Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda
Encyclopedia
Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda, written by Michael Steele, was released on January 4, 2010. The book was published by Regnery Publishing
.
reported that, "In his new book, “Right Now,” Republican National Committee
chairman Michael Steele writes that Republicans have made the mistake of drifting away from their conservative roots."
The Associated Press
reported that, "Steele focuses much of the book on familiar GOP denunciations of President Barack Obama
's overall policies (a roadmap to failure), the $787 billion stimulus bill (a reckless, wasteful, pork-laden spending spree), liberal views on manmade global warming (A threat to life on Earth? Depends on whom you ask) and other issues. To regain the public confidence, Steele says the GOP should, among other things, expose the reign of error inherent in liberal policies, contrast conservative and liberal principles, and highlight the damage caused by Obama's policies while explaining conservative solutions."
CNN
reported that, “In his new book, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele accuses President Obama of being "hypocritical" for choosing to send his daughters to an expensive private school while also killing a voucher program that offered low-income children in Washington the chance to do the same.”
, stated that, “Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele feels the same sense of urgency regarding the Obama administration’s policies as do fellow conservatives. It’s why Steele’s new book feels like it was written after reading the latest headlines on The Drudge Report.
Frances Rice, of Canada Free Press, called it, "a bold new book that attacks Obama’s big-government agenda, and reaches out to town-hallers, tea partiers, independents, and anyone fed up with a federal government
spiraling out of control.”
Dan Balz
, of the Washington Post, called it, "a predictable broadside aimed at President Obama, the Democrats and all things liberal. But it is also a broadside aimed at the Republican Party and its leadership over the past decade. He writes less as chairman of the Republican National Committee and more as would-be president of the Tea Party movement
, with whom he seems to feel more kinship and camaraderie than with the Republican establishment whose chairmanship he actively sought. Much of what he says, in both substance and style, will resonate with conservatives."
Eugene Robinson
, stated that the book, "just adds to the compendium that should be called the Quotations of Chairman Mike."
Frank Rich
, of the New York Times, stated that the book "attacks unnamed party leaders in its pages for forsaking conservative principles."
Linda Feldmann, of the Christian Science Monitor, placed Steele’s book within a number of conservative political manifestos, “hoping to repeat Newt Gingrich's 1994 success in taking over the House with his 'Contract With America.'”
Marta Mossburg, of the Washington Examiner
, stated that, "The book drips with hypocrisy. He claims Republicans "reject identity politics" and that a "lot of bad ideas flow from categorizing people as either victims or oppressors." But as a Senate candidate and as lieutenant governor
of Maryland
he championed minority business subsidies and affirmative action
. In the book Steele slams President Obama for sending his daughters to private school
while rejecting school choice for poor Washington children. As lieutenant governor in Maryland he headed a commission whose final report never mentioned school vouchers, a key component of any school choice platform. The report rightly endorsed expanding charter school
s, but where was his outrage for Baltimore City children denied access to safe, effective learning environment."
During a conversation with Eddie Glaude
(chair of the Center for African American Studies), Glaude asked Michael Steele about the intended audience of his text Right Now. Steele discussed the importance of both Democrat and Republican agendas and stated that, “You want to be intellectually armed to talk to your opponents. So [the book] is written for you. You may not agree with it, but at least when you’re done, you’ll understand why I say what I say.”
reported that on January 7, "Republican staffers in Congress held a conference call with RNC staff," in which they discussed "reining in Steele, whose off-the-cuff remarks during a media tour to promote his new book have stoked GOP establishment dyspepsia.” Steele responded, during an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network
, "This book is a book a lot of those staffers who are trying to get the chairman on message or muzzle the chairman, it’s a book they don’t want you to read. They don’t want you to read this book because a guilty conscience is a funny thing.”
On January 8, the Washington Post reported that, "Republican congressional leaders say they did not know that their party chairman, Michael S. Steele, was publishing a book until it was released this week, and they had no input in drafting what Steele is promoting as the blueprint Republicans should follow to win back power.” The Washington Post reported that GOP congressional aides stated that, "more than half a dozen Republican Senate and House leaders have been upset with Steele's remarks and the book. None has spoken out publicly against Steele -- in part, aides said, because the leaders see little benefit to continued strife within GOP ranks.”
On January 10, the Seattle Times reported that the, "Republican Party's national chairman says he's had no thoughts of resigning despite criticism of his first-year performance and controversy about his recent book that takes shots at the GOP. Michael Steele is apologizing for not alerting Republicans in advance about the book's release. In the book, he accuses GOP leaders of abandoning conservative principles over the past decade. Steele also is defending his record as party chairman, saying he's "pushing the ball" for the GOP and helping the party win elections and raise money.”
On January 13, the Washington Times reported that, "Senior Republican National Committee members are preparing a motion demanding that RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele cancel promotional events for the book he wrote as chairman. The proposed motion, to be presented to the 168-member RNC at its annual winter meeting in Honolulu at the end of this month, also would direct him to donate to the RNC and Republican candidates all proceeds from the book.” On January 30, the Washington Times reported that the Republican National Committee abandoned the motion that, "would have directed Mr. Steele to stop touring the country to promote his book, redirected all proceeds from book sales to the RNC, and it would have banned speech-making for personal financial gain.”
" during an interview while promoting the book.”
On January 4, “Sean Hannity
hosted RNC Chairman Michael Steele to promote the release of Steele's new book, Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda. During the interview, Steele emphatically denied that the GOP needs "more modern" ideas, calling the party's platform "one of the best political documents" produced in the last quarter-century. "Honest Injun on that," he added.”
On January 5, The Hill
reported that
Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), “The Co-Chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus demanded an apology from RNC Chairman Michael Steele for using a "racist" phrase on national television.” Kildee was quoted as stating that Steele's
"insensitive comment undermines and threatens to reverse the progress we have made to correct those wrongs. A cursory look through a dictionary or even some knowledge of Native American history would show Mr. Steele that the term is a racial slur
for Native Americans. I strongly urge Mr. Steele to publicly apologize to the Native American community immediately for his derogatory comment."
On January 10, The Raw Story
reported that Rep. Tom Cole
, a member of the Chickasaw Nation
, "called Steele's remarks "unacceptable" and said, "It's an offensive phrase in the Native American community."
Regnery Publishing
Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
.
Content
MSNBCMSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
reported that, "In his new book, “Right Now,” Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
chairman Michael Steele writes that Republicans have made the mistake of drifting away from their conservative roots."
The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that, "Steele focuses much of the book on familiar GOP denunciations of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's overall policies (a roadmap to failure), the $787 billion stimulus bill (a reckless, wasteful, pork-laden spending spree), liberal views on manmade global warming (A threat to life on Earth? Depends on whom you ask) and other issues. To regain the public confidence, Steele says the GOP should, among other things, expose the reign of error inherent in liberal policies, contrast conservative and liberal principles, and highlight the damage caused by Obama's policies while explaining conservative solutions."
CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
reported that, “In his new book, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele accuses President Obama of being "hypocritical" for choosing to send his daughters to an expensive private school while also killing a voucher program that offered low-income children in Washington the chance to do the same.”
Response
Christian Toto, of Human EventsHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, stated that, “Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele feels the same sense of urgency regarding the Obama administration’s policies as do fellow conservatives. It’s why Steele’s new book feels like it was written after reading the latest headlines on The Drudge Report.
Frances Rice, of Canada Free Press, called it, "a bold new book that attacks Obama’s big-government agenda, and reaches out to town-hallers, tea partiers, independents, and anyone fed up with a federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
spiraling out of control.”
Dan Balz
Dan Balz
Daniel J. Balz is a journalist at The Washington Post, where he has been a political correspondent since 1978. Balz has served as National Editor, Political Editor, White House correspondent and as the Washington Post’s Texas-based Southwest correspondent. Balz sometimes appears on the news show...
, of the Washington Post, called it, "a predictable broadside aimed at President Obama, the Democrats and all things liberal. But it is also a broadside aimed at the Republican Party and its leadership over the past decade. He writes less as chairman of the Republican National Committee and more as would-be president of the Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
, with whom he seems to feel more kinship and camaraderie than with the Republican establishment whose chairmanship he actively sought. Much of what he says, in both substance and style, will resonate with conservatives."
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson (journalist)
Eugene Harold Robinson is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist and former assistant managing editor for The Washington Post. His columns are syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group...
, stated that the book, "just adds to the compendium that should be called the Quotations of Chairman Mike."
Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
, of the New York Times, stated that the book "attacks unnamed party leaders in its pages for forsaking conservative principles."
Linda Feldmann, of the Christian Science Monitor, placed Steele’s book within a number of conservative political manifestos, “hoping to repeat Newt Gingrich's 1994 success in taking over the House with his 'Contract With America.'”
Marta Mossburg, of the Washington Examiner
Washington Examiner
The Washington Examiner is a free daily newspaper published in Springfield, Virginia, and distributed in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz....
, stated that, "The book drips with hypocrisy. He claims Republicans "reject identity politics" and that a "lot of bad ideas flow from categorizing people as either victims or oppressors." But as a Senate candidate and as lieutenant governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
he championed minority business subsidies and affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
. In the book Steele slams President Obama for sending his daughters to private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
while rejecting school choice for poor Washington children. As lieutenant governor in Maryland he headed a commission whose final report never mentioned school vouchers, a key component of any school choice platform. The report rightly endorsed expanding charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
s, but where was his outrage for Baltimore City children denied access to safe, effective learning environment."
During a conversation with Eddie Glaude
Eddie Glaude
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., was born in Moss Point, Mississippi. He is the chair of the Center for African-American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University. Glaude is a 1989 graduate of Morehouse College where he was the Student...
(chair of the Center for African American Studies), Glaude asked Michael Steele about the intended audience of his text Right Now. Steele discussed the importance of both Democrat and Republican agendas and stated that, “You want to be intellectually armed to talk to your opponents. So [the book] is written for you. You may not agree with it, but at least when you’re done, you’ll understand why I say what I say.”
Republican response
The HillThe Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
reported that on January 7, "Republican staffers in Congress held a conference call with RNC staff," in which they discussed "reining in Steele, whose off-the-cuff remarks during a media tour to promote his new book have stoked GOP establishment dyspepsia.” Steele responded, during an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
, "This book is a book a lot of those staffers who are trying to get the chairman on message or muzzle the chairman, it’s a book they don’t want you to read. They don’t want you to read this book because a guilty conscience is a funny thing.”
On January 8, the Washington Post reported that, "Republican congressional leaders say they did not know that their party chairman, Michael S. Steele, was publishing a book until it was released this week, and they had no input in drafting what Steele is promoting as the blueprint Republicans should follow to win back power.” The Washington Post reported that GOP congressional aides stated that, "more than half a dozen Republican Senate and House leaders have been upset with Steele's remarks and the book. None has spoken out publicly against Steele -- in part, aides said, because the leaders see little benefit to continued strife within GOP ranks.”
On January 10, the Seattle Times reported that the, "Republican Party's national chairman says he's had no thoughts of resigning despite criticism of his first-year performance and controversy about his recent book that takes shots at the GOP. Michael Steele is apologizing for not alerting Republicans in advance about the book's release. In the book, he accuses GOP leaders of abandoning conservative principles over the past decade. Steele also is defending his record as party chairman, saying he's "pushing the ball" for the GOP and helping the party win elections and raise money.”
On January 13, the Washington Times reported that, "Senior Republican National Committee members are preparing a motion demanding that RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele cancel promotional events for the book he wrote as chairman. The proposed motion, to be presented to the 168-member RNC at its annual winter meeting in Honolulu at the end of this month, also would direct him to donate to the RNC and Republican candidates all proceeds from the book.” On January 30, the Washington Times reported that the Republican National Committee abandoned the motion that, "would have directed Mr. Steele to stop touring the country to promote his book, redirected all proceeds from book sales to the RNC, and it would have banned speech-making for personal financial gain.”
Honest Injun controversy
Steele attracted controversy by using the phrase "honest InjunIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
" during an interview while promoting the book.”
On January 4, “Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
hosted RNC Chairman Michael Steele to promote the release of Steele's new book, Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda. During the interview, Steele emphatically denied that the GOP needs "more modern" ideas, calling the party's platform "one of the best political documents" produced in the last quarter-century. "Honest Injun on that," he added.”
On January 5, The Hill
The Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
reported that
Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), “The Co-Chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus demanded an apology from RNC Chairman Michael Steele for using a "racist" phrase on national television.” Kildee was quoted as stating that Steele's
"insensitive comment undermines and threatens to reverse the progress we have made to correct those wrongs. A cursory look through a dictionary or even some knowledge of Native American history would show Mr. Steele that the term is a racial slur
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
for Native Americans. I strongly urge Mr. Steele to publicly apologize to the Native American community immediately for his derogatory comment."
On January 10, The Raw Story
The Raw Story
The Raw Story is a progressive news, politics and weblog publication founded in 2004. Updated continuously, it is known primarily for its investigative reporting...
reported that Rep. Tom Cole
Tom Cole
Thomas Jeffery Cole is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a Deputy Minority Whip. The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2006 to 2008, he was, during his tenure, the fourth-ranking Republican leader in the...
, a member of the Chickasaw Nation
Chickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. They are one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Five Civilized Tribes were differentiated from other Indian reservations in that they had semi-autonomous constitutional governments and...
, "called Steele's remarks "unacceptable" and said, "It's an offensive phrase in the Native American community."