Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.Yes, hot, lesbian, sex and the republican party. Who would have thunk it? Now to their credit, the RNC has claimed Michael Steele, the chair of the RNC, was not the person who spent the $1900 and was not the person who visited the bondage-themed nightclub. Michael Steele, on the other hand, has remained gagged and bound to say little about this embarrassing situation. When asked for an interview from Steele, the RNC claimed he was "tied up". Uh.... Ok.
Unfortunately for Steele, the republican, Christian, donors aren't gagged.
Mark DeMoss, a major RNC donor during George W. Bush's presidency who heads a Christian public-relations firm in Atlanta, said that spending so lavishly during an economic downturn is "mind-boggling." "Virtually the entire country -- from big businesses to small business -- had to make cutbacks," he said. "To think the Republican Party wouldn't do the same thing, I think, suggests either a tone-deafness or just that they don't care, which would maybe be worse."Look for the RNC to whip Steele into shape by the summer.
3 comments:
It's really pathetic that the staffer who used the RNC card because a buddy's credit card was refused had no idea that there would be any repercussions. You don't use your business card for non-business expenses unless it's an absolute emergency, even if you do plan on reimbursing the company.
Ethics training is apparently lacking in the RNC organization.
Steele will be gone by the summer.
No, the GOP needs Steele. Unless another nationally high-profile minority Republican becomes available, they have to have him in that post for the veneer of "inclusiveness."
Even among elected members of Congress, there are no African-Americans, a scattering of Hispanics, one Native American and one Asian-American that I can think of off the top of my head. Women are already some of their most ardent defenders in the public realm (Lynn Cheney, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter) so I would be very surprised if they would even consider a woman.
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