Michael Steele joins MSNBC: A 'sign of the apocalypse'?

The former chair of the Republican National Committee delights fans of his "sassy" style by signing on as an analyst at the left-leaning news network

The former head of the RNC, Michael Steele, has been hired as an analyst by left-leaning MSNBC.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has signed on as a cable news analyst... for left-leaning MSNBC. As RNC boss, Steele repeatedly came under fire for cost overruns and "embarrassing sound bites," and his television musings inspired The Daily Show to immortalize (and lampoon) him as a jive-talking blue puppet. But now the real Steele will be a TV regular, and had reportedly also been in discussions with CNN and Fox News. Is the Steele-MSNBC marriage a good one?

Steele makes for great TV: Here's "hoping this MSNBC thing works out," says Elspeth Reeve at The Atlantic Wire. Steele has a "conversational, confident, and sort of sassy" style, and, for added fun, he "says 'baby' a lot, in a manner befitting a 1970s person with a mustache." Looking back over his many cable news appearances, "it's hard to imagine why CNN and Fox didn't snap him up." But now that he has a new television home, at least there may be a new excuse "for The Daily Show to break out Puppet Michael Steele now and again."

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