[Updated below]

At last week’s annual conference of the Young Republican National Federation, RNC Chairman Michael Steele joked that he would woo potential black voters with “fried chicken and potato salad,” prompting criticism from some prominent black Republicans that the G.O.P.’s first black chief was undermining outreach to the black community.

Asked how he intends to attract “diverse populations” to a party bereft of minority coalitions, Steele replied, “My plan is to say ‘Y’all come,’ because a lot of you are already here.”

But noting that an overwhelming 95% of black voters nationwide supported Obama in last year’s general election, black Republican strategists caution that simply saying “y’all come” won’t cut it. Ali Akbar, a young Georgia Republican and online consultant, warns there is something more fundamental to courting minority voters than merely rolling out the welcome mat.

“We have issues of tone, recognition of economic and social circumstances, and to be frank, we’re not talking about how our policy initiatives directly benefit the African American community.”

Indeed, we’re talking about fried chicken.

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Reminiscent of the no-bid, cost-plus contracts awarded in the Bush administration to defense contractors, ABC News reported last night the Obama Administration awarded a five-year $18 million contract to Smartronix, a Maryland-based IT firm with connections to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, for the redesign of Recovery.gov.

Launched in February to track the expenditures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Recovery.gov was to be the pinnacle of web-enabled transparency, according to President Barack Obama.

“The site is the tip of the iceberg for the effort that will go into taking spending tracking and accountability to the next level,” one administration official said of their intended level of transparency.

But now, it seems, the administration has failed to deliver on two pledges central to the Obama campaign’s rhetoric: fiscal responsibility and unrivaled transparency.

An acerbic Ed Morrissey asks, “Since when does it cost $18 million for a website, even one with a database requiring updates on a quarterly basis?”

Not often.

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