The Mike Steele Error

The Politico hit job on RNC chair Michael Steele is a calculated strike, the door is now open for Steele's job. Taking on Rush may just have sealed the deal on losing his job. (h/t Balloon Juice).

A month after Michael Steele became the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee, key party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake — one that will make it even harder for them to take back power from the dominant Democratic Party.

Steadily becoming a dependable punch line, Steele has brushed back Rush Limbaugh, threatened moderate Republican senators, offered the “friggin’ awesome” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal some “slum love,” called civil unions “crazy” and promised more outreach to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” via an “off the hook” public relations campaign.

He even threw a shout-out to “one-armed midgets.”

That’s in just 30 days on the job — and that’s just the PR part.

On the organizational side, Steele does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director. Last week, one of the two men sharing the job of interim finance director was forced to resign.

For now, “the fourth floor,” as the RNC’s executive suite is known, is being run by a pair of consultants.

“There’s frustration that there’s no discipline, no planning,” said a well-known Republican consultant. “He’s risking being overexposed by accepting every interview, which makes gaffes more likely.”

There's more hit pieces out there in the usual places for Republicans, namely the DC Examiner and US News & World Report. Given that, I'm giving Mike a 50/50 shot at making it to next week. It's clear the El Rushbo wing is in full revenge/purge mode against him, and if they decide they want him gone, he'll be convinced to resign. The only thing keeping Mike in his job is the fact that replacing him would be a PR nightmare, especially if his replacement was racist prick Katon Dawson or local vote suppressing scuzzbag Ken Blackwell. Both of them are lining up behind Rush, and it's pretty clear judging from these recent RNC chairman runner-ups that there may very well be another RNC chair vote in the near future.

We'll see how this goes. But if Steele resigns, there would be zero doubt that El Rushbo controls the entire GOP party apparatus. To me, it's staggering that the GOP honestly thinks here that the problem with the party right now is Michael Steele and not Rush Limbaugh.

The Oxycontinfather will not be denied, and he's making an offer nobody in the GOP dares refuse. Of course, Digby's had Rush's number for years now. Nothing's really changed, he's been the heart, soul, and mind of the GOP for a long, long time now.