Republicans Forgot About Onomatopoeia When They Named Michael Steele RNC Chair

Another Michael Steele photo caption contest

When the RNC elected Michael Steele chairman did they forget that he illegally funneled campaign contributions to members of his family or-- worse yet-- to an elite Republican Party limo-and-hooker service? These things weren't a secret and it's well known Inside the Beltway and in GOP circles that Steele is being investigated by the FBI for, among other things, mishandling campaign funds. That said, why is anyone surprised that the RNC can't raise any money?

Frittering away scarce Republican funds meant to bolster the party's electoral woes redecorating his office is small potatoes compared to fears that potential GOP donors have about Steele's sticky fingers. The RNC, basically a party of, by and, especially, for the rich, has always outraised the DNC. It looks like that streak will be broken by Michael Steele, a man no one but a rube trusts with a check.

New RNC Chairman Michael Steele has committed gaffes that may embarrass his party in the short term, but Republican insiders say they are worried several of his actions will hit a fundraising trifecta: wounding party efforts to attract big donors, small donors and those who give on the Internet.

Continued low fundraising numbers would add yet more pressure to Steele, who has already faced criticism for his public gaffes and his private elimination of dozens of RNC staffers.

One RNC member has called for Steele to resign, though most committee members agree that scenario is unlikely. On Monday, the right-leaning Manchester, N.H. Union Leader stopped just short of calling on Steele to step down, instead saying it is “increasingly clear” Republicans could find people better suited to chair the party.

To make matters worse, Steele can't find a suitable finance chair willing to work for him. "It's a funny thing about money," one prominent bipartisan donor told us. "The donor community doesn't trust Michael and it has nothing to do with [the wildly popular] Rush Limbaugh or abortion or ideology. He has a dark cloud hanging over his head from his Maryland campaign. That has to be addressed before he can seriously expect people to write checks. How many people do you think want to see their money going to his sister?"

Another donor told The Hill sarcastically, “They don’t have a finance director. That may have an impact on fundraising. The lack of having a finance division, that might have an impact on fundraising... They’ve done a big disservice to their major donors by not having staff, and not empowering their staff to service their donors." And if there's one thing everyone knows about big Republican donors-- they expect to be serviced.

The majority of RNC donors hand over smaller checks, largely as a result of the committee’s vaunted mail and phone programs. But Steele jeopardized the party’s standing with those donors as well, thanks to a public spat with radio host Rush Limbaugh and a flub on a question about abortion, which drew criticism from major voices in the social conservative movement.

“Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the RNC and they want nothing to do with the RNC and when you call them asking for money they hang up on you,” Limbaugh said in a March 2 monologue directed specifically at Steele.

Of the abortion comments, which Steele made to GQ magazine and in which he seemed to suggest that abortion is a personal choice, one RNC member said the more widely the comments are disseminated, the more of an impact they will have on fundraising.

“It’s just like throwing a bomb inside the party,” the RNC member said, asking that his name be withheld because he didn’t want to be seen criticizing the new chairman. “It’s one more notch in fundraising.”

Fundraisers and party insiders also repeatedly pointed to the departure of Cyrus Krohn, perhaps the most widely respected technology specialist in the Republican Party.

Krohn, a former Yahoo! and Microsoft software guru whose signing-on at the RNC was hailed as a major coup, left the committee in early March after Steele’s team tried to revamp the party’s Internet operations.

Krohn’s departure will hamper the party’s Internet fundraising efforts, an area in which they already trailed Democrats. Internet fundraising numbers rose throughout 2008, according to those involved in the effort, but now former officials say the party will have to start from square one.

Steele better hope Tedisco wins the House seat in upstate New York on March 31 because if that solidly Republican district goes to an unknown Democrat instead of the state Assembly's minority leader, Steele better start looking for a new job. Although, even if Tedisco wins, he has already distanced himself from the RNC's abysmal performance in the district, claiming he was taking over the campaign after his polling advantage disappeared as soon as the RNC and RNC front groups started running ads that everyone in the district-- including Tedisco himself-- hated. The new non-RNC ads are nothing like the negative stuff that came from Steele's clueless office. It must be pretty scary to Steele that his future employment hinges on this: