Steele Finally Catching More Flak From Dems Than GOP

Michael Steele got off to a rocky start in his job as chairman of the Republican National Committee but he promised he’d deliver election victories in places like New York’s 20th district. Now that the GOP has lost that election, Steele is catching flak. But, CQ Politics reports, criticism is surprisingly coming from Democrats, who are mocking his promise to make the race “a focal point.”

Steele’s harshest critics early on were fellow Republicans, who felt that missteps indicated that the wrong man had won the six-round race for the job. But runner-up Katon Dawson declined to bash Steele, and an anonymous party official said Steele’s ill-advised boosterism was understandable. “At a time when the party is a little bit demoralized, you kind of needed to inject a little bit of optimism.”
(More Michael Steele stories.)