Yes, Steele is an embarassment.
But there are a large number of candidates who make him look like a rational, thoughtful, and competent leader.
Only today's Democratic Party could lose to candidates who escaped Bellevue.

I think both the DNC and the RNC are 20th C. dinosaurs, and will become increasingly irrelevant in the 21st.

Big donors gave to both institutions, and let the organization dole out the dough.

Now we have the internet, and candidates can easily bypass the boys in the smoke filled back rooms, and go directly to the voter in their district. Postage is a thing of the past; my electronic mailbox is filled daily with pleas for cash. This morning I was asked to send $4 to help Grayson in Florida. I live in Pennsylvania, and if I send anyone $4, it will be Sestak, not some out of state worthy.
But it didn't cost whatever dot org a dime to hit me up for a contribution. (I assume they got my email address from a like minded Progressive group by swapping names. Even if they had to buy my name from the Sierra Club or some other non profit, they still saved the paper, printing, and postage. Hence the plea for four bucks, instead of forty or four hundred.

Obama understood the grassroots nature of electronic commerce. Steele may very well be the last chairman of the RNC. Are you listening, DNC?

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There is a certain idea of a vendor that believes what we believe is certainly second rate to what ever gaga idea that it believes . I predicate this dinosaur belief on the fact that no known system of bird feeders has ever disenthralled the zest of discovery and adventure from a squirrels persistence .
Of course ,
I could be wrong ...

Private corporations (i.e. Murdoch, B.P., XE, etc.) will make up the difference. The SCOTUS made sure to cover that base handily...

Let's not assume that corporations want the likes of Sharron Angle in office. There's a reason why they contributed generously to Obama in '08 -- they saw what Bush's economic policies had done to them.

stevio has a good point, regarding corporations funding the GOP.

They have not, however, aimed their cash machines directly at the selection process. For evidence we need only look at the lunatics currently winners of the Republican primaries.

Big Biz is all about control, and they will have a hard time bending these Republican candidates- either off their meds, or sorely in need of some-to their will.

Hollywood made many films in the 'Manchurian Candidate' mold, but none of the puppets suggested chickens as currency, or repealing the 14th Amendment!

But Rove's operation and the network of business donors etc. is now more powerful and more disturbing. The RNC is mostly window-dressing.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64984

T-Rex- Obama didn't accept any corporate or PAC money in '08. What are you talking about? People who work for big corporations (like me for example) donated, but that is definitely not the same thing as my company's PAC donating.

The only reason the media found out about the filing was that the Democratic National Committee tracked it down and flagged it for reporters.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

With the Supreme Court opening up unlimited funding of campaign ads by corporations, the RNC doesn't need to raise anything. They can just sit back and let their corporate and 503C organizations carry the load this election cycle.
That many of the 503C organizations do NOT need to list their donors also works in the GOP's favor. As they can now accept funding from the most radical right groups and individuals and no one is the wiser.

MrsD: They can just sit back and let their corporate and 503C organizations carry the load this election cycle.

What's a 503C organization? You may mean 501(c)3, but those organizations are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity.

This continues to prove the the "cheap labor conservatives" dont want any type of prosperity.

The fundraising problems of the Republicans are good news; don't doubt it. But never forget - they also control the mainstream media, dominate nearly all the talking heads shows, including PBS and NPR, and push the daily slant towards trivia and attacks on Dems.

To add to zandru's comment vis the advantage of complicit media: it doesn't matter how much money you have, if the TV rejects your ads and refuses to help push your message out. MoveOn or union ad gets zapped, Freedom Works (or whatever their name is) gets the prime spot, over and over... Whose candidate or cause is likely to resonate with the couch potatoes?

"...And then, of course, there's the unpleasant fact that voters aren't happy with a struggling economy, and seem more inclined to punish the majority party anyway..."-Benen

Voters aren't happy with a struggling economy and are even more frustrated by the lack of alternatives. Dems aren't doing enough but republicans would do nothing helpful at all but continue their past failed policies.

We want more and better dems who have not been bought off by an oligarchy which runs the entire republican party.

Voters are frustrated by their lack of choices and would love to "punish" both parties but are left with... "the best that can be achieved at present vs the worst that could possibly happen".

The current republican party has proven they know nothing about economics and it is their obstructionism in the senate that is pushing failure just for political gain and to protect the oligarchy that controls them. The more the crazies of their party and the completely ignorant know nothings like Boehner are exposed the less support they will have. It's why they run from reporters. It is why they will not win in the midterms for they offer nothing, no solutions and no cooperation for finding solutions. We need a super majority in the senate to overcome even the DINOs and the constant republican filibuster which prevents majority rule...or democracy. (Boehner, Cantor etc are all perfect examples of the "turtle on the fence post")

Rove is a sleaze guilty of murder (Mike Connell). His time is coming soon. From the gutters he arose and to the gutters he will return. Time is against him. His advice in the last midterms caused huge republican losses. He is the architect of corruption and loss.

What about Karl Roves unnacountable (even to GOP footsoldiers) shaddow RNC and what about new post Citizens United Not Timid corporate slushfunds? Could this just be the result of corporate donors moving their money where they can better set the agenda without meddling from the GOP base and professionals? (Though less reporting requirements and strip club expenditures are a nice bonus of course)

Is Karl Roves fundraising still microscopic? Have there been any new groups behind well funded ad campaigns?

The DSCC and RSCC have been made irrelevant by the recent Supreme Court ruling. Big donors are going to buy their own ads instead of giving money to party organizations.