Nashville News Blog

Michael Steele came to Tennessee to speak to a roomful of rich white people over the weekend at the Sullivan County Republican Party fund-raiser. Pith wasn't there, but we feel 100 percent confident in our description of the demographic makeup of his audience. From reading the news reports, it looks as if the RNC chairman escaped without a committing a major gaffe, which is unusual for Steele. He stuck to a sure-fire script, calling out the Tennessee GOP's Public Enemy No. 1--House Speaker Kent Williams. As party chair Robin Smith watched from the head table, Steele said:

"Kent Williams betrayed every Republican in this state. Your chairwoman (Smith) immediately said 'We're going to get this thing worked out right.' You don't have to ever worry about people forgetting that (Williams) name again, because I can tell you one thing, when 1,172,000 people vote the Republican Party to control the state legislature and one man takes it away from them, I got a bull's eye right on his back, and we're taking him out. I want you to know we've got our targets, too.

"We remember those who serve well, but we also remember those especially who turn their backs on the party, who snatch victory away, not from the party, but from the people. So let the message go out -- we come to play, we play hard and we intend to win, completely."

Apparently, Steele didn't get around to mentioning his famous "off the hook" PR offensive to attract young blacks and Hispanic voters. Guess he ran out of time. It's just as well. After all, he was talking to the same Republicans who sent the "black bird mailer" that took down black Democrat Nathan Vaughn in last November's state House elections and gave us--ta-da!--Tony Shipley, who thinks God might scoop up Tennessee and drop the entire state into the ocean for letting gay people adopt orphans. In the audience, of course, was House GOP leader Jason Mumpower, who castigated Vaughn during the campaign as "better suited to be representing inner-city Memphis than the rural hills of East Tennessee." This particular group of Republicans might not have been very receptive to Steele's ideas on how to expand the party's appeal.