Michael Steele: Affirmative action hire gone bad

AJC.com
Cynthia Tucker
9:59 am April 2, 2010, by ctucker

I’m a supporter of affirmative action, but, unlike its critics, I’ve never believed that promoting diversity requires hiring someone obviously unqualified who cannot do the job or who cannot grow into the job. Those are affirmative action hires gone bad, and they should be dumped.
Michael Steele is an affirmative action hire gone bad. He was voted in as head of the Republican National Committee because the party wanted to increase its appeal among voters of color. With the first black president elected on the Democratic ticket, Republicans needed to show America that they, too, wanted to promote diversity (without having policies that actually appeal to people of color.)
But Steele bumps along from one controversy to another. The WSJ’s Kimberly Strassel says:
The freewheeling spending and lack of internal controls are, to many in the party, the latest evidence that Mr. Steele has yet to figure out his role. That confusion could mean the difference between a decent GOP midterm victory and a big one.

Full Story: http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2010/04/02/michael-steele-affirmative-action-hire-gone-bad/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker