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The charisma-hungry Republicans are fanboys at heart, desperate for new heroes. So it's not surprising that the chairman of the Republican Party on Thursday said that Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) filibuster of CIA Director John Brennan was "completely awesome."

Like, totally.

During a stop on his listening tour in Iowa, Priebus was asked if Paul's filibuster over President Barack Obama's use of drones had energized the party.

"Listen, I think it was completely awesome," the RNC chairman said. "I was excited about it myself. I couldn't go to bed. I'm still excited about it."

(Hey Reince, we'd really rather not hear you use the words "bed" and "excited" in the same sentence, mmkay? Some things are private.)

"You know what I'm excited about?" Priebus continued. "I think our party needs some unity sometimes and it's not easy not having the White House and sometimes you've got scrap and claw for issues that can unify a party. Now, that's not totally unity, but this was great issue in standing up against the president, asking some simple and important questions. And I was happy to see so many other Republican senators support Sen. Paul."

(No, it's not easy having all that money, ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Politico, The Daily Caller, the American Enterprise Institute, the National Rifle Association... why, the Republican party is just like a little lamb, lost in the woods.)

According to the Des Moines Register, conservative activists in Iowa told Priebus that they wanted to see more integration between former Rep. Ron Paul's "liberty movement" and the Republican Party.

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Republican strategist and former Mike Huckabee and Kathleen Harris adviser Ed Rollins threw RNC Chairman Michael Steele under the bus on Face the Nation this weekend.

Here's more from Think Progress -- GOP strategist says RNC Chairman Michael Steele is a ‘disaster.’:

Michael Steele’s term as Republican National Committee Chairman has been riddled with controversial verbal missteps that have roused the scorn of his Republican colleagues. His most recent gaffe in mischaracterizing the Afghanistan war prompted an outcry among prominent Republicans who called for his ouster. Remarking on the appearance of “Shadow RNC” Chairman Ed Gillespie over Steele as the RNC mouthpiece, Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer asked GOP strategist Ed Rollins today whether the GOP should “do something” about Steele. Rollins doubled-down on his dismissal of Steele’s efficacy, calling him a “disaster” who has “failed miserably” in his mission:

SCHIEFFER: But Ed Rollins, I want to ask you about this. I mean quite frankly, no offense to Ed Gillespie who I have been dealing with and know to be a good guy for years and years and years but he wouldn’t be here unless if the chairman of the Republican Party currently Michael Steele was willing to go on television. But he’s so immersed in controversy that he’s kind of in a bunker these days. Are Republicans going to have to do something about Michael Steele?

ROLLINS: Well, there’s no time. Obviously he’s been a disaster. You have three men on this show — not me, but the other three — who have all been party chairmen and very distinguished party chairmen. Michael Steele has failed miserably in the things you’re supposed to do — raise money and basically go out and articulate the message. It’s not going to matter though. In 11 weeks from now, what he says and does in the next 11 weeks is not going to matter.

So nice to see Republicans saying that what the head of the RNC does doesn't matter. Michael Steele is the gift that keeps on giving.

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast doubt Sunday on the future of the head of the Republican Party following controversial comments about the war in Afghanistan.

At a Thursday fundraiser, RNC Chairman Michael Steele was caught on video saying that the Afghanistan war was a "war of Obama's choosing" and probably a "lost cause."

ABC's Jake Tapper spoke to McCain Sunday about Steele's remarks. "Republicans such as Congressman Tom Cole, William Kristol, Liz Cheney, have said that Michael Steele needs to resign because of those comments. Do you think a chairman of the Republican National Committee can be effective if he thinks that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable as Steele seems to think?" asked Tapper.

"I think those statements are wildly inaccurate, and there's no excuse for them," said McCain.

"The fact is I believe Mr. Steele is going to have to assess if he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee and make an appropriate decision," he said.

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The GOP has released a statement about high flyer Michael Steele and whether he had any knowledge of the money spent by the RNC at the high priced bondage-themed club.

RNC “Investigating” Party Funds Spent On Bondage-Themed Nightclub:

“We are investigating the expenditure in question. The story willfully and erroneously suggests that the expenditure in question was one belonging to the Chairman. This was a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer.

“The Chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable.

“Good reporting would make that distinction crystal clear. The committee has requested that the monies be returned to the committee and that the story be corrected so that it is accurate.”

Tamryn Hall and the HuffPo's Ryan Grim discussed why this story is still bad news for Michael Steele even if he wasn't there. If they don't get rid of him after this I'll be surprised.

Grim: What kind of shop are they running over there is the question that voters are going to ask. They're trying to take over the government, take over control of trillions of dollars worth of spending yet even within their own political committee they can't tell who spent this money at this strip club. You know that's just not going to fly I'm sure with most voters.

Hall: And you also, you brought up fiscal responsibility; this is also the party that says that they're in touch, that the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats are not in touch with middle America, some of those folks who are right now on the trails rallying with the Tea Party. I don't know if this bondage thing is something that might be relatable to middle America.

Grim: Just spending those amounts of money on hotels and other luxury events for yourself when you're traveling just doesn't wash with people. [...] There are cheaper ways to travel than to get your own private plane. There are cheaper places to stay than in these Beverly Hills resort hotels and it's just not something that they seem to be interested in and so how long can you have this mix of these Tea Party activists, many of whom are on government support and these Republican activists, many of whom are on donor support remains to be seen.

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March 04, 2010 FOX News

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After telling Sean Hannity that the GOP wasn't ready to take back Congress in 2010, RNC Chairman Michael Steel changed his tune Sunday. "We absolutely can take the Congress back this year," Steele told NBC's David Gregory.

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RNC Chairman Michael Steele offered a non-apology apology Sunday for using the term "honest injun."

Wednesday, Steele was speaking to Sean Hannity about his new book, "Right Now: A 12-step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda." The RNC Chairman told Hannity, "Our platform is one of the best political documents that's been written in the last 25 years. Honest injun on that."

Members of his own party immediately spoke out against him. Rep. Tom Cole called Steele's remarks "unacceptable" and said, "It's an offensive phrase in the Native American community."

His mea culpa came less than a day after the revelation that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the term "negro" when discussing then-Senator Barack Obama with reporters.

The revelation comes as the new book has disclosed deeply damaging comments Reid made to the reporters, where he said the country was ready for a black president - particularly one that was "light-skinned" with no "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Reid immediately apologized for his remarks, and Obama and other Democrats have come to his defense.

Steele said the remarks shouldn't be held to the same standard and called for Reid to resign, a stance the rest of the GOP party is only too happy to echo.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) said it would be "entirely appropriate" for the Nevada Democrat to relinquish his leadership post over comments about Barack Obama's skin color and lack of a "Negro dialect."

And like Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Senate GOP Whip Jon Kyl — both of whom also called for Reid's resignation Sunday — Cornyn suggested that any Republican who said what Reid said would be under attack from Democrats, leading African-Americans and the media.

Steele called for the Majority Leader to step down Sunday. "I think he should," he told Fox News' Chris Wallace. Steele complained that former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was forced to step down when he praised Strom Thurmond who ran as a segregationist for president in 1948. Lott said the country would not have had "all the problems" it had if more people had voted for Thurmond.

"The reality is there is this standard where the Democrats feel they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own," said Steele. "But if it comes from anyone else, it's racism. It's either racist or it's not."

But apparently that standard doesn't hold up when it comes to Steele's "honest injun" remark. "The reality of it is that's not the same," Steele told Wallace.

(Nicole:) While Steele may have a point in saying that his flippant use of an old colloquialism doesn't rise to the same level as Harry Reid's tin-eared comments, he's wrong that Reid's statements are the same as Trent Lott's wistful nostalgia for the days before the civil rights movement. There's no question that Reid's statements--in front of reporters, no less--are clunky and stupid. However, without excusing them, what Reid said is actually not dissimilar to discussions had in every campaign war room when discussing the pros and cons of candidates. There's a world of difference between that--however inartfully expressed--and praising a politician for his work to sustain the days of Jim Crow.

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November 03, 2009 CNN