National Public Radio
John Ridley's "Visible Man"
February 5, 2009
Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.
After Thurgood Marshall stepped down from the Supreme Court, President Bush (the first) was luckily able to find Clarence Thomas right there at the top of the waiting list to replace him. When Barack Obama looked like he would sail into his Senate seat in 2004, Republicans airlifted in Alan Keyes to run against him.
And now that the nation overwhelmingly voted Obama into the White House, the Republican National Committee has elected its first black American — Michael Steele — as its chairman.
The RNC held what was perhaps its least diverse national convention ever in 2008. The knee-jerk reaction to Steele's election might be to label the move as a desperate affirmative action-type response to Obama, the shifting demographics of America and, as Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says, the potential that Republicans will become nothing but a regional party.
Hardly.
Full Commentary: http://www.npr.org/blogs/visibleman/2009/02/steele_elected_rnc_chair_dont_1.html
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