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Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele has announced that he is running to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“The Republican Party must present a vision for the future of America that relies on our conservative values and core principles," he said in a press release. Steele suggested Republican losses in recent elections did not result from a leftward shift in the electorate.

"It is wrong to believe the voters have suddenly become liberal," he said. "They have just lost any sense of confidence that the Republican Party holds the answers to their problems. We must face the fact that our party has failed in recent years to live up to our own principles -- we have failed to be ‘solutions oriented’ in addressing the concerns of all Americans.”

Steele chaired the Maryland GOP from 2000 to 2002, and, as the Associated Press notes, he became the first black candidate elected to a statewide position in Maryland when he became lieutenant governor in 2003, a position he held until last year.

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The Republican National Committee has filed lawsuits challenging "the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's ban on national parties raising and spending non-federal dollars, and the constitutionality of political party coordinated expenditure limits."

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act is better known as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and the lawsuit is effectively an effort to overturn it.

The effort, the Washington Times argues, amounts to "a slap in the face" to 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, whose advocacy for the bill angered many conservatives.

The suits seek to overturn the ban on the generally unregulated contributions known as "soft money," a key componant of the McCain-Feingold legislation, and to get rid of limits on coordinated spending between political parties and candidates.

The Republican National Committee has filed lawsuits challenging "the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's ban on national parties raising and spending non-federal dollars, and the constitutionality of political party coordinated expenditure limits."

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act is better known as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and the lawsuit is effectively an effort to overturn it.

The effort, the Washington Times argues, amounts to "a slap in the face" to 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, whose advocacy for the bill angered many conservatives.

The suits seek to overturn the ban on the generally unregulated contributions known as "soft money," a key componant of the McCain-Feingold legislation, and to get rid of limits on coordinated spending between political parties and candidates.

Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, who according to a report in the Washington Times, is among those making a play to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today arguing that his party needs a more positive vision. From Steele:

We must articulate a positive vision for America's future that speaks to Americans' hopes, concerns and needs. It's time to stop defining ourselves by what we are not, and tell voters what we believe, how we'll lead, and where we'll go; how we Republicans will make America better; how we'll make their families more prosperous, their children better educated, their parents more secure, and all of us healthier, safer and stronger.

Our challenge lies not in beating Democrats, but in uniting around a message that solidifies our ranks and attracts new people to our cause. We have to listen to what Americans are telling us about their hopes, desires and needs, and then translate that message into proposals for meaningful action squarely grounded on the values we Republicans have always stood for.

To the victors go the spoils (or in this case an overflowing in-box that requires immediate attention). To the conquered goes the job of picking up the pieces. And for the Republican Party, there are a whole lot of slivers left from their shattered majority.

The splits within the party had grown so large by the end of the presidential campaign that it was hardly newsworthy anymore to report on the numbers of moderate Republicans who were openly endorsing the Democratic candidate. Conservatives, who more or less completed their takeover of the GOP during the 1990s found their numbers dwindling on Election Day and face an uncertain future, to put it lightly.

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Republicans prefer “South Park” and Democrats watch the “Colbert Report,” a new study by Nielsen’s IAG service. The study, which sought to measure how “engaged” partisans are with the cable TV programs they watch found those two shows at the top among supporters of the two major parties. Others shows on the list for Democrats include “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery and “I Love New York” on VH-1. Republicans are most engaged with shows like “Cash Cab” on Bravo and “Rock of Love” on VH-1. Who says the Republicans and Democrats have nothing in common? Click here for more on the study.

The Republican National Committee is sending around this Associated Press photo of overall-clad McCain supporters standing outside an Obama rally, clutching plungers and a sign proclaiming "I Am Joe The Plumber":

The only problem? At least two of the members aren't quite as similar to the newly famous Joe Wurzelbacher as they might like you to think. As CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic, who is traveling with the Obama campaign, reports, the man on the right does say he's an actual plumber – though he is from Melbourne, Australia, and will thus not be casting a vote this November.

And the man on the left, plunger thrust high in the air, is Charlie Smith – the National Chairman of the College Republicans.

UPDATE: Smith said he drove down to the rally because he disagrees with Barack Obama’s tax policy. “We’re gonna pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, he’s gonna tax small businesses,” he said. “We’re out here supporting the American dream, people like Joe the plumber.”

And here's some video of the group:

Bobby May, a prominent GOP figure who was John McCain's Buchanan County (Virginia) campaign manager, has been ousted from his position by the McCain campaign, the Associated Press is reporting.

The reason is that May penned a column about Barack Obama that was called racist. Here, via the Los Angeles Times, is a PDF of the column. The Times summarizes:

[May wrote] that the Democrat would hire the rapper Ludacris to paint the White House black (a reference to a pro-Obama song by Ludacris), and divert more foreign aid to Africa so "the Obama family there can skim enough to allow them to free their goats and live the American Dream." He joked that Obama would replace the 50 stars on the U.S. flag "with a star and crescent logo," an Islamic symbol, and that his policy on drugs would be to "raise taxes to pay for Obama's inner-city political base."

May also wrote in the column, called "The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama," that Obama would change the national anthem to the "Black National Anthem."

The ouster comes not long after McCain chastised supporters for being insufficiently respectful of his rival in the wake of reports of increasingly ugly scenes at McCain/Palin rallies, where there have been shouts of "terrorist" in reference to the Democratic candidate as well as calls for him to be killed.

Meanwhile, another more prominent Virginia GOP leader, state party chairman Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, has said both Obama and Osama bin Laden "have friends that bombed the Pentagon," a reference in Obama's case to his association with William Ayers. Frederick's comments drew criticism from Democrats and from the McCain campaign, though the chairman is standing by them.

Top McCain adviser Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard, today said both Sarah Palin and John McCain lack the experience necessary to run a major company.

As Huffington Post first reported, Fiorina was asked on St. Louis KTRS Radio if she believes Palin "has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard."

"No, I don't," Fiorina replied. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for."

Asked about the comment later on MSNBC, Fiorina made a similar statement about the man at the top of the Republican ticket.

"Well, I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation," Fiorina said.

She continued: "I don't think Barack Obama could run a major corporation. I don't think Joe Biden could run a major corporation. But on the other hand, a major corporation is not the same as being the president or vice president of the United States. It is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company. So, of course, to run a business you have to have a lifetime of experience in business. But that's not what Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama or Joe Biden are doing."



Fiorina's is the second statement from a McCain adviser today that the campaign likely wishes it could take back. Earlier, economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin suggested that McCain helped create the BlackBerry communications device, a comment later dismissed as a "boneheaded joke" by a McCain aide.

“If John McCain’s top economic advisor doesn’t think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis?" Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. "Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn’t understand as well as he should."

John McCain’s senior campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, who has become a central figure in the Republican Party, has drawn comparisons to Karl Rove, whom he worked with beginning around 2004.

But as Ana Marie Cox reported this week, those comparisons can be misleading. While Rove has hewed to the far right of his party over the course of his career, Schmidt has spent time working with candidates closer to the center, among them Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lamar Alexander and Matt Fong. While Schmidt was Fong’s spokesman, the candidate signed a pledge negotiated with the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, to protect certain rights for gays and lesbians.

“This is not something a Rove protege would have done,” Cox wrote. “Rove's career has been based on a very different approach to politics, driven more by polls and a tightly controlled narrative designed specifically to appeal to social conservatives.”

Now comes news that on the day that McCain was giving his GOP nomination acceptance speech before the Republican base in St. Paul, Schmidt met with the Log Cabin Republicans.

“I just wanted to take a second to come by and pay my respect and the campaign’s respect to your organization and to your group,” Schmidt told the group, according to The Advocate. “Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party.”

As The Advocate notes, “This convention marks the first in history that Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT rights organization, have been fully credentialed official guests of the GOP host committee.” Sen. Alren Specter, RNC treasurer Tim Morgan, and McCain political director Mike DuHaime also addressed the group this week.