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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...

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is once again puzzling journalists and fellow party members. What happened this time? An RNC intern sent emails to the offices of foreign diplomats offering them a private meeting with Steele in advance of the November congressional elections. For what possible purpose, everyone is wondering, would Steele reach out to foreign ambassadors? Here's the email and, below, what observers are saying, with a fair share of the mockery that usually comes with Steele coverage. "As you know, the November election is just 103 days away and the chairman would like to extend to you...

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...

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....

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The chairman of the Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele pledges big bucks to support Carly Fiorina's senate campaign against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. Steele was in San Francisco Thursday morning, talking about California politics and the money it will take to win in November. Show me the money, but of course he wouldn't -- to ABC7 anyway. The question is will he show Fiorina the money? The two are scheduled to sit down together on Friday. Steele told reporters financial help for GOP candidates is coming. "We're going to be in play here, big time...

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...

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?”

Michael S. Steele has maneuvered through a minefield of internal discontent, emerging from a critical party gathering with his authority intact.... High-profile Republican gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey and a victory in the recent special Senate election in Massachusetts have helped quiet grumbling within the RNC over Mr. Steele, whose position and authority seemed shaky just a few months ago. A feared open revolt against the former Maryland lieutenant governor fizzled at the 168-member RNC's winter gathering in Honolulu over the weekend, despite lingering questions... In the view of RNC General Counsel Reince Priebus, who is also Wisconsin...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures and a likely frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Now Romney's team is hitting back. Steele, guest-hosting on Bill Bennett's radio show Friday, cast doubt on Romney's conservative bona fides and blamed the Republican base for rejecting Romney last year because "it had issues with Mormonism" and was unsure of Romney's commitment to opposing to abortion...

RNC Chairman Michael Steele argued this week that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney didn’t win the presidential primary of his party because the GOP base had, among other things, issues with his Mormonism, according to a report in Think Progress. Steele, who made the remark while guest-hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show, was rebutting a caller’s claim that The New York Time’s endorsement of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., contributed to Romney’s defeat -- in spite of his money, fresh ideas, ability to articulate, and deep knowledge of financial matters. “But remember,” said Steele, “it was the base that rejected Mitt because...