Following the RNC debate in Washington D.C. this afternoon, Chairman Michael Steele vigorously defended his controversial decision to spend RNC money on Republicans in the U.S. territories–a move that a number of RNC members saw as an unwise use of resources and a cynical attempt to win the votes of the 15 RNC members from the five territories. “Any chairman who comes into this job thinking he’s going to pick and choose between which state parties to help doesn’t need to be chairman,” Steele told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “There is no choice. If you can help, you help. If it is in Guam or Florida, you do what is necessary for a Republican to win in those places.”

But couldn’t the money spent on the territories–which do not have a vote in the U.S. House or Senate–have been better spent in one of the states? “It could help [to spend] $15,000 in Colorado. It could help $15,000 in Guam. It could help $15,000 in Puerto Rico. In the Virgin Islands,” Steele replied, as he became increasingly defensive.  “Okay, so when you’re chairman you make that decision, and then you deal with the chairman and the national committeeman and the national committeewoman sittin on the phone with you, screaming at you for not helping them for $15,000. We won the governorship. The most wins here and now you’re going to sit back here and parse? Oh, well, gee if you had taken $15,000 from there and put it over here–tell me the seat you could have won with that, when you know you could have helped them out and won a groundbreaker for them in Guam.”