GOP wants Hoyer to step down for Steele comment

Democrats say Republicans are just trying to deflect attention from Steele’s closeness to Bush

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

by Douglas Tallman

Staff Writer

The Maryland Republican Party has called on Rep. Steny H. Hoyer to give up his Democratic Party leadership post in the wake of his comment that Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele follows GOP doctrine ‘‘slavishly.”

Steele is in the middle of a pitched election fight for U.S. Senate with Benjamin L. Cardin, a Democratic congressman.

‘‘Ben Cardin should be ashamed to stand alongside, and at the least tacitly accept, the racist and disgusting comments from his buddy Steny Hoyer,” said John Gibson, the state GOP’s executive director, in a statement.

‘‘I call on Steny Hoyer to resign his post as House Minority Whip due to his reprehensible comments and I call on Ben Cardin [to] repudiate his comments.”

Hoyer, speaking before a group of African-American businessmen on Sunday, said Steele has ‘‘a career of slavishly supporting the Republican Party.” The comment was in a report about Steele’s candidacy that appeared on the MSNBC Web site.

Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville regretted the remark Tuesday evening. ‘‘I shouldn’t have used those words,” he said in a statement.

On Wednesday, his spokeswoman, Stacey Bernards, said: ‘‘Mr. Hoyer has stated that he should not have used that word. This is a desperate and transparent attempt to keep this story going one more day so that Mr. Steele doesn’t have to talk about the issues, and to distract from his unwavering support for President Bush and the Republican Party.”

After speaking to business leaders at an Ocean City conference on Tuesday, Steele told reporters that Hoyer’s comment ‘‘goes to the sheer arrogance of some in the Democratic Party.”

‘‘At some point, I expect Ben Cardin to tell his team to sit down and shut up,” Steele said.

Cardin, who also addressed the business leaders, told reporters that Steele was using the comment to deflect attention away from more substantive matters.

‘‘He’ll read anything he can into anything someone says so he doesn’t have to talk about the issues,” Cardin said.

‘‘If Mr. Steele did in fact take offense let us assure him none was intended,” Hoyer’s statement said. ‘‘But Mr. Steele continuously tries to direct attention away from the fact that he’s an unwavering supporter of the Republican agenda of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.”

Hoyer’s office also supplied this comment, from Melvin Forbes, the CEO of Cool Wave Water, the Sunday event’s organizer: ‘‘This was largely an African-American audience and there was absolutely no offense taken or noticed. It was obvious that Steny was simply talking about Steele’s constant support for the Republican agenda.”

Steele, the first African American elected statewide, has complained about racist comments since entering public life. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. once called him an ‘‘Uncle Tom.” Hoyer called him a ‘‘token” candidate in 2002.

And Steele and other Republicans still bridle at a sentence in a (Baltimore) Sun editorial that said Steele offered little to the Ehrlich gubernatorial ticket ‘‘but the color of his skin.”

And at a 2002 debate, Ehrlich administration officials insist — but Democrats dispute — hecklers tossed Oreo cookies.

Gibson’s statement said Hoyer’s comment is ‘‘particularly jarring as the Democratic powerbrokers like Hoyer have tried to coronate a statewide ticket that lacks diversity and inclusiveness.”

Cardin defeated Kweisi Mfume, a former Democratic congressman and ex-president of the NAACP, to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

‘‘Steny Hoyer’s continued racist attacks are an affront to all African Americans and insulting to Marylanders who expect more from” a high-ranking Democratic legislator, Gibson stated.

He also called on Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Dist. 7) of Baltimore and Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) of Mitchellville, both African American, to ‘‘denounce the bigoted statements by their colleague.”

‘‘All of God’s children make mistakes,” he continued. ‘‘But 1 John 3:18 teaches us to love not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And Congressman Hoyer’s record, his truth and his action, show that there’s love in his heart.”

Wynn said some of Steele's complaints have been legitimate, while others have been questionable, including this one.

"I know Steny Hoyer. Steny Hoyer is no racist," Wynn said. "He probably had a bad choice of words in this context ... but in this instance, I don't believe it was racially insensitive."