The Thing About Michael Steele...

...is that he has no sense of context and timing. By now you guys have heard about Steele's crack about "fried chicken and potato salad" as a means of diversifying the GOP. Now, I'm a fan of fried chicken and potato salad. The two go together like burgers and buns. I'm also a fan of off-color jokes--this is precisely the sort of quip I would make to my very integrated readership here.

But I wouldn't make that joke while speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival. I wouldn't make that joke in a meeting with my editors, all of whom are white. And I certainly wouldn't make that joke were a member of a party where prominent members think "Barack the Magic Negro" is funny. Or in a party where prominent members belong to country clubs that exclude blacks. Or in a party where Jeff Sessions is charged with protecting white men against the scourge Puerto-Rican domination. Context, Brother Mike. Context.

And now for more fried chicken jokes...

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