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Steele's prominence at convention stirs pride, doubts
Status on national stage contrasts with state role
By David Nitkin
Sun National Staff
August 30, 2004
NEW YORK -- Less than two years ago, Michael S. Steele was struggling
to pay his bills. He drained his retirement accounts, borrowed against
his home and scrambled for consulting clients as he pursued a passion
for Republican politics.
Now, he earns a six-figure salary as Maryland's lieutenant governor and
travels the country as an emissary for President Bush. He is in demand
like never before.
While Marylanders may regard him as a politician they are still getting
to know, Steele is forging a national reputation that threatens to
outstrip his accomplishments.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer described him yesterday as "one of the party's
rising stars" and a "key speaker" at the Republican National Convention
that begins today. During Steele's appearance on CNN's Late Edition,
Blitzer also repeatedly called him the Republican answer to Barack
Obama, the black Illinois senatorial candidate who earned glowing
reviews for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention
last month.
Steele addressed the Obama comparisons by saying the Illinois state
senator touched on traditional conservative themes during his address
in Boston.
"Barack Obama gave a great Republican speech," Steele said on the show.
"I hope to do the same."
'This is cool'
Tomorrow, Steele, 45, receives a chance to match Obama word-for-word in
a featured evening speaking spot, a coveted opportunity that eluded
even Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
"My reaction is, this is cool," said Steele during an interview in his
State House office last week, as a computer monitor displaying the
draft of his convention speech flickered over his shoulder. "When you
get a call from the White House, saying the president would like you to
[do something], that's cool."
As one of just three African-American Republicans elected statewide in
the country, Steele is a valued commodity this election season for a
party that hopes to broaden its appeal among minority groups. When he
takes to the stage inside Madison Square Garden, he is expected to tell
a national audience why blacks should support Bush, and why a party
with a reputation for shunning minorities actually offers a welcoming
home for them.
Steele said yesterday he would be giving a "traditional, Republican
speech."
On the same night, two other African-Americans -- Rod Paige, the
secretary of education, and Erika Harold, Miss America 2003 -- will
also address the crowd.
Some critics say Steele's visibility is more symbolism than substance.
The former Prince George's County and state GOP chairman who left a
career as a corporate lawyer to launch a consulting business does not
yet have the track record to warrant such fame, they say.
"The gender and racial voting patterns confirm that white males
comprise the base vote for the Republicans. For a party trying
desperately to conceal that image, Steele provides an ideal mask, not
merely because he is an African-American but because he is quite
conservative" said Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
"The fact that Steele will be given such a prominent role at the
convention demonstrates how desperate the Republicans are to repeat
their efforts in Philadelphia four years ago to portray themselves as
something other than the white, male-dominated party they are,"
Schaller said.
Such talk makes Steele fume.
"We're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't," he said.
The showcase of African-Americans at the 2000 convention was a
legitimate effort to demonstrate the party's appeal, he said.
"If we don't stress within our ranks the African-Americans that are
part of our party, if we don't make an effort to reach out, then it's
like 'Oh, see, they don't care about black folks. They are a racist
party,'" he said.
The Republican Party had been a "champion of civil rights" for a
century from the Civil War until the mid-1960s, Steele said. But
beginning with Barry Goldwater, the party embarked on a strategy of
building winning coalitions by appealing to "white male voters in the
South [who] were growing disaffected with the Democratic Party."
With the nation becoming increasingly diverse, the strategy must be
reversed, Steele said. Supporters of the lieutenant governor say he is
just the person to lead the effort.
'Work to do'
"He is a shining example to the country of the open tent of the
Republican Party," said Carol L. Hirshburg, an Republican political
consultant from Maryland. "I certainly know many Republicans who are
not white males. No one in the party, including the president in his
Urban League speech, denies that we have work to do in increasing our
support in the African American community."
During his three-minute interview yesterday, Blitzer called Steele
"someone who is generating a lot of buzz in GOP circles."
Raised in Washington by adoptive parents, Steele attended Archbishop
Carroll High School, a Catholic institution that nurtured his religious
faith. He attended the Johns Hopkins University on a partial
scholarship, and spent three years in a seminary studying for the
priesthood. Deciding that the clergy was not for him, he earned a law
degree and spent seven years with a Washington firm and a few months
with the Mills Corp., a mall developer, before starting a consulting
business and spending much of his time on Republican politics.
His breakthrough came in 2002, when then-Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
selected him as a running mate. Steele was chairman of the state party
at the time, and was so cash-strapped that he negotiated a $5,000-a-
month consulting contract with the party to help pay his expenses.
Since Ehrlich's election, he has headed a commission to revamp the
state's minority business efforts, and was recently asked by the
governor to conduct a review of the state's schools.
But on some issues he has been silent. During the campaign, Ehrlich
said Steele would review Maryland's death penalty practices for racial
bias. But Steele opposes the death penalty, unlike Ehrlich, and the
review was not released.
Steele says that there are no hard feelings between him and the
governor, even though Ehrlich was bypassed for a prime speaking
opportunity this week. And, he says, he has no jitters.
"I am an African-American Catholic Republican from Maryland. Nothing
makes me nervous. I have been through it, baby," Steele said.
The same faith that led him to the seminary is also guiding his words
this week.
"I won't say that every word has been prayed over, but certainly
sections of the speech have been prayed over to make sure I am
conveying the right thoughts," he said. "I know I am not walking on
that stage alone. I know that sitting over one shoulder is my guardian
angel, and over the other shoulder is the hand of the Lord."
Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun