‘Party Trumps Race’ For Steele Foes

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an “Uncle Tom” and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report — the only Republican candidate so targeted.

But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with “pointing out the obvious.”

“There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names,” said a campaign spokesman for Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

State Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a black Baltimore Democrat, said she does not expect her party to pull any punches, including racial jabs at Mr. Steele, in the race to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.

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During the 2002 campaign, Democratic supporters pelted Mr. Steele with Oreo cookies during a gubernatorial debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

In 2001, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. called Mr. Steele an “Uncle Tom,” when Mr. Steele headed the state Republican Party. Mr. Miller, Prince George’s County Democrat, later apologized for the remark.

“That’s not racial. If they call him the “N’ word, that’s racial,” Mrs. Marriott said. “Just because he’s black, everything bad you say about him isn’t racial.”

This week, the News Blog — a liberal Web log run by Steve Gilliard, a black New Yorker — removed a doctored photo of Mr. Steele that depicted him as a black-faced minstrel.

However, the blog has kept its headline “Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house.” A caption beneath a photo of the lieutenant governor reads: “I’s Simple Sambo and I’s running for the Big House.”

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