My Interview With Lt. Governor Michael Steele
At the 2008 Republican Convention in Minnesota, I had the pleasure of meeting Former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Michael Steele.
http://www.gopac.org/chairmanscorner/bio.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_S._Steele
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7wjJyMDUH0
Despite his lighthearted manner, Michael Steele is no Pollyanna. As a republican who happens to be black, he has seen the ugliness of ideological bigotry. He has had Oreo Cookies tossed at his feet. this was not done by conservatives.
Nevertheless, he keeps his head level and his disposition ultra sunny. Below are some of his comments that had the crowd rollicking at the convention.
“Are you ready to party in this house tonight?”
“We need a leader who understands the meaning of hard work and self sacrifice.”
“We need somebody who leads for the public interest, not the glamour for public applause.”
“Do you want to put country first?
Drill, baby, drill, drill now!”
“Do what keeps us safe, not what is politically correct. Let’s win the war on terrorism.”
“Associations, who you hang out with, does matter.”
“The corruption of our school systems leads to the weakening of our families.”
The crowd erupted, and fed off his passion. He was exuberant when I met him as well.
With that, I present my “walk and talk” interview with Michael Steele.
1) What are the most important issues of 2008?
MS: “The economy and energy. We have to get off of foreign oi, and that means doing everything, including drilling right here, right now.”
2) Who are your 3 favorite political heroes?
MS: “Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan.”
3) How would you like to be remembered 100 years from now? What would you want people to say about Michael Steele the person?
“I was someone who gave a d@mn.”
4) The democrats play identity politics. Given that the republicans are the party of John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Michael Steele, and the democrats are represented by Barack Obama and John Edwards, are the democrats bigoted against the follically challenged? Can John McCain finally crack the glass ceiling in the modern era? Is America ready for a bald President?
(Governor Steele cracked up, and was fabulous about answering the question.)
MS: “Absolutely! The democrats absolutely are prejudiced against the follically challenged! The republican party represents everybody. Yes, we can elect a bald guy President. Yes we can, yes we should, and yes we will elect bald John McCain the next President. That question was the question of all questions. Excellent question. I love it.”
Mr. Steele then turned to his handler, whose job is to get the Governor through the throngs without being slowed down, and said, “Get that guy’s information. Get his business card!”
He shook my hand vigorously, gave me a healthy pat on the back, and laughed on his way to the elevator. I ran into him a couple more times thorughout the convention, and he waved to me and smiled a wide grin.
As I said, his manner was affable, sincere, and fun. It was a pleasure meeting and interviewing Michael Steele because of his incredibly likable personality.
Also, for those who claim that America is racist unless we elect a black President right now, I say that they should put up or shut up, and get to work on helping Michael Steele reach the White House after John McCain and Sarah Palin finish their terms.
I will drill this message into the heads of people. If others request I take an easier approach, I will just respond as only Michael Steele can.
Drill, baby, Drill!
eric
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Man, that whole “drill, baby, drill” thing is sooooo lowbrow. I can’t believe you of all people would fall for that.
JMJ
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1815884,00.html
But there’s a flaw in that logic: even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer continental shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best. A 2004 study by the government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027. (If oil prices continue to skyrocket, the savings would be greater, but not by much.) Opening up offshore areas to oil exploration — currently all coastal areas save a section of the Gulf of Mexico are off-limits, thanks to a congressional ban enacted in 1982 and supplemented by an executive order from the first President Bush — might cut the price of gas by 3 to 4 cents a gallon at most, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. And the relief at the pump, such as it is, wouldn’t be immediate — it would take several years, at least, for the oil to begin to flow, which is time enough for increased demand from China, India and the rest of the world to outpace those relatively meager savings. “Right now the price of oil is set on the global market,” says Kevin Lindemer, executive managing director of the energy markets group for the research firm Global Insight. President Bush’s move “would not have an impact.”
Anyone who thinks more drilling would do a d@^n thing to reduce prices or demand is an !d!ot.
JMJ
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Anyone who doesnt realize that its about more than just the price at the pump is an idiot.
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Oh, it’s about more alright! It’s about riling up the rabble! LOL!
Look, not alone is it rhetorical idiocy, it’s strategic idiocy in action. There will always be a demand for oil, even if cars don’t need gas anymore. There will still be a demand for oil based lubricants, plastics, and so forth. So rather than waste what’s left of our natural reserves on our immediate desire for gasoline, which will be obsolete in the not-so-distant future, we should be saving what we have left for a future in which oil will be a lot more scarce, expensive, but still needed. Drilling now is all well and fine, and no one is stopping Big Oil from drilling on millions of acres as it is, but drilling in areas like ANWR or right off our beaches should be avoided until the day comes that we absolutely must, not now for a saving of practically zilch. It’s ignorant, as is it’s proponents.
JMJ
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, I’ve started getting into Steele since he ran for whatever it was he ran for, Senate, I think. I watched his ads oneline and he has a great personality. You feel like he can adjust to whatever is thrown at him. His pieces on Fox news generally agree with my viewpoints. You can see that he’s doing his time in the party machine to keep his visibility up and ensure that when it’s time for people to think about who’s getting support for a particular nomination, be it governor, senator, or president, he’ll still be on everyone’s mind. Additionally, Steele will have a bunch of markers to call in since he’ll have raised money for a bunch of different campaigns and issues. Not only is he affable, but you can tell he’s got a long game.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
First of all no one is drilling right off of beaches.
Therse platforms to be built are well out of sight.
Besides, I’d rather look at one on them than a thousand windmills which is about what it takes to produce what one platform puts out in a day.
Second of all, lets put an end to the Anwar phallacy that Anwr is some sort of garden of eden. The amount of space needed is the saize of a freckle on the ass of Alaska.
Caribou ?
They dont care, the pipelines never effected one although the envirinmentalist, PETA whoever said it would devastate the herds.
Drilling in ANWR is not going to bug them either.
Second of all, the amount of oil we pull domestically in 3 to ten years , depending on the source will be just exactly what we need once all the alternatives come into play.
Theres nothing ignorant about a little forethought derived from hindsight.
What is ignorant is to demean a good idea just because one man you dont like thinks its a good idea.
The majority of the country sees drilling as a viable effort to ensure what little oil we will be needing in the future.
And then theres the security issue.
The less we depend on anyone else besides ourselves for oil, the better.
The sooner the better.
Nothing ever, ever, ever happens according to schedule in our system.
To not start drilling immediatly for what sustains our countrys life and human lives is pure complete unalturated idiocy.
Untill there is viable rudundant alternative in place, putting your faith in guys like Obama who say they’ll have it all up and running at a cost of only something like 10 billion dollars is idiocy. Especially with all the crap he wants to give away ontop the trillion dollar payoff were putting out its insanity to think it’ll work.
Thats cool, I’ll just hope for change.
I have a feeling we’ll get it, whether I hope for it or not.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Micky, whatever. The point here is simle: we can not drill our way out of this mess. Period. “Drill, baby, drill” is nothing but rightwing rabble rhetoric.
JMJ
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Yea, but the guy you’re talking so highly of recently(“Boone T Pickens”) says we should drill also. Last I checked Pickens was not partaking in any rightwing rabble rhetoric. And contrary to youre simplistic approach, he says the point is not “SIMPLE”
And please, for once try to stay on topic and follow the conversation.
I never said we could drill our way out of this. Show me where I said that.
I said that its only prudent for the future to drill seeing as how no matter what we will still need oil.
You are being disengenuous in saying that republicans are running around thinking and saying drill, drill, drill, thinking it will get us out of this.
They are saying we need to drill for all the reasons I mentioned above.
And to address the fact that if we do today what we should of done ten years ago we wont be in the same mess ten years from now.
I know, sorry, it chops up your argument when I make sense out of it all, and I know you hate that.
But I like to deal in facts and not red herring arguments that are based on nothing but partisan hatred.
Its only common sense to have your butt covered in the next ten years or however long it takes to get all alternatives up and running.
Theres a lot of idealistic wishful thinking going on with this topic.
People will have their gas powerd cars for a while, 5 years from now they’ll still be buying the same kind of cars that will run for 10 years.
Factories, home heating, industry, mass transit, trains planes, manufacturing is not all going to switch any faster than is economically feasable.
Greenies are dreaming.
There will be major obstacles thrown in the face of progress that will come directly from the oil companies.
And if we still have this democratic congress for any longer it may never get done.
So yea, drill untill we know for sure what the hell is going on.
Think about it.
Obama cornered himself when he said he would alot X amount of dollars over a 10 year period for research into other alternatives.
That simply means that obviously whats out there now in the form of alternatives is not good enough. Otherwise it would be alotted to production, not research. This means the answers will not be abundant enough for another 10 years, if we are lucky.
And then there is the time it would take to impliment all those changes .
And yet all you can back your end up with is “Whatever”
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Micky we are drilling! And that’s another thing that makes this whole “drill, baby, drill” shtick so moronic. And we will always need oil. Neither of these points are in dispute. The dispute comes when we consider what we use oil for and how we get it. Using oil for gasoline for cars is stupid. Just plain stupid. (The Pickens plan is brilliant: switch cars to natural gas for now until we can make different kinds of cars, and switch natural gas power plants to wind, solar, and coal plants that sequester carbon emittance.)
What this all boils down to is one simple thing: the whole “drill, baby, drill” thing is BS. It will have ZERO impact on prices and only politically forestalls the inevitable: oil is running out, getting more and more expesive, has more and more demand, and the days of the gasoline powers automobile are coming to an end. Again, “drill, baby, drill” is stupid.
JMJ
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Drill baby, drill will open up jobs HERE instead of where they hate us. We have made the Saudis, Iranians, etc. rich and all we got for it is hatred. I say enough – bring the money and jobs home. NOW!
P.S. The caribou love the pipeline. They hang around it because it’s warmer near it, and their reproduction rates nearer the pipeline are higher than farther away.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Jobs??? What??? Are you for real??? The oil sector is one of the least labor intensive there is! And what happens when the oil runs out? What are those workers suppoesed to do then? You want to create new jobs in a sector that’s soon to be almost obsolete? get real man. You are just reaching for anything here, huh?
And that pipeline crack was plain loony.
JMJ
September 24th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Once again we are running out of oil and we almost have none left. I heard that 30 years ago and at that point we would run out of oil by the end of the century. Now we have more known oil reserves than we did then. It’s the same chicken little sky is falling argument we here about so many things. I am not saying we don’t need to look for alternative fuels and that it might not run out someday, but it isn’t as imminent as the fear mongers would have us believe.
I keep hearing how drilling won’t do any good for at least 10 years. Well I have been hearing that for 20 years so if we had started back then it would be helping by now. That’s sort of like saying an umbrella wont do me any good now since it isn’t raining right now then getting drenched as you walk into the store to buy one and saying well I’m already wet so there is no need to buy one now as it it won’t help the NEXT time it rains
September 24th, 2008 at 12:12 am
“Again, “drill, baby, drill” is stupid.”
Its only obvious that you cant debate this bevause you keep returning to the same assertion even though it has been chopped up and spit out as nothing but liberal rhetoric on your end.
All you are doing is returning with nothing but opinion wheras I give perfect examples and facts that back up my position.
Once again.
I said nothing about price at the pump but you keep making that argument when all my posting was refering to everything but.
Everything you say about switching to nat gas is just fine and dandy.
But you still choose to ignore the fact that it aint gonna happen according to your dreams.
You ignore national security, you ignored oil independance, you ignored the half ass program laid down by Obama, you ignored the life of cars on the road now, you ignored tghe time it takes present technology to get up and running, you ignored that Obama put himself in a corner mentioning researsch to be funded for ten years, you ignored that we need to drill where there “I S O I L !!!”
You pretty much ignored all relative facts and issues in this debate just so you could get your ya yas off and run around bashing the right.
I hope you feel better now that you got your days fix of spewing inconsequential garbage.
Too bad you couldnt actually debate this intelligently.
God knows I tried.
PS.
http://priuschat.com/forums/environmental-discussion/53139-caribou-love-pipelines.html
“Their population has grown becasue they can snuggle up to the pipeline for heat in the winter just as underwater drilling provides great artificial reefs.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/20/bachmann-caribou-coffee/
“the caribou have multiplied ’cause they like the warmth that surrounds the pipeline.”
September 24th, 2008 at 12:18 am
heres more.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×3492129
“GOLDBERG: People don’t realize that at Prudhoe Bay, where they have been drilling for 30 years, the central Arctic caribou herd has increased fivefold since they started drilling up there. Some people say it’s because they get to hide from the bugs. It’s a little easier for them. But people say it’s because of the lack of hunting. But it is not dangerous to the caribou up there.”
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080704133957AApuBxM
The environuts were WRONG.
Far from harming the caribou, the critters LOVE the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that the environmentalists delayed for so long with stupid law suits.
They’re breeding like crazy and hang out by the pipeline like it was Cancun.
maybe you should look around before you call people looney
September 24th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Jersey, Off topic, but I wanted to express my regards for getting healthier…and based on this string of posts, it didn’t take long for you to recover!
Mickey…there was a 50 question test on the internet I took earlier today about how my views corresponded with SEN Obama’s… I scored a 98… the ONLY thing we agreed on was his position on who should or should not be allowed to vote. “nuff said.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Thanks Eagle! Yeah, I can take a lot of abuse. Actually, it turns out that I’m suffering severe hypertension and high blood pressure. That’s apparently why I passed out and gave myself a concussion. In the end, it worked out for the best. The doctors told me that if I hadn’t been hospitalized I might not have found out in time. But compared to your action and bravery, my little health issue is pretty trivial.
And where’s that test? I’d like to take a crack at it.
Parrot, even the most die-hard oil industry advocate admits that reserves are running out. Peak Oil is not a myth. Please read up on all this from Roscoe Bartlett (http://bartlett.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2057). He’s the best source on this from the House – and he’s a conservative Republican.
Micky, no where in this thread have I made a single environmental argument. You can leave all that aside. I’m talking purely resource-economics here, not environmentalism.
JMJ
September 24th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Yea well.
It seems that when it came to drilling the dems thought no one should be allowed to vote.
I cant believe you took the test.
I know that you knew you were gonna get a laugh out of it.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:57 am
“I’m talking purely resource-economics here, not environmentalism.”
You called the Caribou statement “looney” thats why I included the links to back up C. Martels statement
You’re full of it again.
From the beggining your point was that drilling would not bring down the cost at the pump.
To which I replied that the price at the pump is not the issue.
We’ve been through this debate and I showed you multiple sources confirming that with alternatives in place the oil we do get domestically will suffice.
Reserves running out as opposed to the ones we have not tapped/explored yet is a disengenuous link to the content here and what I was pointing out.
As I pointed out in our last debate that what we will come up with domestically will be enough.
And in a sense you beat yourself on this one by pointing out that the reserves we have will run dry one day.
We;;, I got news for you my friend.
If thats the case then thats just all the more reason to drill because we are still no matter what (as you even said) are going to need some amount of oil in the future.
So….
We had better get busy.
Stop trying to spin.
You lose.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I love how you constantly quote a BIOLOGIST on any science matter as if that truly is his field of expertise. Being on a congressional committee listening to other experts many of whom disagree does not necessarily make you an expert.
That having been said. I never said that oil is not a finite commodity which may some day run out. But after 30 years of listening to dire warnings about how oil will run out very soon, i am pretty skeptical that it truly is imminent. I guess the boy has cried “wolf” far too often. I do concede that even a broken clock is right twice a day. An honest assessment is that while oil may run out someday we have no idea exactly when since we really have no GOOD estimate of how much oil is untapped. Furthermore our dwindling reserves are exactly why we SHOULD drill in areas as of yet untapped.
September 25th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Eric, I know you have read J.B White’s blog before, he also follows Football.
Time for Some Rattler Gator, Black Conservatives support “Country First” J.B. White is a wonderful writer. I highly recommend his blog. Obviously he is also a Gators Fan:)
http://rattlergator.typepad.com/rattlergator/2008/09/operation-country-first-the-campaign-theme.html