Steele is a former state party chair, so he knows the organization better than some might think.
http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0405web/steele.html
“Told in broad outline, Steele’s rise through the Republican ranks seems mostly free of trial and tribulation. In 1994, he won a seat on the Prince George’s Central Committee and then became county Republican chairman. In 1998, he ran in the party’s primary for state comptroller, but lost. In 2000, he became statewide party chair, the only African American in the country to hold such a post. In 2002, Ehrlich plucked him out of the pack as his running mate.”
This thread is friendlier than the other one — over there they’re just yelling “Steele’s a Rino” and others yelling back “Is not”, “is”, “is not”....