http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/27/steeles-shut-up/RNC chairman Michael Steele attended a town hall forum at the Detroit Athletic Club yesterday, an event “meant to establish a dialogue with Republicans in urban centers.” Steele was largely silent on recent GOP scandals and made fewer controversial or silly comments than he has in the past, telling the audience, “My mama told me when I was a little boy: ‘You just need to learn how to shut up and listen.’” A sampling of what he heard at the forum, according to the Detroit News:
Marie Kaigler-Reese, a Ph.D student at Michigan State University, said that is not enough. She said the party takes African Americans like herself and trots them out to show they care about blacks but does nothing to address matters like corruption in Detroit’s City Hall.
(Republicans) “are out of touch,” she said, noting her son has become so disenfranchised with the party he has become a Democrat and is running for office in Ohio. “Michael Jackson is dead. God rest his soul. I am not going to be the Michael Jackson of the Republican Party. You will not use me until I am dead.“