Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele stopped Sunday in Waco as part of a “Fire Pelosi” bus tour that has been working its way through Texas.

Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, revved up the crowd, describing national Democrats as arrogant and out of touch with average Americans.

“They still live in the ivory towers where they look their noses down on the people,” Steele said.

Lucas Beltran, 10, looks up at Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Sunday as Steele speaks to supporters at Heritage Square as part of a bus tour.
Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald

“ ‘You are too ignorant to know what’s being done for your own good’ — this is what they’re telling us,” said Steele, who said he was characterizing a recent remark made by Massachusetts Sen. and former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

“This is the people’s moment,” Steele continued before he picked a middle school student out of the crowd to illustrate the debt facing young Americans.

“Right now, he owes $55,000 and he’s not done anything to deserve that,” Steele said of Lucas Beltran, who was holding up a tablet computer on which he’d scrawled, “Obama needs to go.”

Lucas, 10, who attends Hillcrest Professional Development School, was star-struck.

“My iPad is famous,” he said.

Waco was a natural stop for Steele’s bus tour, which continued on to the State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Waco is the geographical and population center of a U.S. House district that is considered a key battleground in the 2010 campaign cycle.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is being challenged by Bryan Republican Bill Flores, who wasn’t at Sunday’s event.

Tyler Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert — a Baylor University Law School graduate and a college classmate of Flores’ — acted as a stand-in while he warmed the crowd up for Steele.

“I feel like I helped him through (Texas) A&M, but really he helped me,” Gohmert said of Flores.

In addition to Gohmert, two Texas House challengers running against Democratic incumbents from South Texas and Austin attended.

State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury; state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson, whom Steele introduced as “Scott Anderson” before correcting himself; and state House challenger Marva Beck, of Centerville, also attended the event.

Though Steele mainly criticized national Democratic leaders during his speech, he also heaped praise on the politicians in the crowd and on Gov. Rick Perry, whom he called a “bold leader.”

“Re-elect your governor to give you the strength and the fortitude to take on these challenges,” he said. “This is not the time for those who are lighthearted and weak in the knees.”

In a response statement, Texas Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie mocked the bus tour for focusing on Pelosi, who represents a California House district, in the Lone Star State.

“It’s a state election year, and while Nancy Pelosi is not on the ballot, Texans will indeed have the opportunity to pink-slip Rick Perry and the Republican politicians who’ve been failing our state for a decade.”

Pelosi is on the ballot in California and faces a long shot of a challenger.

The bus tour — which came through Waco under an overcast sky and during the second half of the Cowboy-Texans football game —drew around 100 people.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

757-5707