GOP’s new web site roundly mocked

Q. When is a website not a web site?

A. When Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele says it’s not a website!

Appearing on Fox yesterday afternoon to talk about the Republican National Committee’s newly relaunched website, which had come under a healthy amount of criticism and mocking while only working sporadically throughout the day, Steele said, “It’s not even really a web site.” Listen for yourself:

What I found most amusing about the new GOP.com, besides the fact that it barely worked while I visited, was the American Heroes & Famous Republicans section of the site. As The Chief notes, the “American Heroes & Famous Republicans” section features 18 Republicans, among them 8 African-Americans, 1 Latino, and 4 women, but what I found most telling is the fact that of the 18 individuals listed as “American Heroes & Famous Republicans,” only six happened to be from the 20th Century. What’s more, not counted among the GOP’s “American Heroes & Famous Republicans” are such luminaries as Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Evans Hughes, Jesse Helms, Richard Nixon, Strom Thurmond, Barry Goldwater, Robert Taft, Bob Dole, Earl Warren, or Jack Kemp, all of whom I’d consider to be more famous than many of the Republicans listed on the GOP’s website.

Were the famous Republicans I listed excluded from the GOP’s website to paint a more diverse picture of a GOP that’s desperately trying to appear more inclusive and diverse than it really is?