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Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is the latest GOPer to weigh in on the Occupy Wall Street protests. “I think it’s an incredible movement” Steele told The Daily Caller. “I think, quite frankly, it will be something for Republicans to really begin to appreciate a little more, and connect itself to a little bit more, in terms of understanding the root cause of their frustration.” Watch Michael Steele talk about Occupy Wall Street, the GOP presidential candidates, and Donald Trump.

If Republicans make major gains on Nov. 2, Steele certainly would claim part of the credit as he considers whether to seek another term at chairman. "Whether or not I run for a second term has nothing to do with winning on Nov. 2, it has absolutely nothing to do with that," Steele told The Associated Press in an interview Friday in Concord, N.H. The RNC has raised more than $79 million this year and has spent all of it — and then some. The RNC ended September with about $3.4 million in cash on hand and $4.6 million in...

The Republican National Committee is entering the fall election season with dire financial problems and, to an unprecedented degree, will be forced to rely on outside groups to fund activities traditionally paid for by the national party. While embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele and a top aide sought to use the party’s summer meeting here to publicly put the best face on the cash shortage, senior Republicans expressed grave concern behind the scenes that their fundraising deficiencies may be the difference between a good election year and a great one. With $11 million on hand at the end of June...

The Republican National Committee is trying to set up meetings between Chairman Michael Steele and foreign ambassadors to the United States, according to an email obtained by POLITICO – an effort that has puzzled diplomats as well as fellow Republicans. An RNC intern sent a message late last month to at least one ambassador on behalf of Neil Alpert, a senior finance aide, with little explanation... “In his role as RNC Chairman, he meets with leaders in Washington and throughout the country,” said Heye. But one European embassy official told POLITICO his embassy had received the generic-sounding message in a...

Intraparty rift intensifies over treasurer's disclosures The vicious infighting at the Republican National Committee escalated over the weekend, with an ally of RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele warning the party's treasurer of legal consequences if he did not stop making a fuss over erroneous financial disclosures to the Federal Election Commission. New Mexico RNC member Patrick J. Rogers told Treasurer Randy Pullen on committee letterhead that his disclosures about millions of dollars in unreported debt "are covered by attorney-client privilege or the fiduciary requirements of corporate officers." At one point in his letter, Mr. Rogers, who is Mr. Steele's appointee...

<p>The Republican National Committee has cancelled a fundraiser with conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is under fire for promoting an edited video that falsely portrays former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod as having boasted about discriminating against a white farmer looking for her assistance.</p>

The Chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele looks to have fallen victim to predatory lending. From The Daily Caller: "According to public documents obtained by Americans for Limited Government (ALG), Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), is as fiscally irresponsible in his personal life as he has been in the management of the RNC. A rough estimate indicates that Steele is obligated to pay 117% of his take-home pay in mortgages and taxes on his $1.7 million home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. This is no ordinary home, but is a 6,440 square foot mansion with...

The Republican Party has not given African Americans a good reason to vote for the party, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said Tuesday night. "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True," Steele said at DePaul University, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Steele, the first African-American chairman for the RNC, said the GOP has lost its historical link to African Americans. "This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass," he said. "The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP,...

Barely 6 1/2 months before the midterm elections, an internal investigation by the Republican National Committee has revealed that the organization is beset with questionable financial management and oversight and is spending more money courting top-dollar donors than it raises. The investigation found that the Republican Party's national governing body is losing money on its major-donors' fundraising program -- spending $1.09 for each $1.00 raised, according to RNC members privy to the investigation's findings. It typically costs about 40 cents for every dollar raised from donors who give more than $1,000. The investigation also found that the RNC has allowed...

One of Steele's rivals for the RNC chairmanship took Steele to task Monday for attributing his problems to race. Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state who ran against Michael Steele for RNC chairman, said Steele's argument that he has a "smaller margin of error" beacuse he's black is "ridiculous." "This notion that this disturbing pattern of gaffes and missteps is now being criticized solely because he is black, and that Barack Obama is being criticized for his big-government power grab solely because he is black — that is nonsense," Blackwell told Fox News's Neil Cavuto. "And here's a...