Via the Standard, a follow-up to yesterday’s death match post. No official word yet, but it’s in the works:

Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, has decided to run for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee and is in talks with Newt Gingrich to win the former House speaker’s endorsement, FOX News learned Tuesday.

Steele declined to comment, but a source close to the situation said Steele would announce his candidacy as early as Thursday.

The source also contradicted a report in Tuesday’s Washington Times that Steele and Gingrich were competing for the RNC post.

“There is no fight,” the source said. “This tension between Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich is totally fabricated and, in fact, Gingrich and Steele are working together to create a new strategy for the direction of the GOP.”

The chief opposition appears to be current chair Mike Duncan, who shouldn’t be much of an obstacle having just presided over the worst GOP debacle since 1976. Steele beat Newt in our web poll yesterday, incidentally — 51/49 among just shy of 5,000 votes cast, a testament to his enduring popularity among the base via his FNC appearances even though he’s never won elected office higher than lieutenant governor. As for Gingrich, Ross Douthat’s take calls to my mind one of the many money lines from Raging Bull: “You give me all these answers, but you ain’t giving me the right answer.”

Via Marc Ambinder, in case you’re jacked at the thought of Chairman Steele, a new website coincidentally appeared yesterday featuring an online petition to draft him for the position. Sign up here. Exit question: Is this the surest sign yet that Newt’s thinking of a run in 2012? Remember, Huck allegedly wants his own former campaign manager, Chip Saltsman, in at RNC. If Gingrich plays kingmaker with Steele, he’s got important friends in high places ahead of the next primaries.