Steele Promises “Off the Hook” PR in “Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop Settings”
Based on this Washington Times report, I think we can expect Michael Steele to be a gift that keeps on giving:
Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”
The RNC’s first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party’s image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times.
In putting this post together, I thought I would Google “off the hook” to see if anything funny popped up. And the series of tubes delivered with a link to Off the Hook Restaurant and Ocean View Bar in Highlands, New Jersey. That’s conveniently located in Monmouth County, one of the relatively few portions of the northeast that’s still Republican-friendly.
Meanwhile, my colleague Amanda Terkel recently asked PBS News’ Gwen Ifill about African-Americans and the GOP. She said “they seem to have gone backwards” in some respects from a period when J.C. Watts was in congress.
50 Responses to “Steele Promises “Off the Hook” PR in “Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop Settings””
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February 19th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Yo, they could get Sir Mix-A-Lot to rap “I— Like— Tax— Cuts and I cannot lie.” That be mad ill, yo. Crazy mad flava.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:30 am
We’re doomed. teh GOP is resurgent!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
This is so batshit crazy. Are southern white Christianists – ie, the party’s sole remaining base of support – going to go along with this kind of strategy? What, the new GOP coalition is going to consist of southern white racists and gangbangers from the hood? Wow. B-A-L-L-S.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am
It’s not like they have a choice Bosch’s Poodle. The fiscal/social conservative marriage of the past several decades hasn’t exactly been a fully compatible one. I believe in my heart that the GOP can pull anything off to stay in power ;-p.
There’s no doubt the GOP of 2012 and 2016 will be different than yesterday’s, if only because of the generational shift that is happening. Social conservatism will be much less of a factor; if anything, fiscal conservatives of this new generation tend more towards libertarianism.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:17 am
So, remember, candidates: don’t be afraid to get out there and yell “Who let the dogs out?”
The kids, they love that hippitty-hop stuff.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Argh. Context here.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
For off-the-hook references, you can do no better than Buster Bluth, conveniently available in audio format
Context here.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:19 am
I was under the impression “off the chain” was the preferred term for what Steele thinks he’s going to do.
Although “off his rocker” might be more appropriate.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Steele is building a GOP with attitude; edgy, “in your face.” You’ve heard the expression “let’s get busy”? Well, this is going to be a party that gets “biz-zay!” Consistently and thoroughly.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Isn’t supposed to be “Off tha hook”?
February 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Maybe we would have been better off getting the guy who played Carlton on “The Fresh Prince” to be our chairman. He would keep things on the hook.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Maybe this is just a really ingenius way to secure Guy Fieri’s vote.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/guy-off-the-hook/index.html
I eagerly await the GOP’s “30 Minute Meals” initiative. And anything with that “Semi Homemade” lady. Hubba hubba.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Steele is building a GOP with attitude; edgy, “in your face.” You’ve heard the expression “let’s get busy”? Well, this is going to be a party that gets “biz-zay!”
IMHO, they may say they get ‘biz-zay’, but the only way to really bring it home for the party is if they can rasta-fy Michael Steele by about ten percent.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:38 am
And let’s not forget the GOP’s ker-ray-zay! new mascot, Poochie.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Michael Steele’s first order of business: coax Naughty By Nature out of retirement: “Who’s down with G.O.P.? Yeah, you know me…”
February 19th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Well if they are ‘off the hook’ I must change my party affiliation. I would never want to stay with a party that was ‘on the hook’. He really taps into the priorities of the AA community.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I predict this will succeed as well as the McDonald’s “I’d hit it.” ad campaign.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hey, that place is just down the road from where my high school had our senior prom. How would I rate my senior prom? Definitely ON the hook.
I guess it was a matter of venue.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:09 am
What, the new GOP coalition is going to consist of southern white racists and gangbangers from the hood? Wow. B-A-L-L-S.
Up the way, we call them “whiggers.”
February 19th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Monmouth is where Bruce Springsteen is from, no?
February 19th, 2009 at 11:21 am
One word: Poochie
February 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I’m thinking we start referring to them as the G-O-Pizzy.
But I could be wrong…
February 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Great wealth, an affinity for guns and an antipathy for government interference in their activities – rappers are a natural fit for the GOP. Yet, I feel my unassailable logic might be flawed somehow.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Fuh Shizzle. Old men in bow ties love to rock the funky beats.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Evidently, after seeing several human filettings, he got out while he was young.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I thought he was talking about taking his phone “off the hook” so those telemarketers and collection agents would not bother him.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Monmouth County is where Bruce is from, lives now, and — with the exception of two years in LA in the 80s — has always lived.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
How does this go unmentioned?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=215929&title=Reagraham-Lincool
February 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Ha! Hey Matt, I used to hang out at that bar all the time. So random.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I’m a steady Dem voter, but I think this post is silly. Steele wants to reach out to urbanites, young people, minorities, and that’s bad? (Perhaps he could be mocked for using a catchphrase that’s a couple years old, but I have committed similar offenses.) And what do you expect Gwen Ifill to say? She wrote a book about how great Obama (and Deval Patrick and Cory Booker) is!
February 19th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
This is ingenious!
he is using the contemporary language of the white megachurch pastor. true nobody cool has used these terms in years, but we aren’t trying to appeal to cool people, we are trying to appeal to Republicans and people who want to be Republicans.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
“Richer than Adam in his prime and he lives in suburban New Jersey? What a doofus.”
Actually, I think Bruce lives on a farm, so more rural than suburban, but he isn’t the only rich guy who lives in NJ. For example, our Democratic Governor, and former Goldman Sachs chief, Jon Corzine, and our senior U.S. Senator (also a Democrat), ADP founder Frank Lautenberg. They’re rich and liberal, just like Bruce.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
nbt: I think the problem is not that a party wants to reach out, but that it’s doing so in a superficial way and in a manner intending to paper over the fact that the GOP is mainly supported by southern rural white Christianists. Speaking ghetto is so inadequate and confused it’s laughable.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
“Steele wants to reach out to urbanites, young people, minorities, and that’s bad?”
Reaching out to the young and minorities by developing policies and programs that would appeal to them is good. Saying you’re going to be “off the hook” and “more than cutting-edge” and generally sounding like a teenager’s dad trying to give him the drug talk by using all the slang terms from 10 years ago…well, tone-deaf is as mildly as I can put it.
“Great wealth, an affinity for guns and an antipathy for government interference in their activities – rappers are a natural fit for the GOP. Yet, I feel my unassailable logic might be flawed somehow.”
Either Stewart or Colbert did a segment some months back where they went through a bunch of people naming their infamous activities/statements and had you guess whether they were Republicans or rappers. It was pretty funny.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
What the party is trying to sell is far more consequential than fashion. I suspect the kids know that.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Bosch’s Poodle #35 and Adam #36: I see your point, but where are the new policy ideas going to come from? Probably not from the tradition-bound privileged white males currently staffing the party apparatus and the think tanks and the lobby groups. They need to get different sorts of people involved in GOP politics starting at the college age.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I get the GOP trying to reach out, but trying to get black voters against Obama is like trying to get old white guys against Reagan. It’s just not going to happen. And it’s definitely not going to happen when your idea of an African-American politician who can speak to African-Americans, Latinos and young people of all races is Michael Steele. He was only the thinnest kid at fat camp in the GOP chairman race.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
And the series of tubes delivered with a link to
Thank you for reminding us that Ted Stevens was not just another felonious Alaskan Senator. He also articulated what the internet is all about for millions of aging boomers.
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