Top Latino Group Hits Michael Steele, GOP For Skipping Their Conference

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/democratic-national-committee/top-latino-group-hits-michael-steele-gop-for-skipping-their-conference/

Top Latino Group Hits Michael Steele, GOP For Skipping Their Conference


This one won’t help the GOP’s minority outreach efforts.

The National Council of La Raza, a top Latino civil rights group, is taking a shot at RNC chair Michael Steele and several prominent GOP figures for skipping its ongoing annual conference, saying it raises questions about the GOP’s interest in wooing Latinos.

NCLR spokesperson Marie Watteau confirms to me that Steele, along with three Republican governors, were all invited to its conference, which is concluding today with a big speech by DNC chair Tim Kaine. But Steele and the three governors — Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, and Puerto Rico’s Luis Fortuno — all declined the invitations through the RNC, Watteau says.

Watteau adds that GOPers like Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain and both George Bushes have attended past conferences.

“You should certainly speak to the Republican Party about why they’re not here,” Watteau told me. “The Latino community is open to hearing from both sides, which is why both parties were invited. The Republican Party not being here may demonstrate a lack of commitment to our community.”

Making the optics of this worse, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were expected to vote overwhelmingly today against confirming Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. This, plus Kaine’s speech at the NCLR, have led Politico to opine that today is a “big day” for Dems.

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Update: RNC spokesperson Gail Gitcho responds: “The RNC Summer Meeting begins this week in California, which is why the Chairman was unable to attend. The RNC remains fully committed to growing its Latino coalition.”

[gratuitous]

1. The GOP has already rendered its verdict

They just spent the last month bad-mouthing the National Council of La Raza and Sonia Sotomayor's appearances there. Steele is a fool, but he's not an imbecile. He doesn't want to go before this group, which by all rights should be steaming mad at the Republicans, and get his ass handed to him. So he's skipping out, and leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. That's why he's chairman of the Republican Party.

[MineralMan]

2. The GOP, or what's left of it, has written off

the hispanic vote and the black vote. Depending on which wing of the party gains control, they may be writing off the moderate white vote as well. If that happens, the GOP will have only the grumpy white Christian fundamentalists on their side.

That appears to be the path they're on.

[calimary]

3. GOOD! We don't want them gaining ANY ground, ANYWHERE, with ANY groups.

The more marginalized they become, mired deeper in the fringe groups, the less likely they'll be to build their numbers back up to any significant levels. That's what the rest of us need, to save America. After all, Country First, n'est pas?

[MineralMan]

4. I agree, of course.

The more groups the disfunctional GOP alienates, the less likely it is that they will recover from their losses. Now, all we have to do is elect real progressives to the seats currently held by blue dog democrats. If we can accomplish that, and it should be our primary goal, we will be on a good road.