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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.

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...

Despite numerous calls for his resignation over comments made criticizing the war effort in Afghanistan, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele will not step down, RNC spokesman Doug Heye confirmed Tuesday. Steele will stay on as the head of the committee amid criticism from Senate Republicans who took to the airwaves over the weekend to condemn his comments that the war in Afghanistan could not be won. Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina appeared on the Sunday talk shows to discuss the chairman’s fate as leader of the Republican Party. Appearing on...

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....

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...

It's becoming a familiar scene: Republicans gather for strategy sessions against Democrats, but Michael Steele, the brash chairman of the Republican National Committee, is out dealing with some spending, verbal or managerial gaffe. Fed-up Republican leaders are now quietly working around their party chairman as they prepare for the fall midterm elections. This is considered a big year for Republicans. Steele warned at a conference Saturday that his party can't make the mistake of losing in November. And his fellow Republicans agree. Behind the scenes, they have deliberately begun to rely less on Republican headquarters with Steele at the helm....

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...

According to two knowledgeable sources, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel. ---snip--- 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. --snip--- Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele...

The Republican National Committee named three cities on Friday as potential hosts for the 2012 Republican National Convention: Phoenix, Tampa and Salt Lake City. The finalists emerged after multiple cities submitted bids to the RNC by the committee's January 15 deadline. "These cities submitted three very strong bids, so all three are in contention," Holly Hughes, an RNC member from Michigan who chairs the RNC Site Selection Committee, told CNN. "Hosting a convention is a huge deal. A city has to raise multiple millions of dollars, but they also get the benefit of showcasing their city and bringing in revenue."...

GOP watch: Steele courts Tea Party Posted: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:53 AM by Domenico Montanaro Politico and the Washington Post report that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele will meet with 50 Tea Party activists today on Capitol Hill. Politico's Vogel writes that "Tuesday will mark the first large-scale get-together between the national party and grass-roots activists from a wide array of regional tea party groups." But some "tea partiers have pushed back against Republican groups wrapping themselves in the movement’s flag. Jenny Beth Martin, a founder of the umbrella group Tea Party Patriots, remembers asking the Republican Governors Association...

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...

GOP strategists fret that RNC Chairman Michael Steele's unorthodox management style will mean missed opportunities in November. Every time Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele gets into trouble, a burst of good news for the GOP bails him out. But Republican strategists fret that his unorthodox approach to his job could leave the party short of cash -- and short of the electoral gains that it might otherwise achieve. Republicans, even those who have never been fans of the outspoken Steele, have concluded that trying to oust him would cause the party more pain than it's worth. Still, the RNC's...