His brief tenure to date has only enhanced my suspicions. He talks about expanding the party to blacks and Hispanics. That’s a good thing in theory, but it is not the job of the RNC chairman. Worse, the appeal seems to me to be shallow and vain. The party would reach out not by developing new policy proposals to appeal to these voters, but by promoting its new, oh-so-hip chairman, i.e. lots of face time for Michael Steele!

And of course, there are the incredibly foolish things he says. These began to dribble out of his mouth literally as soon as he won the position. Remember this message he delivered to President Obama when he won the chairmanship? “I would say to the new president, congratulations. It is going to be an honor to spar with him…And I would follow that up with: How do you like me now?” The vanity of that line is matched only by its utter stupidity. Actually, the two are intertwined. You’d have to be vain and stupid to think that the President of the United States would ever give a second thought to the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The President probably laughed when he heard that. I sure did…

Above all, the RNC needs to focus on its fundraising infrastructure. It must be ready for the Obama money tsunami that will be crashing ashore in the fall of 2012. If you thought the President raised a lot of money last cycle, you haven’t seen anything yet! Also, the party needs to figure out why the Democrats have managed not only to catch up to, but actually exceed, the Republicans in fundraising – this after the banning of soft money, which had historically helped the Democrats. That’s a puzzler that should have Republicans – above all Michael Steele – thinking about innovation. This should be happening to the exclusion to guest spots as a radio host, Mr. Chairman!