The end of the RNC

Ginsberg points to three distinct areas where Steele and his people appear to be in danger of falling short: developing a ground game (“they’ve cut the budget like maniacs”); pumping money into the congressional campaign committees to put more seats in play (“instead, we’re going to wind up leaving more than we need to on the table”); and the crucial work on this year’s post-Census redistricting (“the Democrats are in a really good place, and the RNC is letting everyone down—they’re nowhere”)…

The answer will turn on much larger national factors than Steele’s stewardship of the RNC, to be sure. Yet as Castellanos suggests, little things on the margins can mean the difference between a good year and a great year—and on those little things, Steele is failing as miserably and flailing as wildly as he is making a fool of himself on the big stage. And by driving his donors away from the RNC and toward the private groups that are waiting to take up the slack left by his maladroit leadership, he is quickening the process of the RNC’s marginalization—hastening the arrival of its future status as an organization whose main responsibility is throwing a nominating convention every four years.

When Steele was chosen as RNC chair, the selection was hailed as historic. And, hey, whaddaya know, it’s shaping up to be just that. Historically awful.