The RNC's spending scandal: Should Steele resign?

Allegations of a GOP-funded strip-club visit and other 'frivolous luxuries' have rocked the RNC. Could this be the final straw for its chairman, Michael Steele?

The RNC dropped $2000 at an adults-only gentleman's club.
(Image credit: Creative Commons)

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has survived plenty of controversy, but new allegations of spending abuses may be the most damaging yet. Conservative site The Daily Caller, founded by pundit Tucker Carlson, alleged Steele considered buying a plane with GOP funds, and approved a California trip that included a $2,000 visit to a bondage-themed strip club on the GOP tab. The RNC strenuously denied Steele had any part in the strip-club outing, for which a staffer has been fired, though his spokesperson did not deny discussions regarding a plane. After a series of missteps, could this spending furor cost Steele his job?

Enough is enough—Steele has to go: If the RNC wants to continue soliciting money from donors, says Douglas MacKinnon, a former press secretary to Bob Dole quoted in the Huffington Post, it has to get rid of its "spoiled, egocentric, out-of-touch chairman." Donors want their "hard-earned money" spent "as advertised," not on "frivolous luxuries." For the sake of the American people, "Michael Steele needs to resign."

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