You know, it just kills me that when a man of color tries to aspire to a higher office that the liberal media tries to use the race card – or in the case of former Maryland governor Michael Steele – or tries to blame the GOP.  It’s pitiful, really.  Even Michael Steele has said it himself; here’s the deal with Steele and the liberal media.

Steele wants to run for the chairmanship of the Republican Party and the media is portraying it as Steele riding the coattails of president-elect Barack Obama – who happens to be our nation’s first elected black president.  Steele, in response to those accusations, told the Washington Times that the media is trying to play their version of the race card and are also disrespecting him.

Steele, who is currently chairman of GOPAC – a Republican political action committee – also talked about how the Republicans were left “standing still” because of Obama’s usage of technology and outreach to younger and majority voters; Steele also said that he is the only candidate for RNC chairman who has a national profile and can get the Party doing a better job of organizing at the state level in such a way yo where the Party attracts and advances quality candidates into national office and also builds relationships with minority voters.

Truth be told, Steele has the name recognition and the qualities that would only benefit our GOP.  Not to mention that he doesn’t really have any true competition for the RNC chairmanship post he is seeking.  I think even current chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan even recognizes this; now if only the liberal media would just get over themselves and provide some, in the words of the Fox News Channel, “fair and balanced” reporting.  But that would be too much like right.

As I reported here on Wednesday, the Republican Party was looking to file a lawsuit that would end the McCain-Feingold Act, which sets limits on soft  money that can be raised during a campaign; well folks, as expected, the deed has been done as the Republican National Committee announced today that they will file lawsuits in the District of Columbia and the State of Louisiana challenging, respectively, the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act’s (aka the McCain-Feingold Act) ban on national political parties raising and spending non-federal money and the constitutionality of of political party coordinated expenditure limits.

Added RNC Chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan,

“The campaign finance restrictions the RNC today challenged infringe on the First Amendment’s core: political speech and association. The RNC must have the ability to support state candidates, coordinate expenditures with our candidates, and truly engage in political activity on a national level. The RNC has operated under and complied with these provisions of the law since their enactment, and as applied it is unconstitutional.”

The only thing I can say about this lawsuit – and I am certain that a lot of you agree on this in light of the fact that President-elect Barack Obama initially agreed to accept public financing, then reneged on that promise, then raised money that was dubious in not only its origins, but also specifically the parties who donated these sums – is that it is about time that the RNC jumped all over this.  This will be significant as although the next election is not until 2012, campaign finance reform will be a very real issue just before the 2012 primaries.  I have the proposed lawsuits for both D.C. and Louisiana here for your viewing pleasure.

To view the D.C. Soft Money Suit, click here.

To view the Louisiana Coordinated Expenditure lawsuit, click here. 

Source: GOP.com

Not that it matters now, because our country has spoken and we (not me) chose Barack Obama as our next President; the problem isn’t so much that he was elected, but more about the financing issue as all of us already know that Obama outspent Republican presidential candidate John McCain big-time.  The GOP apparently is being proactive about the spending discrepancy as according to Ralph Hallow of the Washington Times, the Republican Party will file a lawsuit Thursday, designed to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations; this information has been confirmed by RNC chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan.

Duncan said that one suit will be filed in the District of Columbia to eliminate the “soft-money” ban, which is the heart of the McCain-Feingold Act; the second suit will be filed in Louisiana to strike down the limits under the aforementioned Act that control coordination between parties and their candidates.  We all remember when Obama agreed to, like McCain pledged to do, use the McCain-Feingold rules to coordinate his financing; of course, Obama reneged on his promise.  As a result, Obama raised over $600 million in both soft and hard money – hence the lawsuits that will be filed this week.

All I can say is this – personally I have no problem with political parties raising ridiculous amounts of money, provided every dollar is accounted for – especially the credit card transactions.  A good example is the many questionable credit card transactions credited to the Obama campaign that had dubious names, questionable citizenship, plus the fact that the Team Obama didn’t utilize the safety features that online transactions are supposed to have in place.  And what is unfortunate is that the Obama campaign will not get called out on that transgression.

That aside, the Democratic Party outraised them by a huge margin – which crippled Team McCain.  Again, I don’t take issue with the amount of money raised; in my opinion, it should be raised legally – bottom line.  And hopefully, the proposed lawsuits will get the desired result and preferably level the playing field for candidates in future elections.