He'll bring the chicken... and 'tater salad... and his lavish spending has pissed off RNC donors

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Michael Steele's spending spree angers donors



Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.

Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.

A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.

“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33324.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Guess sTeele has outlived his usefulness so now they want to get rid of him

[zbdent]

6. They'd have to hire another black person ...

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Not necessarily...They put the token Black peson int he job..and now they can go back to the

good ol white boys club

[zbdent]

9. they need one so they can sit there and say

"Hey, we're not the KKK ... we've got a black guy!"

[saigon68]

2. gets them by using other people’s money

LOL

[spanone]

3. mr steele is the gift that keeps on giving

[hlthe2b]

4. But, having an African American Republican figurehead......

....PRICELESS!......

[notadmblnd]

5. Keep spending Mr. Steele

Take their cash and spend it foolishly in an attempt to buy their admiration. Mr Steele, you are their token. You'll never be anything more. They used you to garner black votes, now make them pay for it big time.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Pay no attention to your detractors, Michael. It's just class envy.

Continue spending, there's more where it camerom.

[tanyev]

10. Yeah, he didn't mention that he was going to hire Wolfgang Puck to make the chicken and tater salad.

[peekaloo]

11. Man's gotta eat

bitches!

For some odd reason this story makes me miss Dave Chappelle all the more. }(