April 09, 2010
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No Escaping For Steele
So why didn't Michael Steele know who was using his government issued credit card and why wasn't he reviewing his account statements? Steele, the Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) has been playing the "I didn't know" and racial ticket since the scandal about his credit card abuse broke. However, President Obama does not share Steele's sentiments. During a recent news conference, Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesperson, said that the President is not happy over Steele's spending habits or his implication that race is an issue. During a recent appearance on Good Morning America, Steele who has been under scrutiny because of numerous extravagant credit card transactions said he believed he was being attacked because of his race. Most disturbing was that he included President Obama as also being a victim of his race.
Gibbs made it very clear that the White House wasn't going along with Steele's story as he commented that he believed Michael Steele's problem to be the credit card and not the "race card." During his interview on the morning news show, Steele also said that his aggressive political approach can sometimes rub others the wrong way. Because of it, he insinuated that others may scrutinize his credit card spending too harshly. To add to Steele's poor image, the tarnished Neil Alpert fundraiser joined Steele's staff. Many believe that Alpert who himself was the center of a lavish spending scandal, could break the Steele box.
In wake of the credit card scandal, the head of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, is urging donors to boycott RNC to stop spending. Furthermore, Perkins is also asking Republican donors to stop giving money to the RNC until accountability is in place and the widespread abusive spending in under control. In his interview, Steele said that the DNC spending issue has been blown out of proportion and the committee has out-raised the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and continues to have sufficient cash on-hand.