On my way to work today I was just thinking that I hadn't heard Steele's name in a couple weeks and that he was due for a gaffe or they hid him somewhere.

Steve, if you could be so kind, would you post the fund raising totals with the new numbers for both the DNC and RNC ?

What fun....

Ah, but remember, it's ALWAYS good news for Republicans!

"Hey, remember all those shady accounting practices Wall Street used to topple our economy? Did the RNC use them first or pick them up along the way?"

All of this is meaningless to Red State voters because the President is black and his liberal agenda must be stopped!!! The RNC fiscal irresponsibilities will disappear once they elect a white male to run the party.

Your #3 (weak RNC fundraising in advance of a critical election season) is immaterial, given the gazillions of cash that outside organisations will be pouring into Repub campaigns across the country (thanks, the RATS of SCOTUS).

Really, we can never thank the RNC enough for appointing Steele. He is the poster child for affirmative action as implemented by and for morons.

The real scandal that will be endlessly analyzed and reported on will be when Andrew Breitbart reveals that someone at the DNC neglected to report a $10 coffee mug "gifted" by an ACORN lobbyist in 1992.

the controversy itself steps all over the Republican message of fiscal responsibility.

In a sane world, reality would step all over that message -- the reality that GOP budgets are responsible for $10 trillion of our $12 trillion in national debt ... the reality that tax cuts don't pay for themselves ... the reality that Bush II rang up $6 trillion in debt, and not a single conservative said a damn word about "fiscal responsibility" ... etc. etc. etc.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE seeing the GOP imploding. I just don't think it will mean much in the long run since actual facts don't seem to matter any more.

This one may be the one that does Steele in. I don't think they were going to throw out Steele over the Afghanistan thing, but this one they might feel able to act on.

They're supposed to be about "family values" as well, but look where that's going.

Clearly this is excellent news for John McCain.

Rathskeller - Steele's rise to RNC Chairman was NOT due to affirmative action. It was for a purely political (and cynical) reason that a black man won the Presidential race. (He also took office on Jan. 20, 2009. How very clever). Just like Sarah Palin was selected by McCain's campaign to run with him because a woman was the other front runner for President. However, both of THOSE actions WERE implemented by and for morons.

The sad thing is that no matter how badly the Republicans screw up, they're still overwhelmingly likely to make huge gains in the House and the Senate. There is no incentive for Republicans to be competent, or thoughtful, or conscientious, since they get rewarded anyway.

This is nothing new nor is it that important.

A while back there was a scandal in which money was being embezzled from the RNC so this has happened before. The real money is a parallel effort on the part of Karl Rove and there are other Republican money groups out there backing favorite sons and philosophies.

Since the RNC is the official party voice, there will be a few problems ("officially" at least), but the RNC has been a paper tiger for some time and since the RNC or its chairman are not involved in the intercine fighting that is going in the Republican party, few of the movers and shakers in the party are paying attention. Otherwise Mr. Steele would have lost his job a long time ago.

The real power in the Republican party lies elsewhere. What you are seeing here is just distraction. I suspect that no one wants a powerful or competent chairman of the RNC as he might interfere with the agendas of the two factions that are trying to determine who is really in charge. (The Lott vs. DeMint crowds.)

Hence Mr. Steele keeps his job, the RNC flexes no muscle, scandals are buried or ignored and the real business happens elsewhere.

"I LOVE seeing the GOP imploding. I just don't think it will mean much in the long run since actual facts don't seem to matter any more."

Agree with Mark - the narrative that the R's are the party of fiscal responsibility won't be hurt by some little shenanigans from RNC headquarters. 90% of people don't know what the RNC or DNC are. If this "fiscal responsibility" narrative can survive in the face of, say, Reagan and Bush II absolutely exploding the cumulative national debt, then facts obviously don't matter.

And what else did you expect from a political party that insists you don't have to offset tax cuts when balancing the federal budget?

[...] causing the RNC not to report more than $7 million in debt in its April and May filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Clearly, the requirement to file the status of the bank account with the FEC is unconstitutional and should be refudiated *immediately*. One's finances are a private matter!

Perhaps they're covering their butts for when they get swept out of office in November. Perhaps, contrary to the spin they're publicizing (e.g. presumed gains in congress, etc), they have identified likely losses amongst themselves and have decided by planting the seed now that it was weak leadership that contributed to these 'unforeseen' Democratic wins, attention is drawn away from the idea that maybe Americans are fed up with their bull. Conversely, should the propaganda work that contingency plan is pretended away. Now only if the Democratic Caucus unified and pressed the sensibility of their policy positions and 111th and soon to be 112th Congress accomplishments.

The GOP does not need any money to spread it's devilish drivel; it has many thousands of evil, horn'ed-headed, pitchfork-wielding, cloven-hooved teabagger-type minions, all willing to pay good money for an event ticket granting the right to lie their fool asses off to the entire world in front of a faux-nooze camera team.....

Dang, this show has been going on so long I finished my popcorn!

Yo, Slappy! Pass me the Twizzlers.

The Party of Fraud - A twelve act play by Sarah Shakespalin

The real scandal that will be endlessly analyzed and reported on will be when Andrew Breitbart reveals that someone at the DNC neglected to report a $10 coffee mug "gifted" by an ACORN lobbyist in 1992.
Posted by: qwerty on July 21, 2010 at 4:06 PM

Isn't that the sad truth. Fox and Friends would have a field day: a non-stop bozothon of bitter, conservative white men on to console Steve Doocy and pretending to be "shocked" by this "outrage." It would be the show's only topic for a month, provided no attractive white woman turned up missing.

Seriously, I want to know - how the hell does Steele keep this job??? He must have pictures...

This just couldn't happen to a nicer organization. ROFL

I don't see what there is to worry about. The Republican Party will always be the party of "fiscal responsibility" no matter how many financial scandals they get caught in. That is because the dominant media narrative SAYS they are the party of fiscal responsibility, and whatever the dominant media narrative says must be true. Of course, that narrative gets a little stronger every time it is re-inscribed, as it is in this article.

I am still convinced Steele has the head RNC job still only because no one else wants it. And I don't know that this change it since it actually makes the RNC look like an even worse situation than it was - something I didn't think could happen.

I feel like any news on the RNC should end with the "Tune in Tomorrow for....."

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