How many political lives does RNC Chair Michael Steele have? This is not a question in the abstract, as Steele outpaced cats for sheer mythic survivability six months ago. Every crisis – and there’s almost always a crisis – revives speculation that he’s on the way out. Unnamed sources leak juicy quotes to the press. And then… nothing. Steele keeps on keeping on, waging an awkward, losing campaign to show the youth of today that the GOP can be like, totally awesome, with its hippity-hop new ‘tude. It’s only a matter of time before the RNC pays for a billboard campaign that uses a picture of Steele and declares the party of no is “motherfucking gangsta”.
Will the RNC bondage club controversy be the one that takes Michael Steele down? Its elements are more volatile than anything he’s shrugged off before. Whatever their private predilections, big money donors to the party don’t want to be publicly linked to kinky sex. If they’re quick on their feet, Steele’s enemies could frame a narrative that even if the Chair wasn’t personally at the club, this embarrassment highlights a pattern of inept leadership and lack of oversight the RNC has tolerated for far too long.
