A Horse of a Different Color

AS a black Republican, Michael Steele is used to taunts and attacks. Over the years, he has developed skin that is not only black but thick as well. “I’m not an elephant for nothing,” he notes. Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, will need that elephant’s skin for the campaign he has just launched. He’s running for the U.S. Senate, hoping to succeed Democrat Paul Sarbanes, who is retiring after five terms.

On the day he announced his Senate candidacy, all hell broke loose. Steve Gilliard is a popular blogger in New York, running a left-wing site called The News Blog. He ran a doctored photo of Steele, depicting him as a hideous minstrel. The caption underneath said, “I’s Simple Sambo and I’s running for the Big House.” Nice, huh? But hardly novel for Mike Steele. When he ran for lieutenant governor in 2002, he was pelted with Oreo cookies. (Get it? Black on the outside, white on the inside.) The president of the state senate, Thomas V. “Mike” Miller-white, as it happens—called him “the personification of an Uncle Tom.” (He later apologized.) The Baltimore Sun, in an infamous editorial, said, “[Steele] brings little to the team but the color of his skin.”

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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AS a black Republican, Michael Steele is used to taunts and attacks. Over the years, he has developed skin that is not only black but thick as well. “I’m not an elephant for nothing,” he notes. Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, will need that elephant’s skin for the campaign he has just launched. He’s running for the U.S. Senate, hoping to succeed Democrat Paul Sarbanes, who is retiring after five terms.

On the day he announced his Senate candidacy, all hell broke loose. Steve Gilliard is a popular blogger in New York, running a left-wing site called The News Blog. He ran a doctored photo of Steele, depicting him as a hideous minstrel. The caption underneath said, “I’s Simple Sambo and I’s running for the Big House.” Nice, huh? But hardly novel for Mike Steele. When he ran for lieutenant governor in 2002, he was pelted with Oreo cookies. (Get it? Black on the outside, white on the inside.) The president of the state senate, Thomas V. “Mike” Miller-white, as it happens—called him “the personification of an Uncle Tom.” (He later apologized.) The Baltimore Sun, in an infamous editorial, said, “[Steele] brings little to the team but the color of his skin.”