Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski took on RNC chair Reince Priebus‘ recent comparison of President Obama to the Italian captain who abandoned his sinking cruise ship, saying her guests wouldn’t be responding to it this morning and calling the comments “irresponsible and despicable.”

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus appeared on Fox News’s America Live to respond to the growing furor over his comments comparing President Obama to Captain Francesco Schettino, the Italian captain of the Costa Concordia. Megyn Kelly asked Priebus if he stood by his comments, which he strongly defended as “clear.” “Clearly Megyn! When I [...]

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus appeared on Face the Nation today, and dismissed concerns that the fighting in the GOP was overblown by the media and drew parallels to the 2008 Democratic primary race, but in speaking candidly about President Obama, Priebus compared his leadership to the infamous captain of the Italian cruise ship whose actions proved to be somewhat cowardly when faced with disaster.

On Good Morning America this morning, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus made clear that he is “very satisfied with where the field is at in the Republican side of the aisle” and that “it’s time to start to debate about how to get American back on the rails and save ourselves economically and make Barack Obama a one-term president.” As he sees it, President Obama has “taken the country off the rails,” and Congress’s lagging approval ratings are not a problem. “You know I’m not worried about it, because I think that at the end of the day the fish rots at the head,” he said.

Ready for a trip down Memory Lane? Face the Nation held an interestingly anachronistic debate today on the Obama jobs program between former RNC chair Ed Gillespie and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, where the two quarreled over the optics of President Obama’s vacation and Congress’ obstinacy in passing a jobs bill. Host Norah O’Donnell led the discussion, wherein the two agreed the time for talk was over, but, predictably, differed on who exactly was doing the useless talking.

The fallout from Mike Huckabee‘s comments this past week, culminating with an ill-advised comment that, unlike the President, most Americans were not so familiar with madrassas is now spilling over into the rest of the Republican Party. It’s new chairman, Reince Priebus, is now being forced to answer for such comments and, upon being pushed into an answer by Wolf Blitzer, admitted he does not see a need for Huckabee to apologize, and washed his hands of the matter.

They may not agree on, well, anything, but Rachel Maddow and former RNC chairman Michael Steele are fast becoming a can’t-miss cable news duo. Steele made his second appearance on Rachel Maddow tonight to debate what Maddow considered ridiculous spending cuts and, more importantly, whether the “culture wars” have ended or are just beginning within the GOP. Steele, who has often been on the wrong side of this issue for conservatives, doesn’t quite think said wars are still ongoing.

Perhaps Jon Stewart‘s goodbye to puppet Michael Steele came a bit too soon, as the former RNC chair is already reportedly preparing to return to what he does best: good political TV. Steele, whose RNC tenure is marked by his quotable cable news performances, may be returning to cable news on the inside rather than out– the New York Post hints that two major cable news networks are courting the controversial former chairman.

Last night Jon Stewart mostly ignored the Golden Globes controversy, Piers Morgan and Sarah Palin and instead focused on last week’s election of Reince Priebus as the new chairman of the RNC. In hindsight, that was a sad day for many in the media, as Michael Steele run has been a font of terrific news stories, humor and, yes, the occasional gaffe. To mark his departure, The Daily Show had on his avatar, aka “Puppet Michael Steele” who gave a lovely farewell speech.

The Michael Steele era of the Republican Party is officially over. The embattled chairman, who was not expected to win reelection after a tenure marked by a regular stream of gaffes and calls for resignation, withdrew from the race yesterday, making way for his temperamental opposite, Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Preibus, to man the national ship.

On Monday of this week, C-Span broadcast a debate for RNC Chair candidates that featured much maligned current chair Michael Steele alongside four other contenders collectively fielding absurdly simplistic questions from moderators Tucker Carlson and Grover Norquist. Its a ridiculous tradition that felt at times like its chief function was to provide fodder for The Daily Show. Ladies and Gentlemen, Jon Stewart!

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has enjoyed a controversial tenure leading the RNC, and one which seems likely to be over very soon. Politico reports that Steele “faces an all-but-impossible path to reelection this month, as a majority of the RNC’s 168 members indicate that they will not support the controversial chairman for another term.”

Sean Hannity welcomed Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele onto his program tonight to talk about recent events in Congress, as well as take a look at his party’s future – and his own, in the wake of his controversial decision to seek re-election as RNC chair.

Whether anyone likes it or not, current Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is running for a second term. Steele, who earlier this week declared “my style is more grass-roots oriented, I’m much more of a street guy,” prompted Jon Stewart to take Steele to the only street where Stewart thinks Steele belongs: Sesame Street. What follows is a hilarious interview with Steele’s puppet explaining why he’s running for the position again, mainly because “that’s how we do it on the street, lunch meat, when a fight comes up, we bibble down!”

Politico is reporting that Michael Steele will be making a major announcement on Monday morning about whether or not he will run for re-election as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The national Tea Party Nation group is planning to send a letter to Sarah Palin asking the former governor of Alaska and John McCain sidekick to run for chair of the Republican National Committee.

Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips says in his letter to Palin that without her at the helm of the RNC, the party will fall back into “establishment” hands.

The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza is reporting that a memo sent to vendors on Tuesday says the Republican National Committee “is facing a ‘cashflow challenge’ and that many of those who provided political services to it during the 2010 election would not be paid this week as originally planned.”

RNC Chief Administrative Officer Boyd Rutherford is quoted as telling Derek Flowers, a member of the RNC’s political team by email “We will not be able to pay off the vendors this week.”

RNC Chairman Michael Steele‘s tenure has been one of the more controversial in recent memory, and a new AP report shows many RNC insiders are hoping his embattled reign is nearing its end. Interviewing 51 committee members, the AP found 39 were hoping Steele would not run for reelection in January, and even some of his closest allies feel this is the sunset of his time at the head of the Republican Party.

After tonight, a few politicians will have new jobs, while others will find themselves unemployed. But what about Michael Steele, whose position as RNC Chairman isn’t technically up for grabs this evening? That’s the question Neil Cavuto asked Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour today. Instead of giving a straight answer, Barbour instead told a story, one that highlighted the financial hardships his Party has endured under Steele. Cavuto’s highly analytic mind was able to read between the lines: “It seems to be your way of saying, ‘Maybe not Michael Steele.’ “

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin has influence. If you doubt this, look no further than former Bush adviser Ed Gillespie‘s appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation today. In responding to charges that he’s helping to “steal our democracy,” Gillespie resurrected the former Alaska governor’s most infamous malapropism, stating that several newspapers had “refudiated” the claim. Was it a mistake, or the start of a campaign to vindicate Palin by rewriting linguistic history? You be the judge. (h/t Think Progress)

The DNC has released a new attack ad that one might describe as being almost Rovian. The ad accuses Karl Rove and former RNC head Ed Gillespie (Rachel Maddow thinks he’s still running the RNC) of “stealing our democracy.”

Lawrence O’Donnell impressed to me last week how TV hosting was never part of his plan – he “parachuted” in, and “quite accidentally ended up on this side of the TV business.”

Maybe that’s what makes him the perfect person for the job, evidenced by his fantastic, emotional apology to Michael Steele last night.

It seems that the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party becomes more elusive every day. Some conservatives like Karl Rove and Ross Douthat seem to have trouble fitting the populist wing underneath their Big Tent. However, RNC Chairman Michael Steele sought to settle the score at a Las Vegas rally, saying that the GOP and the Tea Party are “locked hand in hand.”

It’s been a rough year for Michael Steele. In the past few months alone, the RNC chairman has taken on quite a bit of heat over everything from sojourns to bondage clubs to blaming President Obama for a war that started just about seven years before he entered office. Still though, little of this criticism has been as harsh and, more importantly, dismissive as the tongue lashing he received from chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Rollins on Face the Nation this weekend. Something tells me that Steele would rather have a dozen clips of Jon Stewart’s wacky puppet than one more of these.

Who needs SNL. The RNC, always a reliable source of distracting content online, has just posted this little gem inspired by the world’s favorite job-quitter Steven Slater.

This particular ad depicts the rush of Democrats up for election this November off Air Force One to get away from the poll sinker that is President Obama. You guessed it, they use an inflatable slide.