Predictably, Michael Steele’s handlers are busy painting over his foibles in a desperate rescue attempt.
They’ve sequestered him from public view, promising to halt the steady diet of gaffes and goofs we’ve been feasting on since his recent appointment. Meanwhile they’ve been busy addressing Republican insiders’ concerns about Mr. Steele’s ability to mind the store by finding new flunkies to replace all the old flunkies he fired.
Instead of dishing Michelle Obama’s dresses on the record with GQ, lately he’s been jetting around to Republican fundraisers just like when he was Maryland’s lieutenant governor and in demand on their circuit as the nation’s highest ranking African American elected Republican.
Grab a bucket & sponge and help wash away the wet paint before it dries....
A seemingly compliant press suggests Team Steele's damage control is working. Two daily papers that know Steele well reported Sunday that he is cleaning up his act and not in imminent danger of losing his job. While neither story pulls any punches recounting his public relations and management flubs, neither mentions the scandals swirling around Mr. Steele. (In fairness, one of those papers broke the first Steele scandal story, and the other followed up with new information.)
Hats off to Mr. Steele’s crew of handlers, better known as one Curt Anderson, the man behind Mr. Steele’s 2006 puppy ads and the rising star GOP political consultant who placed client Ken McKay, most recently chief of staff to Rhode Island’s Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, (thanks in part to Mr. Anderson, Rhode Island of all places has a Republican governor) in the same position under Mr. Steele at the Republican National Committee. If Mr. Anderson has his way,Byron York’s column last Thursday in the Washington Examiner will be the last mention of Mr. Steele's scandals:
The allegations, which haven't received much national attention, have nevertheless rattled a number of RNC members across the country. "This came out right after his election," one member told me Wednesday. "If people had known that when he was running, he would not have won."
"The committee is split almost down the middle on this," the member continued. "The people who are concerned are very concerned. These are very serious allegations."
"It's the elephant in the room," another RNC member told me.
"There has been all but no discussion of this kind of thing," still another member said. "People are terrified that discussing it can make it a reality."
Days earlier, Sean Quinn of the blog FiveThirtyEight.com reported,
Perhaps most significantly in the long run, Steele has had several bad stories emerge regarding his 2006 Maryland Senate campaign financial operations. .... Speculation is mounting that Republicans who have it in for Steele are leaking these stories and potentially might have more.
No matter who’s doing the leaking, Mr. Quinn is right that these stories—and the potential of more—threaten Mr. Steele’s tenure more than chronic foot in mouth disease or chronic failure, neither of which is criminally offensive.
Which is why Mr. Steele’s consultant hopes you’ll believe him when he says,
"There's nothing to any of that," [Anderson told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York]. "It's a three year-old campaign, and we're not going to chase down silly rumors." Calling Fabian's allegations "the desperate pleadings of a convicted felon," Anderson added, "I can't tell you everything about the 2006 campaign, and I'm not going to get into a three year-old campaign. I'm not going to give this story any credence."
November 2006, when Mr. Steele and his GOP ticket mate Gov. Bob Ehrlich engaged in some bizarre use of campaign funds, was two years ago, not three as Mr. Anderson says, and the campaign disclosures both candidates filed are more substantial than "silly rumors," so let’s wash away the wet paint and take a full inventory of the facts behind the allegations and Mr. Steele’s spin thereof:
FACT: Michael Steele’s campaign paid $37,262 to a defunct company owned by his sister, the Washington area pediatrician Monica Turner, for "CATERING/WEB SERVICES" in February 2007.
The Post reported that Mr. Steele’s campaign finance chairman, the convicted felon Alan Fabian, proffered this information to prosecutors for consideration in sentencing, and that federal agents contacted Steele’s sister about this matter.
STEELE’S RESPONSE:
"It's from, what, a convicted felon? And it has no substantiation in fact," Curt Anderson said to the Post when the story broke.
True, Steele’s finance chairman Alan Fabian made the allegation, but it is clearly substantiated in fact. Steele’s committee paid the money, the company was defunct, and Steele’s sister owned it.
To George Stephanopolous "We're getting out in front. We're pulling all the data together. We're going to take it to the FBI. I'm not going to wait for them to come to me. I'm going to take it to them and give them everything that they think they need. And if that's not enough, we'll give them more... because I want to clear up my good name. This is not the way I intend to run the RNC, with this over my head. We're going to dispense with it immediately."
Admirable words, but where’s the follow-up? Has any reporter asked Mr. Steele or Mr. Anderson if indeed they’ve given any documents to the FBI as promised? Why not give them to the press as well?
"We faxed to them [the Washington Post], gave to them the receipts, all the documentation that we have," Mr. Steele told George Stephanopoulos the day after the story broke.
Not quite, according to the Washington Post: "On Friday, a spokesman for Steele provided a receipt for catering costs totaling almost $15,000 for two events, about half the total. The spokesman said they were searching for receipts to document the rest."
Well, Mr. Steele? How about receipts for the remaining $22,262 paid to your sister? It’s been six weeks. Show us the receipts!
FACT: Michael Steele and his GOP ticket mate, former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, paid $417,000 in the final weeks of the 2006 campaign to a defunct company owned by Steele’s close associate Sandy Roberts without logical explanation.
Mr. Steele brought Mr. Roberts to the dance, not Mr. Ehrlich, so the new GOP chairman needs to account for all the campaign money paid out, not just the $64,000 directly from his senate campaign and the $50,000 from the Maryland GOP, but also the $303,000 from Mr. Ehrlich and his running mate. That means receipts and invoices accounting for the $417,000 total.
STEELE’S RESPONSE:
WBAL TV Baltimore's Jayne Miller reported, "A spokesman for Steele said his 2006 Senate campaign complied with all Federal Election Commission regulations. The spokesman would answer no other questions."
Wait a minute. Mr. Steele himself said to George Stephanopoulus and TV watching political junkies nationwide few weeks prior,
[W]e're being very proactive about this, because I'm sick and tired of this – this "gotcha" business that the Washington Post and other -- others in the media attempt to engage in.
We're getting out in front. We're pulling all the data together. We're going to take it to the FBI. I'm not going to wait for them to come to me. I'm going to take it to them and give them everything that they think they need. And if that's not enough, we'll give them more... because I want to clear up my good name. This is not the way I intend to run the RNC, with this over my head. We're going to dispense with it immediately.
So much for being cooperative, accessible, forthcoming, providing documents to clear the air so there’s no cloud hanging over his head. Now that these expenditures have been exposed, they will not go away without a full accounting. If Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich cannot show that the $417,000 paid to Mr. Steele's friend Sandy Roberts was for legitimate campaign expenses, they may be in serious trouble.
FACT: The same Steele friend was the beneficiary of an Ehrlich/Steele administration action paving the way for a lucrative retail concession at Baltimore Washington International Airport of questionable merit. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Ehrlich-Steele administration certified his firm, Olympic Supply, as a retail minority business enterprise even though he reported no prior retail experience. That action paved the way for him to open multiple lucrative concessions at BWI as the certified minority partner of nationwide airport retailer Hudson News.
After the Ehrlich-Steele administration was unseated, the Maryland Department of Transportation found evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele's friend Sandy Roberts was not genuinely participating in the Hudson News/Olympic News business:
* Auditors found Hudson News staff in Olympic News stores ("I hope they were shopping" was his comment to the Baltimore Sun);
* receipts and store records that were not in his possession were later produced by Hudson News;
* the findings warranted a more detailed compliance audit, which is underway.
STEELE’S RESPONSE:
No response, but I wonder if the GOP’s conservative wing vetted Mr. Steele’s views on minority preferences—and this matter in particular—as closely as they vetted his views on abortion and homosexuality.
FACT: In the wee hours of Election Day 2006, the Steele and Ehrlich campaigns filled 6 buses with indigent men recruited from a Philadelphia program for ex-offenders on the promise of 3 square meals and $100 each, delivered them to Maryland where the governor’s wife, Kendel Ehrlich, gave them a pre-dawn pep talk and then sent into predominantly African American precincts to pose as campaign volunteers handing out flyers suggesting popular African American Democrats endorsed Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich. Authority lines indicated both Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich approved the flyers.
STEELE’S RESPONSE:
No response. Perhaps this was Mr. Steele’s deranged idea of an "off the hook" outreach to African American voters.
FACT: Months after Mr. Steele lost his 2006 U.S. Senate bid, his campaign finance chairman, the same Alan Fabian mentioned above was indicted on accusations of stealing $32 million in a complex sale-leaseback scheme. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison. We can only hold Mr. Steele accountable for what he should have known at the time he signed up Mr. Fabian and
accepted bundles of campaign cash from him.
If Mr. Steele’s team did a simple on-line search of the Maryland and federal court system, they would have discovered 2004 Maryland civil suit accusing Mr. Fabian of the fraud for which he was later indicted, and a slew of state and federal suits against him and his businesses. Enough to convince any appearance of impropiety fearing politician to keep his distance from Alan Fabian.
STEELE’S RESPONSE:
Responding to Mr. Fabian’s pre-sentencing allegations reported by the Washington Post, Mr. Steele said, "Everything -- the thing about this, George, that is so frustrating to me is that you're -- you're -- you're looking -- the Washington Post elevated this -- this guy to a level and gave him credibility when no one else would. That's disturbing."
Wait a minute. Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich "elevated this guy to a level and gave him credibility" long before the Washington Post or anyone else did, and that’s disturbing.
Mr. Steele’s and Mr. Ehrlich’s relationship with Alan Fabian merits further coverage. We can only hope Mr. Steele does not resign before that happens.