Let's play a quick role play...
You are the national chairman of a major political party.
You go on a radio show in the home state of one of your Senate candidates, whereupon the talk show host in question starts to rip your Senate candidate mercilessly, raising questions about his competence, his integrity, and even his marital fidelity.
What do you do?
If you're Michael Steele, apparently, you agree with the talk show host.
HOST VINCENT JERICHO:
"His [Matt Blunt’s] daddy [Roy] screwed around with a tobacco lobbyist. Then slips language into the homeland security bill favorable to the tobacco lobbyist. I mean here is a guy that has committed adultery multiple times. Yet he had a senior position, and still does, in the Republican Party. Guys like Papa Blunt make us sick to our stomach. They aren’t conservatives, and they sure don’t reflect moral absolutes the way that we expect the Republican Party to stand up. You had the page boy scandal, you had all of that crap, and nobody stands up to it and says, ‘This is crap! What are you doing? [Steele tries to cut in; unintelligible] Behave like a man – not like, not like little boys who are running around with their little toy and can’t behave themselves."
MICHAEL STEELE:
Look, now don’t, don’t – I mean, I agree with you. And when stuff gets in the crapper, you gotta clean it out."
Now, Steele will probably say (if he hasn't walked this back already) that he was not referring directly to Roy Blunt as the "stuff in the crapper", but that he was referencing more generally to reforms needed within the Republican Party.
Whatever. The bottom line is that this guy is the head of the RNC, is listening to a conservative radio host blowing up one of his candidates, and he does not offer a single word of defense for Roy Blunt (unless you count him saying "now wait" in the middle of Jericho's litany of charges against Blunt).
Is he conceding the corruption implied by the host? The conflicts of interest (writing legislation to benefit someone you are sleeping with is a pretty serious allegation)? The repeated adultery?
Michael Steele--the gift that keeps on giving.