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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.

With his rise in popularity Donald Trump has now started to have to defend himself against Republicans who think that his focus on the birther issue is going to hurt the party. This includes Karl Rove, who recently called Trump a "joke candidate." Now you can add former RNC chairman Michael Steele, who appeared on Hardball last night and dismissed the birther issue as "silly," to that list. "Rank and file Republicans don't give a rat's giblet let about the birther issue."

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...

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>

Conservative strategist William Kristol, former South Carolina party chairman Katon Dawson and other Republicans are calling for the resignation of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele over Steele's suggestion that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is doomed. At a fundraiser in Noank, Conn., Steele blamed the U.S. troubles in Afghanistan on the Obama administration and expressed doubts about coalition forces' ability to succeed in the violence-torn country. "Keep in mind again, for our federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing," Steele said. "This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." "It...

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the Afghanistan war was of President "Obama's choosing," and that the mission is "probably a lost cause."

We did not finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did not develop new capabilities to defeat a new enemy, or launch a comprehensive strategy to dry up the terrorists' base of support. We did not reaffirm our basic values, or secure our homeland. And so, a little more than a year after that bright September day, I was in the streets of Chicago again, this time speaking at a rally in opposition to war in Iraq. I did not oppose all wars, I said. I was a strong supporter of the war in Afghanistan. But I said...

Bill Kristol (the one from The Weekly Standard), is calling for RNC Chairman Michael Steele to resign after making horrendously idiotic comments about the war in Afghanistan. I’ll take it a step further: He should retire from politics altogether. His comments on Afghanistan were a cornucopia of stupidity. Let’s take this point-by-point. First, he said that the war in Afghanistan is “a war of Obama’s choosing,” employing the rhetoric Democrats used against Bush, except this has no validity whatsoever at all. Every middle school student knows that the war in Afghanistan was going on long before Obama came into office....

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,...

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, in hot water for an embarrassing spending scandal involving a Hollywood gay sex club, is responding in a tried, true and tiresome way. Asked on "Good Morning America" if he thought he was being criticized unfairly because he's African-American, Steele bit. "The honest answer is, 'Yes,' " he said, adding that "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play and that's just the reality of it." Bad move, Mike. Fact is, any party chairman whose national committee reimbursed a contributor...

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...

How to put this politely? Michael Steele is a man of considerable talents — it’s just that he conspicuously lacks those required for his present position. He’s energetic, personable, and articulate. But those are not the qualities most required of a party chairman. The job demands an administrator, a behind-the-scenes schmoozer, and a tactician. Showboating is a hindrance. It’s a job that requires the talents of a stage manager, whereas Steele likes to be the star. At a time when the Republican party is the indispensable vehicle for thwarting the disastrous policies of the Obamaites, Steele is a costly distraction...

Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he won't resign despite calls for him to step down amid reports of the group's excessive spending, adding that he and other African-American leaders such as President Obama have a slimmer margin of error because of their race. "The honest answer is, 'yes,'" he said on "Good Morning America" today. "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play and that's just the reality of it. But you just take that as a part of the nature of...

RNCC? Out there?

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as Republican National Committee chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published on Tuesday. Speaking to Washingtonian magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his Democratic National Committee counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as RNC chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published today. Speaking to the Washingtonian Magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his DNC counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?” The RNC has experienced significant staff turnover since Steele became chairman, especially in the communcations shop. That has prompted speculation about Steele's management...

WEST VALLEY CITY — The head of the Republican National Committee said Friday he believes voters may have moved beyond the bias against Mormonism that hurt Mitt Romney in last year's presidential election. Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Michael Steele said comments he made earlier this year about Romney being rejected by the GOP base because of his faith were "old news." "I was speaking to an attitude or a mindset at the time that I thought was unfortunate and I said that I think (Romney) proved just how unfortunate it...