NYT profiles Md. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele

A fairly good piece. Snippet:

Why is he a Republican, anyway? Steele’s answer is that it all goes back to his mother. (No politician ever lost votes by overreferencing his mother, who, in this case, was not made available for an interview.) In his neighborhood growing up, “everyone β€” cousins, friends and neighbors β€” was always asking her why she didn’t take public assistance. ‘Why don’t you stand in line and get a check?”‘ His mother, a Democrat with pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and J.F.K. on the wall at home, would answer the same way every time: “Because I don’t want the government raising my kids.”

That still didn’t make Steele a Republican right away. As a young man, he worked on one of Marion Barry’s mayoral campaigns in Washington. But, he told me, when he first heard Ronald Reagan, he equated Reagan’s message with his mother’s β€” both preached self-reliance. He pointed to a picture behind him: an autographed portrait of Reagan, inscribed to Steele, on the same day the 40th president left office. “That’s one of my proudest possessions,” he said.

Read the whole thing.

I remember Steele’s speech from the 2004 Republican National Convention – the speech didn’t get much attention, unfortunately, but it was my first good look at Steele … and I liked what I heard. He sounds like a solid no-nonsense conservative … the type of conservative we need a lot more of.

Check out the Steele for US Senate website here.

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