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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010
Michael Steele Worst Year
worst year from B1 At first glance, Steele might seem an
odd choice. After all, he heads a Republi- can Party that gained 63House seats and six Senate seats in the November mid- terms, resuscitating a party that was on the verge of last rites as recently as January 2009. No surprise, Steele is making that very case to the 168 mem- bers of the RepublicanNational Commit- tee right now as he—against all odds— seeks a second term at the helm of the party next month. But, the idea of Steele as savior misses
the mark—badly. First, the
obvious.To describe Steele as
a distraction to a party trying to keep the focus on President Obama and Demo- crats in Congresswoulddoa disservice to distractions. Steele’s gaffe machine — already well-oiled in 2009—kept crank- ing this year. In January he told Fox News Channel
talk show host SeanHannity that Repub- licans would make some “nice pickups” but not win the House majority. (Whoops!) Then in July, Steele was caught on camera at a fundraiser calling Afghanistan a “war of Obama’s choos- ing,” even though the war began under President Bush in 2001. The comment drew attention away from the adminis- tration’s handling of a deeply damaging Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Af- ghanistan, and instead made the story about Steele.
When Steele wasn’t misspeaking, his
committee was misspending — most notably on lunch at a risqué nightclub in Los Angeles — or misfiring, as with a leaked fundraising presentation that cast President Obama as the Joker in the recent incarnation of “Batman” movies. That series of gaffes complicated the
central strategy of the Republican Party: keeping the spotlight on Obama and the Democratic led Congress. The solution that the party eventually settled on was to send Steele on a month-long, country- wide bus tour—playing to his strengths among grass-roots activists — and keep- ing him off the television circuit, where he could turn attention away from the president. It was a remarkable turn- around, given that one of Steele’s stron- gest selling points when he won the job was his ability and ease as a communica- tor on the boob tube. But those mistakes alone, however
substantial, aren’t what clinched the Worst Year title for Steele. Rather it was his insistence that the Republican gains were attributable to him, a direct result of the strategies—fundraising and mes- sage-wise—that he put in place over the last year. “Iwon two governorships and a host of
special elections,” Steele crowed in the wake of the 2009 elections. In taking credit for what happened last month, Steele, as well as the many within the broaderRepublicanparty, aremissing the message voters sent: They didn’t vote for theGOP; they voted againstDemocrats.
STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
As several astute political observers— includingNational Journal’s Ron Brown- stein — have noted, the 2010 election amounted to a binary choice: Voters knew they didn’t want “A” (Democrats), so they were forced to go with “B” (Republicans). That reality means that Republicans
have won a victory, yes, but one fraught with peril. Poll after poll suggests that the GOPbrand remains badly damaged –with Steeledoing little tohelppolishthat image over the past year—and voters have little faith in Republicans to solve the major problems facing the country. In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, just 38 percent of respondents said they preferred Republicans when it came to addressing and fixing the big issues inthe country. Republicans seem to be in the midst of
an identity crisis, still looking for the bridge that links the current GOP to the
party of Ronald Reagan, their enduring patriarch. Are they the party that appeals to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings,” as Steele once put it? A free-wheeling, cult of personality with only the patina of a policy agenda of their own? Almost certainly not. Arethey the“madas hellandnotgoing
to take it anymore” tea party crowd that grabbed the establishment by the throat in 2010 and refused to let go, often to disastrous electoral results? (Helloooo Sharron Angle.) Or are they something else entirely?
Steele could have served as the modera- tor of that debate and even used the power of his position to influence what the new GOP would become. But he was so focused on being Michael Steele that he forgot he was the leader of the RepublicanParty.He proved incapable of
helping Republicans engage in the sort of reexamination necessary for the side not in power. That process will now begin in earnest, almost two years late. The 2010 election proved that voters
aren’t ready for—or simply don’t want— the major policy proposals pushed by Democrats. But the results made it easy to miss the fact that the reimagining of the Republican Party remains very much a work in progress. The last year was filled with fits and
starts for the GOP, typified by Steele’s attempt (and ultimate failure) to lead the party, in no small part because he couldn’t get out of his own way. Michael Steele, for serving as a parable
for the challenges your party faces head- ing into 2011, you had the Worst Year in Washington. Congrats, or something.
chris.cillizza@
wpost.com
BadYear
So-so Year
Better-than- expected year
Good Year
Best Year
ASSOCIATED PRESS Snyder 2010 was supposed to be the year
that the meddlesome owner of the Redskins got it right. Yeah, he’s been trying to get it right every year since buying the teamin1999, but this year, this year, he would let the football guys run the football team; he’d keep spending big andwin big. Snyder brought inMike Shanahan,
a two-time Super Bowl winner, to coach the burgundy and gold. He acquiredDonovanMcNabb, a veteran quarterback, to lead the offense. He continued to pay — and pay — for talent, with defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth set to star on defense. Result: Pretty much the same as
every other year of the Snyder Era — dismal,disappointinganddispiriting. Shanahan and Haynesworth spent
mostof the seasoninaway-too-public fight over defensive schemes and playing time. McNabb has proven steady but unspectacular, and Shana- han did the QB no favors when he inexplicably pulled him late in an October game against the Detroit Li- ons — and then benched him for the rest of the season on Friday. The rest of the team hasn’t per-
formedmuchbetter, typifiedbya17-16 home loss to the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers last weekend, when the tying extra point skipped off the fingers of holder/punterHunterSmithwithsec- ond left in the game. (The Redskins released Smith, proving that they are not above a good sacrificial lambing.) The result before thisweek’s trip to
Dallas:A5-8 record—better than the 4-12 disaster of 2009 but not bymuch — and no playoff appearance for the eighth time in 11 years. Snyder has laid relatively lowamid
allof this.Butgivenhis trackrecord— and his team’s — it’s hard to imagine that silence holding into 2011.
Dan
SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE PRESS/GETTY IMAGES
Barack Obama
Things started going downhill for
President Obama early on in 2010. Most date the decline to Jan. 19, the
day Scott Brown, a little-known Re- publican state senator, won a special election to replace the late Ted Ken- nedy. That deprived Senate Demo- crats of the key 60th vote they needed to pass the health care bill, and the majorinitiative of the president’s first two years stalled. A series of legisla- tive maneuvers (eventually) led to the bill’s passage, but not before lasting damage to Obama’s agenda and his party’s popularity had been done. Meanwhile, the economy still sput-
tered, conservatives railed against a runaway federal government,andlib- erals screamed when the president added more troops in Afghanistan and griped further when he refused to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Theoutcomeof theNovemberelec-
tion felt preordained after such a tough year. But theHouseDemocrats’ 63-seat loss — and, with it, their majority status — amounted to a historic
defeat.Many of those ousted blamed the president; he acknowl- edged a “shellacking” and said, “It feels bad.” In a fitting end to a tough year,
Obama was on the wrong end of an elbow in a pickup basketball last month — receiving a smack to the mouth and requiring a dozen stitches to close the wound. But he didn’t have the Worst Year
inWashington. Because, like it or not, he managed to pass legislation re- forming health care and financial regulations, and forged a bipartisan tax compromise to close out the year. Not too shabby.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Timothy Geithner
When 2010 began, the Treasury
secretary was a front-runner to be the first man out of the White House’s economic team. Geithner had already withstood
calls for his resignation from congres- sional Democrats and Republicans alike, and he was taking heavy fire for his attempts to dole out the $350 million (or so) left over in the mas- sively unpopular Troubled Asset Re- lief Program. But Geithner trudged on and on,
even as his colleagues on the White House economic team fell by the wayside this year. Council ofEconom- ic Advisers chair Christina Romer? Gone. White House budget chief Pe- ter Orszag?
Gone.National Economic Council director — and professional lightning rod — Larry Summers? Al- most gone. With the passage of financial regu-
latory reform in July,Geithner scored a major victory that strengthened his hand over Wall Street. And with the TARP concluding in November, Gei- thner offered a retrospective defense that acknowledged the program’s critics yet affirmed its importance. “It wasn’t fair,” he said of the bailouts. “But it was necessary.” While the Treasury secretary end-
ed the year on an upswing, not every- thingwasrosy.Hewashospitalized to remove a kidney stone earlier this month (although he did get out soon- er than expected), and the lack of significant economic recovery lies squarely at his feet. Still, for a man who began the year
bruised and battered, Geithner has shown he can take a punch and keep fighting.
JEWEL SAMAD/AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Hillary Clinton
The Clintons are nothing if not
survivors. And the secretary of state proved that again in 2010 — leverag- ing her global celebrity and substan- tial political skills to great effect as the nation’s diplomat-in-chief. Clinton was everywhere in the past
year, traveling to 55 countries and receiving a rock-star reception in nearly every one. Her popularity ex- tended beyond the diplomatic crowd and into the citizenry, the sort of U.S. outreach needed after eight years of the Bush administration. Clinton’s gaze — and travel sched-
ule — turned more often than not to Asia, echoing President Obama’s fo- cusonthe region’s potential as collab- orator and competitor. She also worked extensively in the Middle East, even though those efforts stalled when direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians broke off this fall. Through it all, Clinton seemed to
revel in the adulation — a welcome change from the grinding negativity of the 2008 presidential primary.Her tough image was also softened with her turn as mother of the bride when her daughter Chelsea was married in August. The year ended on a down note as
Clinton coped with the controversy created by WikiLeaks and weathered the loss of Richard Holbrooke, an envoy she brought into the adminis- tration one of the country’s leading international trouble-shooters. However, it’s hard to see Clinton as
anything other than a winner in 2010 — a victory that proves, yet again, there are second (and third and fourth) acts in politics. And, remember, Clinton will only be 69 years old in 2016. Just sayin’.
KAREN BLEIER/AGENCE FRANCE PRESS/GETTY IMAGE Boehner John Boehner began 2010 with a
vision — that Republicans could claim 40 Democratic seats and with it theHouse majority. Outside of his immediate political
circle, Boehner found fewpeoplewho shared that vision, especially after Republicans lost a May special elec- tion for a swing seat in southwestern Pennsylvania. But the Ohioan kept at it, traveling
the country in support of candidates, donating millions of dollars from his campaign account to the National Republican Congressional Commit- tee, and keeping his members in line and in opposition to theObamaagen- da.
As summer turned to fall, Boeh-
ner’s dream started to look more and more like reality. The White House began to attack Boehner, hoping to use him—and his extensive ties to lobbyists — as a symbol of what voters would be get- ting if they put Republicans back in charge of the
Capitol.They calledhim the consummateWashington insider, bankrolled by big business. Boehner didn’t take the bait, stay-
ing safely behind the scenes and keeping the party’s focus squarely on Obama. “The American people have sent an unmistakable message to [Obama] tonight,” he said on mid- term election night, “and that mes- sage is: ‘change course.’ ” That course correction means Boehner will be the 52nd speaker of the House when Congress convenes in January. It also means Boehner had the best year in Washington in 2010 — but will face the weighty responsibility of governing when the calendar turns.
John
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