Opinion: Michael Steele’s first 100 days as RNC chairman: oh brother

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Michael Steele marked his first 100 days as chairman of the Republican National Committee over the weekend, and few noticed.

The RNC had no public events, no press conference enunciating Steele’s greatest accomplishments, no media rollout to cement a gain in public opinion.

In fact, the only thing of note that happened to Steele over the weekend is that he was ridiculed by President Obama for his use of street jargon. In a riff at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner, Obama said he’d noted that Steele was ‘in the house tonight -- or as he would say, in the heezey.’

Responding to the rib, Steele told PoliticsDaily that ‘It was good love between two brothers ... I appreciate the president giving me a shout out. I’ve given him a few over the years, so he just returned the favor.’ Steele added, ‘Look, this worm will turn. My time will come -- trust me.’

A growing number of Republicans think Steele’s time has already come and gone.

While Obama was piling up an impressive list of first-100-day achievements -- closing Guantanamo Bay, beginning the drawdown of troops from Iraq, steadying the economy with a $787-billion stimulus package -- Steele was getting himself into one controversy after another.

Steele began his tenure by picking a fight with conservative icon Rush Limbaugh, calling the radio talk show host ‘an entertainer’ whose show is ‘incendiary’ and ‘ugly.’ He later apologized.

Steele also gutted the RNC staff, threatened to withhold party support from moderates running in GOP primaries (like Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe) and raised eyebrows by using street lingo in promising a ‘hip-hop’ GOP outreach effort and saying he would show one Republican politician some ‘slum love.’

This week the Republican National Committee plans a special meeting in Maryland, where, our colleague Paul West reports, he plans to deliver a major speech at the party gathering. The idea: relaunch his chairmanship, and staunch the hemorrhaging.

‘There were some bumps out of the gate, obviously, which everyone acknowledged, including him,’ said media consultant Curt Anderson, a close adviser.

-- Johanna Neuman

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