Sources: Steele Took Deal For Endorsement

National Journal ^ | 1/15/11 | Reid Wilson

[markomalley]

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele dropped his bid for a second term on Friday after being offered a lucrative deal in exchange for his endorsement, sources on the committee tell The Hotline.

Steele dropped out of the race for chairman after four ballots on Friday and threw his support to Maria Cino, a former Bush administration official who finished third in the race. Steele endorsed Cino from the stage after ending his bid, a rare public announcement in a contest marked more by quiet member-to-member conversations.

That endorsement came at a cost, according to committee insiders. As candidates jockeyed for position, Steele sat down with aides to both Cino and former RNC co-chairman Ann Wagner in search of a deal. Eventually, Cino allies offered Steele a deal that would have been more lucrative than the chairman's salary, the sources said. The RNC chairman makes $224,500 a year.

Cino herself was not involved in the conversation. At one point, Cino campaign manager Matt Schlapp spoke with Steele and promised no Cino allies would bad-mouth the outgoing chairman or stand in his way as he sought to make the move to the private sector, according to a source who was briefed on the meeting. The source said Schlapp offered no financial deals or jobs. Steele did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Swapping goods or favors in an election among 168 political insiders like those who make up the RNC is as common as denying those deals exist. Those favors can involve transferring money to states, or appointments to RNC committees, or fundraising visits to states by party chairmen.

In between rounds of voting on Friday, negotiations were fast and fierce as candidates spent more time talking to each other than with undecided and uncommitted voters. Candidates dashed in and out of side rooms in full view of the media.

Deals frequently become obvious over time. On Friday, candidates met with members of the island caucus, an influential group of members who routinely vote as a bloc in order to win concessions for their territories. In 2009, island voters backed Steele, and he repaid them with transfers of cash to Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands, and with a semi-annual meeting held in Hawaii early in 2010.

Word of a deal is enticing precisely because Steele endorsed Cino, who had the backing of many in the Washington establishment. Cino had been endorsed by House Speaker John Boehner, who made phone calls on her behalf and made a passing reference to his support for Cino during a rreception for RNC members on Wednesday. Boehner did not offer the deal, the sources said, and Boehner's spokesman said the speaker, engaged in a members retreat in Baltimore this weekend, had not spoken with Steele on Friday.

[TomGuy]

I guess the question becomes what and to whom did the eventual winner Reince Priebus offer.

Accdg to some rumors/posts/threads, Priebus is a 'plant'/tool of the Barbours as Haley mounts his presidential run.

Priebus Poised To Fast Track Barbour's 2012 Presidential Bid (Back room deal?)

[P-Marlowe]

Yeah, but Steele took the bribe, didn’t he? He sold his support for the promise of a lucrative job. That, my FRiend is corruption.

[jimbo123]

Cino is a Rove-Bush-Romney establishment stooge.

She was going to turnover the RNC fundraising to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads.

I’m going to give Priebus a chance based on the fact he beat Cino and the RINOs supporting her as well as his results in Wisconsin..

[jimbo123]

Someone made him a financial offer that he couldn't refuse ... .

Karl Rove and American Crossroads.

[PapaBear3625]

Who in the private sector would hire such an incompetent fool.

They're not talking about hiring, they are talking about a salaried position. He may or may not need to actually show up. I think there are Republicans who would think it worth while to spend a few hundred thousand dollars to get Steele to leave quietly.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.

And what about Steele's (not yet announced) BOOK DEAL ?

Steele was paid-off handsomely as a "quid-pro-quo" so that his BOOK will crucify certaqin elements of the Conservative Republican Party ...

RINO Senators like McNasty, Linday Gramn (et al) ... will be "lavished" with PRAISE ... along with how "insightful" and "wonderful" type like Barbara Bush are ...

Who will Steele's targets be ?

Well, I can only say that Steele's book will get "massive" ABC-CBS-NBC-NPR coverage if it blasts Sarah Palin ...

And "when" will this book be published ?

Two weeks before the Iowa Caucus in 2012 ...



Take good notes, Rush ... you heard it here "first" ...


.

[airborne]

"...Cino allies offered Steele a deal that would have been more lucrative than the chairman's salary..."

But since Cino lost, the deal is off, and Steele gets nothing.

My guess is he runs to the media and becomes another of their RINO "talking heads".

[deport]

Deal making is the art of politics as we know it today. Time will tell where he lands and to whom he has committments. Seven rounds of voting indicates a lot of potential for give and take.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Reince Priebus talks with members during the Republican
National Committee meeting on Friday in Oxon Hill, Md.
Priebus was selected as RNC chairman after seven rounds
of voting.

Wisconsin's Reince Priebus Wins RNC Chair After Steele Drops Out

Updated at 5:23 pm — Wisconsin's Reince Priebus was elected RNC chair with 97 votes.

His victory came after seven rounds of voting and plenty of wrangling behind the scenes.
Priebus, chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party, is a staunch conservative who's
regarded as a rising star in the party

end snips

[airborne]

"Yeah, but Steele took the bribe, didn’t he? He sold his support for the promise of a lucrative job. That, my FRiend is corruption."

Well said, and worth repeating!

[Vision Thing]

If Steele pulls the race card, it won’t matter much to most Americans. obama has ruined the race card’s effectiveness.

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

Convincing explanation. Never heard of him even though I live nextdoor but he sounds like he and Sarah will be very compatible. Ron Johnson ads were on the radio in MN more than Emmer’s.

[Migraine]

I still think Anuzis would have been a decent choice.

Maybe so. I don't know.
However, two of the candidates had unfortunate last names:
CINO = Conservative in Name Only
ANUZIS = in no time, the dimowits would have inevitably done a rearrangement of the letters to say "U NAZIS"

Maybe the guy that emerged will turn out OK. Meanwhile, we're on our own, which is actually good.

[Mountain Mary]

I agree, Milwguy. Reince is already being vilified and he hasn’t even been given a chance.

[t-dude]

They wanted Steele out because he had started making nice with the Tea Party and Governor Palin.

I’m sure it was a cynical ploy on his part, and he had been horrible, but they will do anything to keep us conservatives in our little box.

In some ways I think he suffered from our overall disgust with the RINO’s...I know I quit donating to the RNC and most conservatives I know did. It really had nothing to do with Steele personally, although I never liked the guy.

I don’t look for their fund raising to improve much, but I’ve been wrong before...

[9YearLurker]

Yes, it does worry me that he was so much the Establishment’s and the way that he jumped allegiances for that opportunity. That he saw the proper role of the organization at the state level in part to be to pick and back candidates during the primary process. Also, he has no real record of relationships or raising big money at the national level.

But we will see, I hope he finds and designates better spokespeople than himself and he doesn’t shut out the tea party that brought him to the dance.

I will give him a chance.

[Vaduz]

Anyone on Wall street.

[Liz]

Thank heaven Anuzis lost.

RNC Chair wannabe Saul Anuzis is a hyphenate----a Lithuanian American born here----who is currently an advisor to the Republic of Lithuania.

We don’t want a hyphenate using the Party to advance the interests of a foreign govt. NO hyphenates, NO way. We want an all-American conservative RNC chair, who salutes the US flag, and bows only to the Constitution of the United States. Anuzis also backed the The “National Popular Vote” campaign

Anuzis' biggest claim to fame-----of which he has boasted proudly and endlessly in public forums----that as Michigan GOP chair, he personally forced state and local party organizations to stage "Juneteenth" celebrations (marking the end of slavery).

Wannabe Anuzis fits right in with race-hustling, reparation pimps-----b/c he personally forced state and local Repub party organizations to stage "Juneteenth" celebrations.

Deals, you say? Wadda ya wanna bet Anuzis has deals with the race-baiters to infiltrate the RNC, and use the org as a money laundry to get million$$ to them?

We don't need at the helm of the party hyphenates someone like Anuzis with varied loyalties---someone who diminishes all-American holidays like Independence Day.

Anuzis was unfit to be Chair for another reason. He is a figgin neocon----and he kept it damned quiet. He's another neo-con with ulterior motives looking out for themselves first, without regard for the well-being of our country. Anuzis' buddies are the neocon Me-Firsters----Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Billy Kristol----- and the rest of the 'what's in it for me' neo crowd..........who have no visible sources of income.

Keep in mind, pukeneos detest conservatives. They squat in the Repub Party to takeover the agenda, and to kick consevatives to the curb. If Anuzis got in, this is what we could expect (gag).

EXCERPT-----The Decline and Fall of American Conservatism

The “art of government,” writes neocon frontman William Kristol (Fox talking head and McCain handler), is to translate the “liberal or radical impulse into enduring institutions,” which in a constitutional republic means that neocons want socialist ends to be achieved with conservative means. Now here's the neocon methodology in brief: neocon advice to the Republican Party is to compromise and accept the moral ends of liberal-socialism, but with the caveat that conservatives can do a better job of doling out the goods and services.

Note well who neocons demand compromise from: Conservatives are being asked to compromise THEIR principles. Liberals are being asked ONLY to compromise the manner in which welfare is delivered.

Neocons' moral appeasement serves to embolden the Left........a lesson conservatives need to learn posthaste. Conservatives need to grasp that compromising one principle inevitably leads to hundreds of compromises.

N/C'S SECRET AGENDA? In the neocon-driven conservative relationship, liberalism will always have the upper hand and will always dictate the future. Having abandoned principles, neoconservatives can offer no principled opposition to the creation of new welfare programs in the future. Of course, they would see this as a problem only if they opposed welfare programs, which they do not.

In addition to the Roosevelts----TR and FDR----neocons add Bismarck to their list of statesman-like heroes. According to arch-neocon William Kristol, the “idea of a welfare state is in itself perfectly consistent with a conservative political philosophy—as Bismarck knew, a hundred years ago.”

Neocons’ squat in the Republican Party to restore-----not a Jeffersonian model of government------ but rather the Prussian welfare state to serve their interests.

This garbage, according to the neocons, is what it means to be “in the ‘American grain.’” This is the neos contribution to what they consider is “the stupid party” as they call Republicanism,........and to the American way of life.

[Liz]

Michael Steele has been one of the most ineffective and damaging chairmen the RNC has allowed to lead its chief fundraising organization. Course, there was Mehlman who spent most of his time at Bed, Bath and Beyond sales, choosing satin duvets and coverlets.

Steele's chairmanship was marked by:

1. baffling statements on race and culture (lampooned by the Daily Show)

2. USAToday's own request for his change of parties due to his own conflicted beliefs and history[RINOList.org]

3. two different sex club scandals [Dailycaller.com] & [TheDailyBeast.com]

4. factually inaccurate public statements on the War in Afghanistan [Talkingpointsmemo.com]

5. massive debt in the Republican Party's fund-raising, let me repeat FUND-RAISING, organization [Washingtonpost.com]

6. possible criminal fraud in campaign fund-raising in Michigan [TheDailyBeast.com]

(Excerpt) Read more at rinolist.org ...

[Liz]

ping

[thecodont]

We don’t want a hyphenate using the Party to advance the interests of a foreign govt. NO hyphenates, NO way. We want an all-American conservative RNC chair, who salutes the US flag, and bows only to the Constitution of the United States.

Thanks for the informative post; I was not aware of these things.