Former John Locke Foundation Headliner Byron York calls the debate about national Republican chairman Michael Steele “a conversation about Good Michael versus Bad Michael.”
After a run of Good Michael, in recent weeks Steele has revived fears of Bad Michael with a media blitz in which he a) said the Republican Party could not win back the House of Representatives this year; b) defended his practice of mixing paid speeches with RNC trips; c) blindsided fellow Republican leaders by releasing a highly opinionated book they weren’t expecting; and d) addressed his critics by saying, “If you don’t want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up.”
Bad Michael is back. “This is not helpful, and nobody thinks it’s helpful,” says another RNC member who opposed Steele’s election. “He needs to understand that.”
The politico thinks for a moment and quietly adds, “That doesn’t mean he needs to be fired.”
And that’s the bottom line: Steele’s doubters inside the RNC have made their peace with the chairman. Unless he does something totally unexpected and beyond the pale, he’s here to stay — at least through the end of his two-year term.
