Michael Steele stepped up his efforts to win the RNC chair in his appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday. He spoke out against the continuing efforts to expand the bailouts, but warned that the Republicans had to start offering a positive agenda as an alternative to the Democratic expansion of government control. Being the Party of No didn’t help in the last two cycles:

“I think the other thing that I’ve found that’s been lacking over the last four years, especially the last two cycles–’06 and ’08—we don’t know how to talk to people. We’ve absolutely forgotten how to communicate a message … to espouse those principles in the context of people’s everyday lives. … Our party needs to have a voice, it needs to have a relevant voice that people can identify with.”

“We put $700 billion on the table that we didn’t have. We’re now trying to carve out an extra $300 billion to put on the table. My question is, when does it stop? You don’t want to keep feeding this trough here that people on the Hill seem to want to be at.

“To the Republicans in the House and in the Senate, over this lame duck session you can be against a whole lot of things but you better start to be about something and for something, as well. Out party can’t just be in a position where we’re sitting back going ‘no to this, no to that, no to that’ without any explanation, number one, and without some alternative proposal to put on the table.”

“I bring a different experience to the table. I was a grassroots guy from day one. I started out here in my hometown of DC working the streets and knocking on doors. I then worked the central committee in Maryland, Prince George’s County. Became chairman of the party there for six years. State chairman. An elected official and lieutenant governor of the State of Maryland. Now I’m chairing GOPAC, a national grassroots organization that’s geared toward training and electing Republican candidates. So I think I bring a host of different perspectives to the table. … I want to make our party relevant and I think the experience I bring to the table will help us do that. I’m tired of us sitting with our heads in the sand complaining and finger pointing. Let’s get up, pick ourselves up, go out here and engage the fight. I want to be the loyal opposition to this incoming administration.”

Steele hits the nail on the head with his warning about communications. The Republicans need to have someone who relentlessly offers positive alternatives along with rational opposition to the Democratic agenda. It’s not about being nice, but about positioning the GOP as the grown-ups while the Democratic Congress and Obama administration write one check after another.

Republicans need someone with national name recognition who can do all of that as well as reorganize the RNC, modernize its communications, and find effective candidates for Congress.  The chair has to be ubiquitous, appearing everywhere and every day, making himself heard on every single issue.  Only a few people already have that kind of personality, and Steele is already busily proving that he qualifies.