Campaign committees

Steele: ‘Fire Pelosi’ bus tour will take ‘aggressive’ effort ‘straight to the street’

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Friday that a “Fire Nancy Pelosi” bus tour would be unveiled when Congress comes back into session after the summer recess.

On Fox News’ “Hannity” show Friday evening, Steele said the bus, to be unveiled around Sept. 14, would be “decked out in red” with the slogan aimed at the speaker of the House: “Need a job? Fire Pelosi.”

“This is a 50-state strategy that the party’s never done before,” Steele said. “We have taken the last seven or eight months, hunkered down and figured out where do we need to go to be the most effective.”

He said the effort would pull together efforts to get candidates in front of voters and get people on the ground to help drive turnout in November’s midterm elections.

The bus tour would be putting forth economic policies recently espoused by Minority Leader John (R-Ohio) and Ranking Budget Committee Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisc.), as well as the follow-up to the Contract With America being drafted in party by Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

“It’s a chance for us to not only focus on the congressional races,” Steele said, but to focus on state races that would have an effect on congressional redistricting.

“We don’t want to have to win in November only to have all of that taken away by Democratic state legislatures and Democratic governors in 2011 and 2012,” Steele said.

“This is a complete package,” the chairman said. “It’s an aggressive package, and we’re taking it straight to the street.”