Michael Steele’s Cool Problem

Michael Steele – he’s the de jure Chairman of the Republican National Committee; Rush Limbaugh is the de facto one – has a challenging mission: to restore America’s Republican Party to power. His plan is to make it cool, or in his own words, use “off the hook” PR and by applying the party’s principles “to urban-suburban hip-hop settings”.

GQ recently interviewed him, and when the topic of conversation turned to music, he competently dropped some old-school rap and hip-hop names in that “I’m still cool! I keep up with the times!” way that some parents do:

Who do you listen to?
I actually listen to a cross section, because I like to hear what the medium is saying, what the voice is.

But do you have a favorite?
P. Diddy I enjoy quite a bit.

Do you want to rethink that?
[laughs] I guess I’m sorta old-school that way. Remember, I came of age with the DJ and all this other stuff, so I’m also loving Grandmaster Flash, and that’s not hip-hop, but… Um, you know, I like Chuck D. And I always thought Snoop Dogg was–he just reminded me of the fellas back home. So I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed him.

Strangely enough, it’s when he starts talking about Frank Sinatra and company that he fumbles. You have to keep in mind that being a fan of Sinatra is a Republican cliche so well known that it was featured in The Preppy Handbook and Family Ties’ Young Republican character, Alex P. Keaton, was written as a Sinatra fan:

Who else?
I like Sinatra. I like old-school. You know, Bing Crosby, Sinatra, Dean Martin. Love Dean Martin. He was one of these guys who just didn’t give an F. He just didn’t. Life was a party, and you either want to party or you don’t. But yeah, I like those. I’m a big Pack Rat. I love the Pack Rats from the 1950s–Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, those guys.

You mean the Rat Pack.
The Rat Pack, yeah.

Dude. Even the most casual Sinatra listeners (such as Yours Truly) know that.

For someone claiming to be a follower of classic rock music, an equivalent mistake would be to refer to The Beatles as “The Four Fabs” or Mick and Keith as “The Glamour Twins”.

This was summed up best by Talking Points Memo’s Eric Kleefeld, who made the following observation:

So Steele doesn’t just sound like a middle-aged man trying to talk to his kids and failing to sound cool. He’s also trying to talk to his parents and failing to sound cool.