The Whispered Worries About Michael Steele

In the past few weeks there's been a lot of talk about Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's controversial statements -- the latest example is his new interview with GQ -- his dustup with Rush Limbaugh, and his decision to clean out the RNC's top ranks without, so far, replacing any of the fired key officials.   But there is another issue about the new chairman that is the topic not of public discussion but of worried private conversation among some of the RNC's 168 members. That topic concerns the allegations of financial irregularities in Steele's 2006 run for Senate from Maryland.  While some RNC members, including the chairman himself, view those accusations as completely unfounded, others worry they could dog the Republican party for months to come, even as Steele tries to remake it.

On February 7, just a week after Steele was elected, the Washington Post reported in a front-page story that Alan Fabian, the finance chairman of Steele's unsuccessful 2006 run for the U.S. Senate, told federal prosecutors that Steele "arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed." The day after the Post story appeared, Steele, speaking on ABC's "This Week," said the money -- it was about $37,000 -- was "a legitimate reimbursement of expenses" for catering and other services provided by his sister's company.  Steele pointed out that Fabian has been convicted in a multi-million dollar fraud case and made the allegations against Steele in an unsuccessful attempt to have his sentence lowered.  "Those allegations were leveled by a convicted felon who is trying to get a reduced sentence on his conviction," Steele told ABC.

In late February, WBAL-TV, a television station in Baltimore, reported that Steele's 2006 campaign paid $64,000 to a company called Allied Berton, owned by a friend and a supporter of Steele's. The station reported that Allied Berton is a commodities trading firm, dealing in minerals, metals, and agricultural products.  The report said that finance reports filed by the Steele campaign listed the services provided by Allied Berton as "political consulting." When WBAL tried to ask what kind of political consulting a commodities trading firm performed for the Steele campaign, a Steele spokesman declined to comment.

The allegations, which haven't received much national attention, have nevertheless rattled a number of RNC members across the country. "This came out right after his election," one member told me Wednesday.  "If people had known that when he was running, he would not have won."

"The committee is split almost down the middle on this," the member continued.  "The people who are concerned are very concerned. These are very serious allegations."

"It's the elephant in the room," another RNC member told me.

"There has been all but no discussion of this kind of thing," still another member said.  "People are terrified that discussing it can make it a reality."

"Who knows how serious it is?" asked yet another member.  "Anytime something like that comes up, it obviously creates concern among the members.  There's always a question.  You never know which way this stuff is going to go."

Members who are looking to Steele or to top party leadership for reassurance have so far been disappointed. On Wednesday I spoke to Curt Anderson, a Maryland political consultant and longtime friend and supporter of Steele who has dealt with press inquiries about the allegations. "There's nothing to any of that," Anderson told me.  "It's a three year-old campaign, and we're not going to chase down silly rumors." Calling Fabian's allegations "the desperate pleadings of a convicted felon," Anderson added, "I can't tell you everything about the 2006 campaign, and I'm not going to get into a three year-old campaign.  I'm not going to give this story any credence."

It might not be Steele's intention, but the reaction such words create in the minds of experienced political hands -- and RNC members are local party officials from around the country -- is sometimes one of intense skepticism.  "When they get indignant, when they get in that defensive posture, when they say, 'I've done nothing wrong' -- it just doesn't feel right," one of the RNC members told me.  To hear those members tell it, Steele would be much better served by openly and patiently explaining to any RNC member who wants to know -- and to the public, for that matter -- what the substance of each allegation involves, and what each controversial transaction was about.  Right now, his handling of the question is just making already skeptical RNC members even more skeptical.