Sounds to me like the Republicans have a party chairman that perfectly reflects the Republican philosophy.

Another gift from the state that brought you Spiro Agnew. Sorry about that...

Who on earth would pay Michael Steele anything to hear him speak? Let alone $20,000. Seriously.

This is from the party that thought the ideal solution to having too small an army for their wars was to hire a couple of hundred thousand mercenaries. And, of course, they have leaders like Tom Delay who basically brag about their skills in peddling influence.

They rant about the Christian god a lot, but what they really worship is the almighty buck. Steele fits right in.

I will pay whatever it takes to keep his brave new vision before the public ear .
Umm , except listen . There are even in these stout ears tedium beyond the grain that will suffer no polish

I find Steele's sweet racket one hell of a lot less offensive than Ben Nelson's incestuous insurance racket.

Like FRP, I think we all benefit from keeping Steele. Given the coming mid-term elections, don't we want an incompetent as head of the RNC? Don't we want someone who enables any possible further splintering and dissolution of Republican efforts?

Keep the joker in place.

But find still stronger Democratic leadership, at all levels.

On the one hand, I say stop attacking Steele, he's doing such a good job of losing.

On the other hand, if we want to keep him, we should start attacking him more! Nothing makes the Conservatives circle their wagons like an attack from the left!

Steele is really just plain stupid, isn't he.

Steele-azar, I think your party has a great chairman.

"I don't do work."

I've got a new respect for Steele. I'd be too embarrassed to ask for $20,000 for a speech even if I were the new Carl Sagan. But this guy takes failure and embarrassment and gets rich!

What a delicious paradox the Republicans have gotten themselves into. The choice of Steele was clearly motivated by the fact that Obama is a person of color. Steele has few useful skills such as message articulation, fund raising capabilities (except for himself), and verbal skills. He lurches about making stabs at crafting Republican policy and then denies any role in policy development. Steele’s attempts at appealing to younger people of color is just plain embarrassing. He is the antithesis of President Obama and has shown himself to be a buffoon. But, that fits smoothly into the apparent beliefs of the party. In their rush to find a Black man as a counter to Obama, they got stuck with a man of severe limitations. Now they are in a corner and there is no solution that doesn’t expose their biases. I am enjoying the irony.

What does he charge to shut the fuck up?

RepubAnon nails it in the first post.

These are just free market forces at work. It would be unethical to stop that. If Steele wants to use his chairmanship to moonlight as a celebrity and make moolah, that's his God given American right. Besides, the true leader of the GOP makes no obfuscation to the fact he is in it for the money. He even jokes about not running for President because he'd have to take a pay cut.

Republican values- blurring the line between ethics and $$$$ since 1854.

Steele's message to the GOP: I got mine, fuck you!

Sounds to me like the Republicans have a party chairman that perfectly reflects the Republican philosophy.

Posted by: RepubAnon on December 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM

Exactly! And really, any organization flat-out dumb enough to pay this clown $20,000 for a "speech" he likely didn't write and puts him up in a "first-class" hotel deserves him.

@ Marko - Steele's message to the GOP: I got mine, fuck you!

Yeah baby, it the Magic of the Marketplace!

Just who do these Commies think they are. Steele should be able to sell his labor on the open market for what ever he can get.

Yeah baby, it the Magic of the Marketplace!

What goes around, comes around.
Karma's a bitch, ain't it?
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
Sweet irony is bliss.
Be careful what you wish for...

Of course, this is all about the GOP getting caught up in its own hubris. Steele is just a symptom of what is wrong with the entire caucus.

"an incompetent chairman who's using his title to line his own pockets"

Which part would they object to? Incompetent? Lining his own pockets? Seems more like a twofer for them.

It would be disruptive and embarrassing.

Steele is distruptive and embarrassing on a daily basis! I'm not sure that anyone pays attention to who manages the national parties other than us poliical junkies, or whether the chairs themselves have a significant impact on inidividual races. But the man isn't just a clown, he's a disruptive and embarrassing clown.

"For what it's worth, the Democratic National Committee said it knows of no DNC chairs who've ever made speeches for personal gain the way Steele is doing now."

Of course not, because if they were focused on money instead of public service, they would be ReThuglicans.

Personally, I think this just puts Steele right in line with the mainstream of the ReThugs, whose primary philosphy is "Money, money, mo' money, for me, me, me."

After all, the Queen of the ReThuglicans QUIT her governing job to go out and make money giving speeches.

Same old, same old.

This is awesome. The head republican in charge is fleecing his suckers while on the company dime instead of doing his own job. Grab that gold now baby. You are going to be done soon. What a great target for ads to be run against. The republicans are so dishonest that even their leader is shaking down supporters to rake in his ill gotten gains. Run the ads.

While I was laughing at the clown, his buddy picked my pocket.

Shortly after Steele was elected to chair the RNC, Alex Koppelman posted an article at Salon.com titled "Michael Steele, forever failing upward." Koppleman summarized the chairman's G.W.Bush-league business acumen:

His (Michael Steele's) record as a businessman wasn't stellar, either. A consulting firm he founded never turned a profit, and was a serious drain on his finances. Shortly after he began his run for lieutenant governor, Steele ran into trouble because of a $25,000 loan his sister had given to his campaign for comptroller that he'd never paid back. Then, there were revelations of an additional $35,000 in personal debt, as well as more than $100,000 he'd taken out of two retirement accounts in order to support his family, leaving a balance of less than $600 at the time the news broke. He suffered further embarrassment over his finances when it was revealed that the Republican Party was paying him a consulting fee of $5,000 a month during his campaign for lieutenant governor.

Draw your own conclusions.