Oooooooh. Will the Michael Steele catfight finally expose the Republicans' ugly racial underbelly?

-- by Dave

The whole Michael Steele debacle -- embodied in the RNC debate that took place earlier today -- really underscores, to a large extent, the realities of the 2010 Election. To wit: Why should Republicans be eager to replace their leadership in a year where they made historic gains in the House? Shouldn't they reward the mastermind of such success?

Indeed, that's a point Steele emphasizes in his defense. Indeed, he explicitly takes credit for the outcome in the House: "My record stands for itself. We won."

The answer, as everyone knows, is that Steele didn't mastermind this election at all. He was at best an incidental figure in the outcome. The 2010 results were not the product of anything concocted or engendered by Michael Steele. All he really managed to do was blow a lot of fund-raising opportunities.

So who WAS the mastermind of the 2010 Election? If anyone, it was Roger Ailes -- a reality that hardly anyone seems to want to acknowledge, including Democrats. Indeed, this was the Fox Election in every respect. Nearly every candidate who won got major a push from Fox. The most energy came from a Tea Party "movement" almost wholly engendered by Fox's relentless and unapologetic propagndization campaign.

The GOP owes its House victories not to Michael Steele but to Fox News. That makes Steele utterly dispensable, especially after two years of gaffes and goofiness. So Steele is out there promising to go all-out to defend himself. In RepublicanSpeak, this means he's going to viciously attack his opponents.

Gee, wonder if he'll bring up Saul Anuzis' predilection for mentoring young neo-Nazis. Or if he'll again claim he's being held to different standard as a black man. Get out your popcorn!

Meanwhile, in today's debate, Steele did bring up a point not very popular with the Tea Party set:

Calling the GOP "the party of Lincoln," Steele stressed that Republicans must continue efforts to reach out to non-traditional constituencies, namely Hispanics and African-Americans.

"This country is a lot bigger than we think it is sometimes," Steele said. "We cannot be a party that sits back with a litmus test and excludes. The national chairman cannot go into a state and say, 'You're less Republican than we are, I will not talk to you.'"

No wonder they want to get rid of him.

[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]