Wow. Michael Steele thinks that a rapist would make a good companion on the campaign trail with him.
"Mike Tyson is the father of Michael Steele’s niece and nephew and therefore a member of his family," Steele’s spokesman, Doug Heye, said in an e-mail. "He is not connected to the campaign."
Steele’s sister, Monica Turner, was married to Tyson for five years. They divorced in 2003.
Steele struck a warmer tone earlier this year when asked about his former brother-in-law in an interview with The New York Times Magazine published in March.
"Let me tell you about Mike Tyson," Steele said. "He is one of the most engaging and smartest guys I have ever had a chance to go toe to toe with in a debate."
When Tyson asked Steele if he could campaign for him, Steele responded that he would "welcome in a heartbeat" the help.
This isn’t hyperbole, Mike Tyson (here’s his 2004 mugshot from a misdemeanor arrest) was convicted of rape and served three years of a six year sentence.
You might think, well that’s all. But, NO.
On Tuesday Michael Steele went on the campaign trail with an actual for-real double murderer. Don King:
In 1954 he killed a man who tried to rob one of his gambling houses.
The shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide, sparing King a prison
sentence. He wasn’t so fortunate 13 years later, when he was found
guilty of second-degree murder for killing a gambling associate who
owed him $600. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter and King
served 3 years and 11 months in Marion Correctional Institution in
Ohio. He was released in September 1971.
So you have to wonder – why is Steele doing this? He thinks the black voters in Maryland are stupid. The Bush/Cheney campaign enlisted the help of King in 2004 in some sort of perverted outreach to black voters, and while the electoral results made clear that the strategy just didn’t work, the Steele campaign – and its boss, Michael Steele, don’t know any better. They think the way to appeal to black Americans is to just grab a famous black face – any famous black face, no matter if its a convicted murderer or a rapist. Proving once again that black conservatives are way out of touch with the black mainstream, Steele and his merry band have put on what amounts to a sad show – parading out black people they feel are "known" and will motivate "them" to come out and vote for "one of us".
They should be ashamed, but they aren’t. They actually think this is the way to woo black voters to their side. They figure if they talk down to us and distract us with the shiny people, we’re so dumb we’ll just have to go vote for them.
How pathetic.
P.S.: I wonder – was OJ busy? He’s black. He’s famous. He’s a murderer. He’s an abusive husband. He fits all the Steele campaign requirements for a celebrity endorsement.
>> Why do Republicans Think Don King’s Endorsement Matters to African Americans?
>> Michael Steele’s endorsements: a killer and a thug
Ted Kennedy !1111!!!!!1!
There. Now all the con posters can take the day off.
Michael Steele has a great future ahead of him at Project 21.
“parading out black people they feel are “known” and will motivate “them” to come out and vote for “one of us”
It could have been worse- they tried to get Amos and Andy and Mr. Bojangles but found that they were dead.
But at least Don King and Mike Tyson aren’t as hateful, divisive, and partisan as these evil Ned Lamont supporters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the real disgraces to black America!
Besides, look at Don King’s hair. How can anyone not take this man seriously?
Wow. And I thought it was bad when the Illinois GOP nominated Keyes.
Again marvelously said Ian, and with no words of your own this time either, a new best! Clearly the fact that some people are claiming that Michael Steele is out of touch with the black voting bloc he is courting with such wonderful and powerful black role models as the above listed rapist and murderer is nothing more than proof of how wonderful a candidate Steele is! And the Uncle Tom comments that the brilliant Ms. Malkin references might be claimed to be due to the case that Steele’s track record and spoken pledges seem to support the idea that the policies he advocates will in fact do greater damage than good to the black community at the same time that he’s trying to use his own race as a raison d’etre to vote for him is proof of how cowardly and racist all liberals are, especially black liberals who make such comments, who are the worst black-haters of all! Another marvelous showing, Ian, proving how, when Steele makes his race an issue, and Democrats go after him for doing so, that they cant even tough him on his policies, even though they have done so repeatedly. Lovely!
“P.S.: I wonder – was OJ busy? He’s black. He’s famous. He’s a murderer. He’s an abusive husband. He fits all the Steele campaign requirements for a celebrity endorsement.”
But O.J. was acquitted…maybe that DQs him, he hasn’t actually served time in the slam. No gangsta cred.
Well, since Whitney’s divorcing him, Bobby Brown has lots of free time. The Steele camp should see if they can get him to campaign…
Oh, that Monica Turner, whose pre-Tyson major tryst was shacking-up with a major local drug dealer (around DC) and having a child by him out-of-wedlock and wouln’t testify against said drug dealer is Steele’s sister.
WOW.
GOP family values.
Well, if Michael Steele thinks Maryland voters are stupid, maybe he got that idea from reading this site, since, according to you, Maryland voters are too stupid to:
A) know the party of the two candidates
B) know that flyers claiming elections will be moved to Wednesday are bogus and
C) know that having unpaid parking tickets DOES NOT prohibit you from voting
One would rationally expect that when his people brought him the insane idea of endorsements by a convicted killer and a convicted rapist, Michael Steele would have reacted with reason.
In a further sign that Michael Steele is in need of rehab or a padded cell, the endorsements by Don King and Mike Tyson of his Senate campaign indicate the lunacy or substance abuse of his entire campaign team.
Desperate for black endorsements, Steele campaign operatives have stooped to using crackheads as black props in their endorsement press conferences.
Apparently, some of those brothas ain’t clean and are sharing their extra rocks with the campaign staff, or the campaign people are schizophrenics trying to self medicate, because there is no rational explanation for producing two press conferences to showcase these endorsements.
Who in God’s name are these endorsements supposed to sway? White suburban crystal meth addicts? Black Inner city crackheads? Somebody please help me to understand. Steve Gillard is absolutely right, you just can’t make this up.
Similarly, Oliver Willis hit the nail on the head when he asserts that by accepting these endorsements, Michael Steele, “spits in the face of black America”. Moreover, Steve Gillard is on point when he advocates that Steele’s opponent Ben Cardin should spread this political manna from heaven to every white republican and independent in the state of Maryland.
The great Kingfish, Huey Long of Louisiana, a liberal populist former Governor and U.S. Senator during the twenties and thirties, used to blanket his impoverished state in campaign circulars during election time. After reading them, the impoverished people would use the circulars as toilet paper. It suited the Kingfish just fine. He wanted the state so covered in literature that nobody could wipe their backside without using a piece of paper with his picture on it.
Ben Cardin would do well to heed the example and nuke Steele day and night with his own manifest ignorance.
Oh, we should also note that OJ probably won’t endorse Steele, since he’s too busy being a guest at Congressional Black Caucus functions.