Steele Should Worry About Keeping the 36

RNC Chairman Michael Steele was in Florida yesterday trying to increase GOP registration by getting Florida Republicans to seek out the black and hispanic vote.

He urged party members to create a grassroots movement by doing things like door-to-door voter registration and community service, as well as reaching out to blacks and Hispanics and seeking new minority leaders.

''Please send some folks to the convention that look like Florida,'' Steele said. ``Could you help a brother out? No more national conventions with [only] 36 people of color in the room.''

Steele should worry first about making sure those 36 black Republicans stay in the GOP tent. As Republican Party like Michele Bachman and conservative media outlets move farther to the far right, they're targeting their appeals to neo-Nazis like Pittsburgh shooter Richard Poplawski instead of African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities.

Maybe Steele's new slogan should be: Keep the 36!