RNC Chief Michael Steele Caught With Hands in the GOP Cookie Jar

There are many reasons not to like Michael Steele, but you have to admit, he keeps the comedy coming. When the GOP is finally done with him, he should get his own HBO special.

His most recent slip up? It turns out he’s living the high-life on the Republican dime which includes private planes and Wolfgang Puck-catered parties.

Mike, don’t you know the man ain’t going to stand for that?

Oh, that’s right, you’re Money Mike, you can make the hip hop generation fall in love with the GOP. You can make Black folks forget the Republican party’s entirely anti-Black political agenda. You can deflect the constant race-baiting. You’re Money Mike, you can do anything, right?

And that’s Steele’s problem. He does think he can do anything. A few years back, Steele was embroiled in an FBI investigation surrounding campaign contributions and payments. He reported that he paid his sister $37,000 in 2007 for catering and Web work she supposedly did for him in 2006. Trouble is, she never did the work. In fact her Maryland-based company Brown Sugar Unlimited didn’t actually exist the time he said she performed the work. And the final blow to his unlikely story, his sister is a pediatrician, not a caterer, and certainly not a web designer.

During the same campaign year, Steele says he paid $64,000 to Allied Berton for “political consulting.” But Allied Berton actually is a commodity trading business for minerals, metals, coffee and sugar.

A few months ago, Steele was raked over the coals by fellow members of the GOP for charging huge fees (which he quickly deposited into his own private checking account and not the RNC coffers) for speaking engagements he made as head of the RNC. Steele, not the GOP, was paid up to $20,000 for some of these speaking engagements.

“Holy mackerel, I never heard of a chairman of either party ever taking money for speeches,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., RNC chairman under President Reagan and CEO of the American Gaming Association. “The job of a national chairman is to give speeches. That’s what the national party pays him for. We didn’t have a rule book back then, but being national chairman was and is a full-time job.”

Then, when, he got called out, guess what Money Mike did? He played the race card. Yes, Michael Steele, head of the Republican National Committee, spokesman of the anti-grievance-based, black folks stop your whining and pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps fan club, played the race card. I can’t wait to see how he will react to this new affront to the good old boys inside the GOP.

Some liken Money Mike to a House Negro. I have to disagree. He’s much more a Rah Rah negro. Let me explain. He’s the guy constantly talking crap on the basketball court, calling fouls, all while hoping you don’t notice his weak game. He’s not the guy with the card trick on the subway, but he’s that guy’s wingman, you know the one who pretends to win $20 bucks when he thinks someone is looking. He’s the guy who talks his way into your house, eats all your food, and then after he’s gone, you notice half your CDs are missing. He’s the guy who sold you the 14 kt– gold plated– necklace.

Money Mike could care less about the GOP, the RNC, the NAACP, the SCLC, RLC, or any other acronym you can think of. Money Mike cares about Money Mike, and that’s it.

What’s so funny here is the GOP thought they were getting your average garden variety house negro when they elected him. All they wanted was a little of that Magic Negro power and a little political cover, to show they were trying to embrace minorities even though their politics veer so far to the right that they’re no longer on the political map. The GOP literally had to find additional terrain for the teabaggers. But what they got instead was Money Mike.

Steele has pulled the ultimate con job on the Republican Party.  It’s actually quite hilarious when you think about it. So call him what you want, HIp Hop Mike, Money Mike, Rah Rah Mike. You gotta love the gall of this guy. Just don’t loan him any money.

See the full story here.