Those pushing Gov. Palin for RNC chair have missed the train (Updated)

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We can't remember a time when we have had a significant disagreement with Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft. He's our conservative blogging colleague, fellow Sarah Palin supporter and a Catholic brother in Christ, but there's a first time for everything. Posting at Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, Jim has joined the "Sarah Palin for RNC Chair" bunch:

"Michael Steele has made too many critical missteps and has failed to lead the party against the radical Socialist agenda of the Progressive Democrat movement. The failure of Chairman Steele to successfully sell Liberty over Socialism, and to cultivate and facilitate those future candidates who can, is emblematic of the dysfunction of the Republican party, a dysfunction which has over the past four years led the party to near-ruin. We need a true and tested leader."

"We need Sarah Palin."

"The Republican Party needs Sarah Palin. The country needs Sarah Palin to battle the radical progressives in Washington."

The Missouri blogger then urges his readers to sign a petition to draft Gov. Palin as a replacement for Steele at the RNC and also links to a website created for the purpose of doing the drafting (Links to both are in Jim's post). While we agree with Jim that Steele has failed as RNC chairman and also that we need Sarah Palin, we do not agree that the best way for Gov. Palin to meet that need is necessarily from the RNC chairmanship. We have several good reasons.

As we said back when the idea of replacing Steele with Gov. Palin was first floated, we're not so sure that she would want the job. And we've long since moved on from trying to pressure her into doing things she may not want to do or may not yet be ready to do at a given point in time. We trust Sarah Palin to make the right decision in all cases. While we may not agree with every decision she makes, we will support her in all of her decisions nevertheless. She seems to be really enjoying the freedom to do what she's doing, and she's been very successful with the majority of the endorsements she is making. Why tie her down?

Plus, the chairmanship of either major party is largely a thankless job and literally a hot seat. It is mostly a place where politicians go to die after their they can no longer be viable candidates for elective office. And we don't believe Sarah Palin is necessarily through with being a player in elective politics. She hasn't ruled it out, and she's even hinted that if the right situation presents itself, she will take advantage of it. We're not among those who believe the push to sit the governor in the RNC chair is an ee-vill conspiracy by her political enemies to take her out of the 2012 presidential race, one which she hasn't (formally at least) yet entered. We're just not convinced going to the RNC lies along the path she has planned for herself. At best, it is a detour with few rewards and plenty of pitfalls.

We also believe that there is no shortage of Republicans who could do a swell job in Steele's place. Mitt Romney is just one of many. He's a great fundraiser, isn't given to putting his foot in his mouth nearly half as often as Steele, and he is well-liked by the establishment types who dominate RNC. Many of those establishment types aren't enamored of Gov. Palin, and it is their votes which determine who gets the chair. More likely possibilities than Romney or any other outsider include, but are not limited to, Steele's former rivals for the job such as Katon Dawson and Ken Blackwell. Other possibilities may present themselves after the RNC primaries are concluded this summer.

As we said in our first post on this matter, the RNC Chairman's only duties are to raise cash, recruit candidates, give speeches and not generate bad press. Unlike Obiwan Kenobi saving the Galactic Republic from the evil Empire, the GOP will not be saved by its chairman, and Sarah Palin is not our only hope for having a capable person in the position. The Republican Party will be saved, Ronald Reagan style, by a conservative presidential candidate who can make conservative principles make sense to swing voters who don't consider themselves conservatives. We believe Gov. Palin's talents would be wasted at RNC and her appeal to everyday Americans also lost in the job, one which involves dealing with the GOP high and mighty for the most part. In our opinion, she would be much more valuable as a candidate for public office or just doing what she is currently doing.

Finally, those who are climbing on the bandwagon on its way to the railroad tracks should be aware that the train has already left the station, and there won't be another one arriving until Steele's term runs its natural course ending in January. With only six months left in his two-year term, GOP movers and shakers want to avoid a battle to oust him when all of the party's energy needs to be focused on the midterm elections which are only a hundred or so days away. When they finally get around to making Steele a one-term chairman -- and they will -- the committee members will likely go with an insider, i.e., someone from among their own ranks. Against their nature, they went with Steele -- an outsider -- and that decision blew up in their faces. They will be disposed to return to what has worked for them in the past and elect one of their own.

So, no, we're not in the "Sarah Palin for RNC Chair" crowd.

Update: Jonah Goldberg agrees that the next RNC Chair should be chosen from the GOP establishment:

"I don’t think it’s a great idea for Palin to become GOP chair. It would certainly be fun, and Kevin makes some good points as to why Palin should do it, but I think the ideal GOP chairman (uh, -person) should be the most tea-partyish establishment Republican possible."

- JP

Sarah Palin for RNC Chair? (Updated)

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A growing number prominent conservatives are calling for the resignation of RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Liz Cheney is the latest to join Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, former South Carolina Republican Party chair Katon Dawson (who ran against Steele for RNC chairman last year), and blogger/CNN contributor Erick Erickson in calling for Steele to step down.

Steele was caught on YouTube Thursday saying that the war in Afghanistan is "a war of Obama’s choosing." The former Maryland Lt. Governor also said, "This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in," and he added, "The one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan."

Caleb Howe, Erickson's colleague at RedState.com, in a Friday op-ed, called Steele's remarks "disgraceful and embarrassingly inaccurate":

Obama did not “choose” this war. This war was brought to our shores on September 11th, 2001. America is fighting the war in Afghanistan. We did so under President Bush, we continue to do so under President Obama. Where others have failed, America succeeds.

Afghanistan is not lost. And Iraq was not lost when Democrats cried defeat. But defending these comments, Mr. Chairman? That's an unwinnable war.

Steele has an unfortunate habit of putting his foot in his mouth. Though a pro-life Catholic, he said in a 2009 interview that abortion is an "individual choice." In another interview last year, he called Rush Limbaugh's rhetoric "incendiary" and "ugly." Shortly after taking the RNC gavel, Steele's choice of phraseology for making the Republican Party more appealing to minorities was questioned when he said he wanted to apply GOP principles to "urban-suburban hip-hop settings." Perhaps the most bizarre thing he has said as RNC Chairman is that his gaffes were actually part of a strategy, the meaning of which had yet to be made clear. If his strategy is to hand the Democrats ammunition to shoot back at the GOP, Chairman Steele is succeeding, at least at that one level.

But the job of RNC chairman isn't rocket science. It's as simple as being an effective cheerleader for the Republican Party, raising a sufficient amount of cash to do battle with the Democrats and not generating negative publicity. Steele has failed to succeed at any one of these three tasks. Much as it hurts to admit it, your editor was one of those who supported Steele for the RNC chairmanship. He had an impressive resume as Lt. Governor of Maryland, chairman of GOPAC, chairman of the Maryland Republican Party and chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Central Committee. He had also delivered blockbuster speeches to the 2004 and 2008 Republican National Conventions. With fundraising experience at the county, state and national levels, as well as a demonstrated ability to speak effectively, he seemed like a natural for the RNC position. But for some reason, since winning his job as RNC, Steele has repeatedly shown that he doesn't engage his brain before he opens his mouth. We agree with those who say that it's time for him to go.

But who should replace Steele at RNC? Some are saying that it should be Sarah Palin, among them The Daily Constitution:

"There is no other Republican today that the progressives hate or fear more than Palin. The GOP desperately needs her leadership, star power, and fund raising abilities to accomplish the political victories in November that the party is hoping for to regain either the House or Senate. After the latest foot in mouth incident by RNC leader Michael Steele, the time for Palin may be near if she is up to the challenge."

While we agree that Gov. Palin is a proven fundraiser and that she really fires up the base, we're not sure that she would want the job. She seems to be enjoying the freedom to do what she's doing as she travels around the country, speaking out on the issues, meeting people, endorsing winners and giving Democrats heartburn. Why would she want to give up that freedom? When she resigned as Governor of Alaska one year ago, Sarah Palin liberated herself. Once liberated, the last thing that should happen to a soaring spirit such as hers would be to have its wings clipped.

Update: AT NRO's The Corner blog, Kevin D. Williamson joins the discussion:

"This is a job for Sarah Palin. Palin would be a much better RNC chairman than presidential candidate or freelance kingmaker. She'd raise tons of money and help recruit good candidates, i.e., she'd excel at doing the things Steele should have been doing instead of appointing himself Republican pundit-at-large."

We still don't see it happening. Not that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate wouldn't do a great job. We agree with Williamson that she would. But we question his premise that she would be better as RNC chair than as a presidential candidate or freelance kingmaker. She's doing an outstanding job of the latter, and we join with many others who have said that she would be a formidable candidate. It's just that we doubt that the establishment types who dominate the committee would nominate Gov. Palin for the RNC chairmanship, and even if they did, we're not all that sure that she would want to run for the position. But we've been wrong before... once or twice.

- JP

Sarah Palin for RNC Chair?

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Kathleen McKinley, who also blogs at the Houston Chronicle as TexasSparkle, says it's time for Michael Steele to go:

The buck stops with him. He wasn't aware? Well, he should have been. The staffer involved has been fired and the money will be returned. But for Steele to allow this is inexcusable. The other expenses are troubling as well. People in Washington seem to think that they are entitled to live large on other people's money. God, we are all just sick of it.

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I've been a supporter of Steele from the beginning. He's had some problems and many have wanted him to step down for a while. I disagreed. But now, I think I may have been wrong about that. It's time for him to go.

Who should replace him? Sarah Palin.

While we were early supporters of Chairman Steele, we're frankly tired of making excuses for him. The RNC needs a chairman who only only makes news when bringing in gobs of donor money, helping deserving candidates get elected and taking the battle to the Democrats. Actually, we're more troubled by his high-roller expense account than we are over the stupid nightclub thing, embarrassing as it may be.

But we can't say that we agree that Gov. Palin should replace Steele, unless she really wanted the job. But we seriously doubt that she would want it, as it seems to be out of phase with what she's doing now. Her multi-year contract with Fox News would probably preclude it.

We think Mitt Romney would be an ideal candidate for the position. It's basically a fundraising job, and he's proved that he can get people to donate loads of cash to political causes. Besides RomneyCare wouldn't be an impediment to him in the role of RNC Chairman, but in his persona as a GOP presidential candidate, it hangs around his neck like an albatross.

- JP