Republican National Chairman Michael Steele has been a lightning rod, due to his comments and actions. He has become an albatross around the Republican Party’s neck, but despite discontent by many, he is unlikely to be removed as head of the RNC before his two year term ends in January, 2011. It seems obvious, however, that he will not have an opportunity to serve another two year term, simply because of his ability to blunder in major ways!
Fund raising has not been going well under his leadership, and he has become the center of controversy by the fact that money was authorized to be paid to an aide who went to a lesbian bondage nightclub in Los Angeles, and also by his publication of a book without any notice to party leaders, and seemingly making bad judgments on a regular basis beyond these examples.
Instead of promoting the party, he has become a problem, and this has led religious conservatives to move away from supporting the party financially. Also, such Republican campaign operatives as Alex Castellanos, Ed Rollins, and David Frum have called for his resignation, as a necessity so as not to harm the party message, and its opportunity to gain the maximum number of seats in Congress and the governorships in the upcoming elections of 2010.
But Michael Steele clearly will not budge, and the fact he is African American makes it difficult for the mainstream of the GOP to call for his ouster. So Michael Steele will be a major factor, probably bad, for Republican fortunes this fall!
One cannot recall any national chairman becoming the center of such controversy as Steele has become, with maybe the exception of Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, who was Democratic National Chairman in the second Bush term. While he sometimes said what should have been left unsaid, he was very successful in raising funds and electing Democrats nationally, so can be forgiven for his verbal slippages. Will the same be said about Michael Steele after the midterm elections? We shall see, but highly doubtful!