MSNBC: Dan Savage Argues Indiana With Hater Ryan Anderson And Michael Steele

Today In GOP Infighting

Washington Secrets reports:

The catfight between former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and his replacement, Reince Priebus, has reached screech level, with Steele belittling the party's new focus on minorities as old news. Appearing on the "Andrea Tantaros Show," a nationally syndicated radio show, Steele said the GOP's $10 million minority outreach effort ignored his plan instituted four years ago and was the latest example of a bloated party apparatus. Steele also sounded ready to beat up Priebus. Asked by Tantaros who would win in a cage fight, Steele said, "Oh, no question, I would clean his clock." How? "Just one knock on the head. It's done."

The Atlantic asked a mixed martial arts expert who would really win a Steele-Priebus cage match.

"I'd definitely go with the Priebus guy." Why? He's younger, for one, and his body mass index is closer to where it should be. (Sorry if we overestimated your weight, Mr. Steele.) Unless Steele "is jacked" or is "all muscle," Coleman said he'd "go with the guy who's in better shape, who's younger, who's less likely to gas out." So what could Steele do to improve his chances? Coleman recommended even one class, to learn some technique. For example? How to pace himself, or how to "get on top in a dominant position." This, Steele has been working on.

Priebus has yet to react. (Tipped by JMG reader Jasun)

At Last Night's GOProud Party

Over at Slate, Dave Weigel has recapped last night's GOProud party at CPAC, which sported an open bar sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance, a group that lobbies lawmakers for the legalization of internet gambling. I don't recall having seen online poker on GOProud's 2011 agenda, but whatevs, because this is the best part of Weigel's review:

A word about Sophie B. Hawkins. Michael Steele, who was chairman of the RNC until last month, showed up at the party and stayed a while. Right before I showed up, in an exchange witnessed by several people who described it to me, Steele met Hawkins. She explained her political philosophy to him. "I'm not a conservative," said Hawkins, "but I'd like to fuck Sarah Palin." Steele reacted quickly. "Well, she's very attractive," he said.

How about it, ladies? Could you?

Michael Steele Drops RNC Chair Bid

Three ballots so far and no one has reached the 85 votes needed to win. Reince Priebus leads with 54 votes, but Michael Steele is reportedly telling his backers to throw their support behind Pfizer lobbyist Maria Cino.

Debate Watch: 100% Of RNC Chair Candidates Denounce Same-Sex Marriage

RNC Chairman Michael Steele is fighting for his job at today's debate, where every single candidate responded to NOM's question on marriage equality by invoking Jeebus, traditional values, and the sanctity of one man-one woman.

Matt Baume: This Week In Prop 8

A new weekly series from San Francisco activist Matt Baume. Today the candidates for chair of the RNC will hold a debate and Baume encourages you to submit a question about marriage equality.

NOM Interviews Michael Steele

Even though he holds a slim chance of reelection, NOM included current RNC chair Michael Steele in their vettings of all the candidates for the position he now occupies. Steele says that should the courts ultimately strike down Prop 8, he'd support a renewed push for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Transcript by Towleroad:

Without hesitation or doubt. In fact we would partner with our leadership in the House and our governors and leadership in the state legislatures to create a very very strong front line if you will, on that issue. I can't again stress how important that is for how we will lead as a people, and how we will see ourselves as a nation. And again, that is not to the exclusion of anyone, it's not anti- anyone, or any group. It's just so fundamental and foundational, I think it needs to be protected."

NOM Wants To Pick New RNC Chairman

With Michael Steele unlikely to be reelected as chairman of the Republican National Committee, NOM has been interviewing all of the contenders, saying that they will attempt to block any candidate that doesn't toe their anti-gay line. Here they interview former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis, who ran unsuccessfully for the national slot in 2009.

World's Second-Worst Hairpiece Suggested To Replace Michael Steele As RNC Chair

In a long story about potential candidates to replace RNC chair Michael Steele, Politics Daily closes with this:

Maybe the GOP just wants to forget questions such as color and gender and pick the Republicans Party's resident bad-ass. I'm talking, of course, about arch-conservative author, actor, and martial arts champion Chuck Norris. If you have high school kids, you've heard them: Chuck Norris jokes. [Sample: "When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn't push himself up, he pushes the Earth down." Or, "Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas."] My favorite: "Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King -- and got one." Isn't that the kind of leader the Republicans need? In 2008, Norris endorsed Mike Huckabee for president, an endorsement Huckabee announced with a straight-faced Chuck Norris joke of his own: "My plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck Norris." The Huck didn't win the White House, but it wasn't Norris' fault. Or as the teenagers might say: "Chuck Norris doesn't need Mike Huckabee. Mike Huckabee's party needs Chuck Norris."

World Net Daily, where Norris writes foaming-mouthed Christian-right screeds, seems to be taking the satire seriously.

National Review: Palin For RNC Chairman

The National Review thinks Sarah Palin would be a great replacement for Michael Steele as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

This is a job for Sarah Palin. Palin would be a much better RNC chairman than presidential candidate or freelance kingmaker. She'd raise tons of money and help recruit good candidates, i.e., she'd excel at doing the things Steele should have been doing instead of appointing himself Republican pundit-at-large. A Chairman Palin would help set the right tone for the Republican party without having to get herself entangled in the minutiae of policy-development, which has not been her forte. Sure, she'd be polarizing, but so is Barack Obama, and these are polarized times

I endorse this idea!

Michael Steele: Afghanistan Is A War Of Obama's Choosing

RNC chairman Michael Steele told a crowd at a Connecticut GOP fundraiser that Afghanistan was a "war of Obama's choosing" and "is not something that the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." That may be the final straw for Steele as even Liz Cheney is now calling for his resignation. Not for lying about how the war started, of course, but for suggesting that we can't win.

Michael Steele: I Am Almost Confident That Jobs Were Created By Dubya

Spill, Baby, Spill!

(Via - AmericaBlog)

More Hot Water For Michael Steele

Jon Stewart Vs. Muppet Michael Steele

GOP Flacks Call For Steele To Resign

Tittygate Fallout: RNC Chief Of Staff Ken McKay Falls On His Sword

RNC chairman Michael Steele continues to find fall guys for the Club Voyeur tittygate scandal. This time it's his chief of staff, Ken McKay.

The resignation of Ken McKay, Steele's highest-ranking aide, is the most drastic in a series of attempts at damage control by the RNC after it was revealed March 29 that the committee had spent $1,900 to entertain young donors at a risqué West Hollywood nightclub. The staff member who authorized the expenditure was fired last week, and the RNC has implemented new spending accountability procedures. "The members of the Republican National Committee entrusted myself and every staffer to lead the loyal opposition against the destructive Obama agenda, build a stronger Republican Party and win elections," Steele said in a statement. "This is a role I take with the utmost seriousness. With this in mind, I want to do everything in my power to ensure that the committee uses all its resources in the best possible fashion."

Teabaggers and some centrist Republicans continue to call for Steele himself to step down.

Tony Perkins Vs. Michael Steele

Family Research Council head Tony Perkins doesn't want people to stop funding the GOP just because of the tittygate flap, he's SUPER pissed that they just hired Prop 8 attorney Ted Olson.

GOP Fires Staffer Over Topless Lesbian Bondage Club Expenses

The GOP has found their scapegoat.

The Republican National Committee is cutting ties with a staffer who treated a group of donors to an after party at a bondage-themed club in West Hollywood. The event was expensed for nearly $2,000 and also cost the unnamed employee a job. Some members of the GOP had already called for the resignation of RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who reportedly did not attend and was unaware of the incident.

The Concerned Women For America are concerned!

"As women we find the very idea of officials from either party approving of endeavors that objectify and demean women outrageous," said Nance. "This kind of behavior is not appropriate for national leaders that our children should be able to look up to as role models, and that our daughters could be working for. Did you really swill drinks, ogle young girls, and plan party business at this kind of establishment? Please explain!"

Others say this may be the end for Michael Steele, no matter how the GOP spins it.

This most recent story may be the third strike for Steele. While he was hailed as the perfect challenger to the Obama administration when he took charge his tenure has been filled with trouble. Steele was even forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh after criticizing Limbaugh's effect on the party. For a party that prides itself on upholding "family values" the "bondage-gate" story may require someone to be put on the chopping block. Ultimately if enough big party donors demand Steele's resignation it is hard to see how he makes it much longer. However Steele's dismissal could hurt Republicans even more as they already struggle with the image fo being a party not welcoming to minorities.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele And Topless Lesbian Bondage Dancers

Yeah, that headline is correct. RNC Chairman Michael Steele's expense reports reveal some rather interesting expenditures.

While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC’s last three months of filings. Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

The website for Voyeur West Hollywood is down at the moment, probably (as one HuffPo wag puts it) because it's overloaded with Democrats looking for a photo of Steele in the champagne room. Oh, this will be fun on tonight's cable talk shows! The RNC is in full denial mode: "The chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable."