The Story Behind Steele: No One Offered RNC Chair to Marylander

They don't call 'em the "stupid party" for nothin':

For all the media discussion, blogging boom, and enthusiasm for Michael Steele as Republican National Chairman among RNC members, no one in the Bush White House ever offered or even suggested the party post to the former Maryland lieutenant governor and 2006 U.S. Senate nominee.

That’s what Steele himself told me this morning, as he arrived at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

“No, we never had any offer,” said Steele, who was the nation’s highest-elected black Republican while serving in Maryland’s second-highest office from 2002-06. “The [talk of me as a possible national chairman] was purely a grassroots movement. Right after the election [in which Steele lost a Senate race to Democrat Ben Cardin], several members of the RNC approached me and thought it would be a good idea if I became chairman. And then the bloggers got into it. It was a grassroots movement, and it even caught me by surprise.”

But, no, he emphasized, “we never had an offer” from anyone in the Bush White House.

Recalling his days as state GOP chairman of the Free State and a member of the RNC, Steele said his presence at the latest meeting of the party’s ruling body was “coming back home for me. These folks are like family.” He also expressed gratitude to his many friends on the RNC who backed his race to become the fourth black senator since Reconstruction.

Steele said that he and the President talked after his defeat in November, that Mr. Bush “expressed his confidence in me.” But Steele also made it clear that for all the rumors that he may wind up in a Bush Cabinet or some other high-level administration post, “I have not talked to anyone about a position.”

***
Although it is now confirmed that Steele was never actually considered by the White House for RNC chairman, that hasn’t stopped members of the national committee from talking him up favorably as their heartthrob for party chieftain. Over dinner last night at Washington’s Equinox Restaurant, one RNC Member told me privately: “Look, I’m not going to go up against the White House on their choice for national chairman. But I could have been really enthusiastic about Michael Steele.”

My Comments:
"... I could have been really enthusiastic about Michael Steele.”

Yeah, tell me about it.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Incredibly Stupid Move

Michael Steele to Head GOP?

Steele Gaining

Black Democrats Pledge Backing to GOP's Steele

One of the Best Preemptive Political Ads That I've Ever Seen

Maryland Lt. Gov. (and U.S. Senate Candidate) Michael Steele Reaffirms Catholic Values