Given that the GOP message is no ideas, no plans, and just say no, it's not clear how a Republican leader can go off-message, but Michael Steele has done just that:
GOP leaders, in a private meeting last month, delivered a blunt and at times heated message to RNC Chairman Michael Steele: quit meddling in policy.
The plea was made during what was supposed to be a routine discussion about polling matters and other priorities in House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office. But the session devolved into a heated discussion about the roles of congressional leadership and Steele, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting.
The article is full of unnamed sources downplaying what happened, named sources calling it a "good discussion," and a little bravado from Steele (he's from the "streets") -- but what's not in dispute is that GOP leaders were unhappy with Steele's Washington Post op-ed last month that "began with a robust defense of Medicare." Apparently they weren't upset about all of the lies in the op-ed, just the defense of Medicare.