What Makes Steele Run?

The Post profiles Michael Steele today. Most of it just goes over his biography, but the parts that deal directly with the Senate race are pretty good:

Now, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, he is running vigorously against the political system that promoted him. All the while, though, he is relying on the gifts that have gotten him this far: a confident charm and an intuition that says a hug is better than a handshake.

Here is Steele, 48, campaigning in Hagerstown: "Washington, in my view, has gotten outside of itself. It is a place none of us recognize."

Here is Steele on TV, in one of his ubiquitous blank-background ads: "Washington has no clue of what's going on in your life."

There are a few things odd about Steele's anti-Washington rhetoric -- don't 278,000 of the Maryland voters he's wooing actually work for this clueless federal government? -- but start with the most basic one.

If "Washington" is given its most literal definition, meaning the District, then Steele's nemesis is his own home town.

[snip]

Steele's opponent in the Senate race, Democratic Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, is a wonkish, pedestrian orator. But so far, Cardin has also proved resolutely unwilling to shoot himself in the foot.

In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1 -- and where issues such as the Iraq war and the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina might keep black Democrats from crossing party lines -- that might be all Cardin needs to win.

"A good Democratic candidate running a good campaign will beat a good Republican running a good campaign in a statewide race every time, just because of the numbers," said Donald Norris, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

To counter this disadvantage, Steele has run a campaign that portrays him as above party, beyond party. In avoiding Republican-specific policy recommendations, however, Steele sometimes ends up sounding as if he's avoiding specifics altogether.

He offers policy proposals, including increased restrictions on lobbyists, tax exemptions for new businesses and a 120-day suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

But often, when pressed on domestic- or foreign-policy questions, Steele responds not with firm positions but with a call for larger, more inclusive discussions.

Energy? Get environmentalists, solar advocates and nuclear people in the room with oil and gas interests. Health care? Get all the players in the room. North Korea? Get China involved.

"We need to get them in the room. We need to get them at the table," Steele said.

The one thing he always mentions is Washington, how the culture of partisan bickering needs to change. Steele, however, is not above a bit of political gamesmanship himself.

At his Hagerstown speech, he criticized Cardin because Democratic Party operatives fraudulently obtained his credit report.

"Anyone who wants my credit report, I'd be happy to give it to you," Steele said. "If you want to know about me, ask me."

Later that day, a Washington Post reporter asked: Is it possible to get your credit report?

"No, it's not," Steele said.

Unfortunately, the article overlooks the fact that Steele holds very conservative positions -- on taxes, on abortion rights, and since I've just mentioned it, on stem-cell research. It's not merely that Steele is running a campaign of glittering generalities -- he's deliberately trying to hide what he believes. As I've said on another occasion, we live in a time when the calls for unity and bipartisanship from the likes of Steele all too often mean, "Let's forget the bad stuff that happened and focus on tomorrow" -- even if tomorrow's policies are no different from yesterday's or today's.

UPDATE: Matt Stoller on Joe Lieberman and unity talk:

Some people are confused about why I'm blogging so extensively about Joe Lieberman and using such morally freighted language. 'Sure he's kind of a jerk, but he's not really that bad,' seems to be refrain.

Here's the problem with that analysis. Yes, he is that bad. This race is a proxy for the 2008 campaign where we will face one or more Lieberman-McCain-like-candidates who want to whitewash the Iraq War and use extensive dirty and probably illegal tactics, all the while floating above the fray as a sincere man of integrity.

Our country is in very deep trouble, and it's because of hustlers like this and our willingness and desire to believe them.

Tags: md-sen maryland ben cardin michael steele