The Republican National Committee is investigating how the party ended up spending nearly $2,000 at a sexy Los Angeles nightclub.
“This was a reimbursement made an individual not on committee staff,” said RNC spokesman Doug Heye, who said the party would recoup the funds.
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele “was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable,” Heye said.
The $1,946 charge for a February trip to Voyeur, a racy nightspot that features topless women and simulated sex acts, surfaced in the party’s latest Federal Election Commission expenditure report.
The revelation, first reported by the Daily Caller, inspired great mirth at the Democratic National Committee, which spent Monday afternoon churning out amused responses and updates to reporters via e-mail
But the expenditure for Voyeur, reportedly charged to the party by a California political consultant, was just one among several items of note in the Republicans’ FEC filings.
The party in February lavished more than $30,000 on chartered jets, swanky hotels and limousine rides, plus a $43,000 tab for partial expenses relating to a midwinter party gathering in Hawaii.
The expenditures were another embarrassment for Steele, whose profligacy has previously come under stern scrutiny from party officials and donors.
Committee members earlier this year responded to Steele’s spending habits by requiring two RNC signatures on party checks.
As the minority party struggles to regain its footing heading into an important election season, the Republicans need all the money they can sweep up and hold on to. Steele so far has raised $109 million, but spent $96.2 million.
Steele’s term at the head of the party has been notably bumpy, with some Republicans criticizing his speaking fees, his book-writing, and shoot-from-the-hip rhetorical style.
A frequently outspoken guest on cable news and elsewhere, Steele has generated more heat and attention for the Republican Party than many recent past chairmen.
Even so, as the latest controversy percolated across the Internet and on television, the nightclub in question was variously described as a bondage club or strip bar — it is neither, just a racy Hollywood hot spot — speculation began that Steele’s leadership of the party may be revoked along with that $2,000 reimbursement for a night at Voyeur.
