As you can tell from the discussion above, I hold no animus towards Steele for being who he is – a blue-state Republican – and frankly, one reason I was unenthused about him running for party chair was the fear that being an effective party chair would ruin his brand back home in Maryland, a state that could use a viable GOP. (This is the “Mitt Romney can’t go back to Massachusetts” problem). But if he’s going to turn things around and be a successful chairman of the party, he has to break from that habit of distancing. He is one of us now, one with each of the various groups that make up the GOP, from the committed pro-lifers to the Limbaugh fans to everyone else that people who hate Republicans love to sneer at, and and he needs to accept that. He can’t represent all Republicans while running away from those Republicans; he can’t treat anyone in the party that way. Only when he stops looking for distance and accepts that he’s one of us will he be an effective spokesman for the party.