Video Surfaces Of Homeless Volunteers Allegedly Hired By New RNC Chair Steele
This is funny. Now that Michael Steele has been installed as RNC chair, Democrats have unearthed a video, originally posted on the YouTube page of his 2006 Senate race opponent, Ben Cardin, that Dems say shows homeless men from Philadelphia that Steele reportedly bussed in to hand out arguably misleading flyers for his campaign.
The episode, which was controversial at the time, isn’t exactly an attractive one for a party chair to have been involved in, and Dems are hoping to revive memories of what was a pretty eyebrow-raising tale:
The two men are both wearing Steele shirts, and say they work for Steele, and one man tells the camera he was bussed in from Philly. It’s not immediately clear whether these two men are homeless, but the local press at the time reported that groups of men from a Philly homeless shelter said they’d been bussed in from Philly by Steele’s campaign to hand out pamphlets.
The flyers were titled, “Ehrlich-Steele Democrats,” suggesting that Steele and Governor Robert Ehrlich were Dems. But it’s a reference to local Dems endorsing Ehrlich and Steele, who are both Republican.
Two of the men told the local press that volunteers from the Steele campaign came to the shelter early in the morning on election day, offering money, donuts and coffee to anyone willing to work the polls. Ah, memories…
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If Steele were a Dem, we wouldn’t be talking about Daschle or Blagojevich.
this was a weird episode. I can’t recall whether it became an issue in the GOP chair race. don’t think so…
Please…somebody. Get this video to Steele…quick. Fast. And, in a hurry! While you’re at it…refresh his
memory about his TAX/FORECLOSURE foes from a few years ago.
Many of the Philadelphia guys (at least at our polling place) were so disgusted when they found out how deceptive the flyers were that they stopped passing them out. They just stood and chatted with the rest of us the rest of the day. Some weren’t actually homeless, but jobless.
How is that different than BO hiring ACORN?
related stories for those who want to know more about Steele’s integrity: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/10/20/fraud-baby-fraud/
http://www.slate.com/id/2153432/entry/0/
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/showdown06/archives/individual/2006_11/010083.php
For the thousandth time, Obama did not hire ACORN!
I’m not surprised. Steele has been the “blago” of his state. Among minorities, not a very clean tube if you know what I mean. The RNC wanted a black face and boy were they desperate to get one!
jayelo – President Obama did not hire Acorn _ I wish people would research before they speak. Another rethug hack!!!
btw I live in the county in which these flyers were passed out and we we hopping mad and we still are.
To jayelo:
a) ACORN hires people paid by the hour to canvass poor neighbors and register voters.
b) Some ACORN hires don’t bother to canvass, they just fill out fake information and turn in the voter registrations to ACORN, then get paid.
c) ACORN reviews the voter registration forms, organizes them in bundles, identifies those they suspect are fake and flags them prior to delivery of all registrations to the local board of elections AS REQUIRED BY LAW.
d) Fake registrants like Tony Romo and Mickey Mouse don’t appear on voter roles following such voter registration drives, because board of elections personnel aren’t stupid and usually do their jobs.
e) If ACORN is such a malicious and criminal outfit, why did John McCain agree to be a speaker at one of their functions in 2006 where he praised ACORN for its work with the poor.
ACORN is a legitimate community organization that helps the poor and disenfranchised. They are not in the business of defrauding election results. Please check your facts. (Note: citing Sean Hannity as your source will be laughed at and immediately dismissed.)
the flyers say democrat? that sounds like a campaign crisis or fraud. Eitherway though, it wasn’t directly Steele’s fault.
Watch out Steele is a class act. He’s not the moron Bush and Mc Cain are. Steele has great presence on stage and on tv. He speaks better than most politicians as well. How ever the republicans went so far off the deep end, I don’t think even Steele can save them. They may be going down just like the federalist did in the 1800’s.
To Brian Stine:
He knew it. He was trying to mislead the low info Voters.
He used the race card. He did not want to even use “R”.
He is a nasty man.
Steele has gotten a bad rap by many Democrats for being a black republican (aka sell out). Even Corey Bucker(D), Mayor of Newark, NJ was ridiculed by other democrats for being too light skinned. Racism is a deadly weapon used on both sides of politics.
“hand out arguably misleading flyers for his campaign.”
there’s nothing “arguable” about it. the fliers included fabricated endorsements from black leaders in maryland, including the executive of PG county.
michael steele chose to do this because he thinks black people vote based on what they are told to do the day of the election, and will cast their vote on the basis of something as trifling as a flier. he is just as racist as the rest of the republican party.
Did anyone hear the remarks made by David Dukes (former KKK grand dragon/wizard??) regarding Republican Chairman, Michael Steele. He said, in essence the h__l with the Republican party, that he was getting out of the Republican party(and taking his guys with him). He also called Steele “Obama Jr.” Keith Olbermann aired this report last night.
Does this mean some Republicans are KKK members? Sounds like this is a big possibility…and is this why every single House Republican voted against the Presidents’ recovery package. Is there an underlying racist
vibe in the Republican party or is all about ideology…and I thought it was odd that none of the other cable news statian ran that report on David Dukes.
hey all, open thread is up
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/happy-hour-roundup-dean-ruled-out-as-ambassador-to-outer-mongolia/
g
As a MD resident Michael Steele is awell known GOP Black front man. He was successful at nothing until he became Ehrlich’s lt. gov. – an admin that setup a spy network to list every citizen who attended a peace march or joined groups that fostered honest, open goverment. His biggest claim to fame is being the former brother-in-law of Mike Tyson.
Apparently he didn’t pay his mortgage on two homes for God knows how long and was finally foreclosed on. You know it had to be awhile as these guys get away with murder. He supposedly put up some other property in lieu of payment. The property was probably one he no longer had use for. Unfortunately our government is made up of many crooks on both sides.
Carolyn Phillips
I would never suggest that all republicans are KKK members, but I would bet pretty much all KKK members are republicans. Yeah, I know there were Dem KKK members, but that was before the Civil Rights Act and the Southern Strategy.
This is so not news. Not now and not then. Campaigns often hire minimum wage folks for this kind of lit drop. So what? Its common for Repubs since Reagan to claim support of grass roots, working class, democrats, with groups named “so-and-so democrats”. By now that’s par for the course, so what? Steele is just another lackey for the right, like Rice, Thomas, etc before him. He’ll be jettisoned for some white reactionary as soon as the mid-term elections are over.
Considering the Obama campaign, recruited, hired, and registered homeless people to vote for Obama……they should be the last ones throwing stones about recruiting the homeless.
Look at the racist dems attacking Steele
Let me get this strait, so a lot of you not so smart people out there actually believe that giving temporary work to homeless people who are willing to work not for extra spending money but instead to satisfy their basic needs is a bad thing. (ONLY in your twisted little minds) I wonder, is it because the homeless don’t have a homes to live in, because they are hungry, dirty, aged or disabled that offends you? What’s the deal, is there no human compassion within you? Truth is, if you people had half a toad brain among you, you might well understand just how absolutely absurd that this train of thought honestly is.
Decent people have commended the Senator for utilizing a workforce who really needed the work. I suggest that all those opposing his hiring the homeless strain what should be your brain for a moment and think about how stupid you have proven yourselves to be.
To CriticalReviews:
Nobody objected to hiring people who were homeless to do a literature handout. The objection was to the literature itself, which was fraudulent. It clearly implied that not only were Mr. Ehrlich, who was campaigning for reelection as governor, and Mr. Steele for Senate, running as Democrats, but that several prominent Democrats in the local area had endorsed them for election. These other Democrats had NOT endorsed them (and had, in fact, strongly endorsed their opponents) and were extremely angry at the deception.
The fact that these particular people were hired from out-of-town should also be a tipoff as to the deceptions being practiced. Maryland has, unfortunately, plenty of homeless of its own. Why wouldn’t local people have been hired instead, and the campaign saved the exhorbitant transportation costs? Answer: because local people, homeless or not, would have been aware that the fliers they were handing out were lying about the candidates. I think it interesting that quite a few of the men who were hired for this pamphlet drop said afterward that they didn’t care how much it paid, if they’d known that the literature actually supported the Republican candidates, they would have turned down the job.
Note: neither Mr. Steele nor Mr. Ehrlich won their respective races. Therefore, it is incorrect to refer to Mr. Steele as “Senator.”
Again, NOBODY objects to these men earning some money, or even the WAY it was earned. What’s objectionable is the material they were given to hand out. There’s quite a difference.
They were passing flyers…. at least they were not intimidating voters with billy clubs.
Steele got “bussed-in, unsuspecting people” to “lie for him.” He is a Republican with a capital R, and tried to pass himself off as a Democrat. Take notice how this story was squashed because he is a bleeding Republican….If he were a Democrat it would be all over the news for weeks, months to come and would have prevented him from chairing the DNC. Black or white, he is a typical crooked politician who is now chairing the RNC! Perfect position.
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