This article from Politico about the RNC’s ‘Young Eagle’ program, the one that got them in trouble with the faux-lesbian bondage club, is truly hilarious and a must-read.

The upshot seems to be that a lot of young guys — and yes, pretty much just guys, it seems — with lots of money managed to do a lot of partying on the RNC’s dime without sharing that many dimes with the RNC. Basically you could pay a relatively small sum in contributions — a few thousand dollars or maybe less — and then be okayed in to all the Young Eagles events, many of which cost a lot to put on. Obviously the way this is supposed to work is that you give these richies a lot of free stuff and they end up giving you back a whole lot more in political contributions. But apparently no one was watching the inflows and outflows very closely. Even funnier are the descriptions of just why the program is necessary and the pained laments of young rightwingers trying to make their way in a world as conservatives when all the cool stars they want to chill with are Democrats. Read More

We know that Michael Steele’s new fundraiser Neil Alpert got accused of improperly using a lot of his old employer’s money on himself. Turns out that one of the things he used the money for was his “night club bills.” So, presumably he should fit right in.

I’m reading the official complaint filed against Neil Alpert for misusing the funds of the PAC he worked for before Michael Steele hired him to help get fundraising under control at the RNC.

“The money slowly disappeared and we had no idea where it was going,” Al Madison, an official from Alpert’s old employer told TPMmuckraker. “And he was very very circumspect. You never got a straight answer from him.”

Seems like that should all work out really well.

I was offline through most of the afternoon and just got back online now to find out that the RNC’s Chief of Staff, Ken MacKay, resigned. And apparently Steele canned him because of the lesbian bondage club story, which seems a tad excessive somehow. I’m down in DC for the first half of this week. And it occurred to me that this might mean I could end up in some sort of physical proximity to Steele. And that’s frightening because the fact that Steele can’t be fired means that anyone who gets close to him can be fired, just sort of like by proxy or because someone has to be taken down by the firing mojo that in the normal course of events has built up against Steele.

It’s frightening.

Obama to roll out new policy limiting the United States’ use of nuclear weapons.

It’s a new election year, so we get a new incarnation of John McCain. And like the various iterations of Barbie, there’s really no accounting for how consistent, or inconsistent, each new McCain persona is with the previous ones. (What would Astronaut Barbie make of tramp-stamp Barbie?)

The 2010 version of John McCain comes with a new tagline: “I never considered myself a maverick.” Whoa, indeed. We bid farewell to the maverick who never considered himself a maverick with a video tribute from the biggest fan of his mavericky-ness: himself. Watch.

As I noted earlier, I don’t think there’s any question that when the conversation about Michael Steele starts going to whether and how much Steele is spending frivolously, likes the living the high-life and is living large on other people’s money, that race is there in the mix. It can’t not be.

But let’s be honest: everything about Michael Steele’s tenure running the RNC is about race. Read More

It’s not easy being a Christian militiaman.

One of the nine alleged Hutaree militia members charged in Michigan for plotting to kill police there reportedly became irate at police in Ohio last year when they refused to press charges against his mother, who had confiscated his AK-47 and pistol — which he said he desperately needed to protect himself from an Ohio crime family whose bad side he was on because he had tried to marry a Macedonian woman who was supposedly held captive on an island in Lake Erie by another crime family.

Got all that?

His mom, god bless her, took his guns away because she thought he was mentally unstable.

The 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls gather in New Orleans later this week for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

John McCain: I’m no maverick. I never said I was!!!