“This incident does not help the RNC leadership dispel the charge that they are nothing but duplicitous high rollers and big spenders at a time when we should have the president and his collectivist friends on the ropes we find our leadership on the defensive. That’s a bad deal,” said former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who Steele beat in his campaign for RNC chair.

“The RNC cannot attack Democrats for how the government spends taxpayer money when it is spending Republican donor money recklessly. Recent RNC spending stories suggest a tone-deafness at best and a misappropriation of funds at worst,” added Mike DeMoss, a longtime RNC donor who served as a liaison to Evangelical community for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign…

“It goes without saying that such an expense is more than unacceptable,” said Henry Barbour, a committeeman from Mississippi. “I have to believe this is some sort of bad mistake and I hope bad reporting.”