Steele runs again

Michael Steele has stunned the GOP political establishment by announcing that, contrary to conventional wisdom, he will once again run for Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Stunned is Politico's word of choice, not mine. Anyone who's been watching this guy knows he's tenacious as the Taliban with an ego as big as all outdoors. The fact that nobody seems to want him around is not a factor, nor is the fact that five other people are challenging him for the job, including his own general counsel. And if he's in it, he's in it to win it.   "Critics are talking a lot of trash about fundraising and talking a lot of smack about major donors," Steele told puzzled RNC members in a conference call, most of whom had no idea what talking smack meant. Referring to his record of alienating nearly everyone in his party, Steele humbly admitted "Yes, I have stumbled along the way, but have always accounted to you for such shortcomings. No excuses. No lies. No hidden agenda." In other words, no known cover-ups. Then, perhaps in an effort to suggest that it could make for some mighty ugly PR to not re-elect the highest profile African American in the Republican Party, he added "Who you elect as our next Chairman will speak volumes about our willingness to truly be the party of Lincoln." And then he ran off to do the Greta show on FOX. "My style is a little bit different than most conventional Republican Party chairmen," he boasted to Van Susteren. "I'm much more of a street guy."   "Mike who?" Steele laughed when asked about Mike Duncan, the former RNC Chair who has vowed to work for his defeat. "That boy is too chickenshit to even run for the job again. I whipped him last time, whipped him good. And if he tries again, I'll beat him like a red-headed stepchild."   "He really can deliver quite a beating," admitted Steele's red-headed stepchild Rusty O'Malley. "I remember the first time that he laid eyes on me. He glared at me for a couple minutes and then hit me with a right hook that knocked me half way across the room and had me seeing stars. He just kept wailing on me, yelling 'who's your daddy' until I finally told him that my daddy was Bryan O'Malley. I guess he knew that was a lie, but he seemed happy just to get an answer."