to say what he wants as does Rush Limbaugh.
My concern is, we need to focus on our mission and our principles. We need to talk about the fact that this economy is failing and we need to promote what is the Republican response. We need to talk about the fact that we have healthcare coming from the White House, and Republicans need to say this is what our response is. Those are the challenges that we face.
And the Democrats are doing a good job of getting us off-task and off-mission.
MADDOW: Do you think that Mr. Steele should stop talking to the media as long as he is chairman? Would that be—would that be a positive step in your mind?
FISHER: What I think should happen is Mr. Steele and the RNC needs to come together and talk about several issues. If you read the memo further, you would say that—you would hear that we are having a phone conference on Friday. And I asked to talk and discuss these things on Friday in the phone conference. So, I haven‘t received a response to that.
We need to talk to each other not about each other. We need to get it straight what is going to be our mission so that we can go with a unified front and say, this is what we believe. The principles of this party are correct.
I am writing a book now which is called “Commonsense Conservative Prescriptions.” And the subtitle says, “It‘s not what you say, it‘s what they hear based on what they‘ve seen.” And I think that that is one of the dilemmas for the party. We have the right principles. People have not seen us use them and promote them in a way that they can relate to, and we need to do a better job of that.
MADDOW: We‘re just about time, just one last quick question. Are you, at all, concerned about those financial scandals surrounding Mr. Steele? Having spent money on a—given money to a company run by his sister, apparently, for work that was not done, this other allegation about spending $60,000 for consulting with a company that appears to be a minerals commodity trading firm—are you concerned about those things as well?
FISHER: I‘m concerned about how we use and operate money throughout the Republican Party, not just in his case. I ran a campaign and the FEC came down on me for some late reports which were not my fault but related to a third party. So, we got some cleaning up in campaign finance reform to do all along. But I would say to you, if the FBI can investigate Mr. Steele for his finances, somebody needs to look at the Obama campaign and its finances, which are not subject to public scrutiny and should be to the same extent that we are holding Mr. Steele and others.
MADDOW: Republican National Committee member, Dr. Ada Fisher, thank you for coming on the show tonight. I really appreciate your time, ma‘am.
FISHER: Thank you very much.
No comments:
Post a Comment