Michael Steele's Mucky Elephant

Embattled RNC chair Michael Steele is on the press circuit again. In a new interview with the New York Times, Steele acknowledges his detractors—"You can say 'He's crazy, he's running off at the mouth,' or you can say, 'It kind of makes sense, and I get it'"—and then tosses them a few more mixed metaphors, including one where he says his party is self-defeating and stuck. Describing his job as RNC chair, Steele said, "I'm trying to move an elephant that's become mired in its own muck." Since becoming chairman, Steele has made himself a gaffe-flinging sideshow, including his promise of a "hip-hop makeover" to make the GOP appeal to minorities and "one-armed midgets" alike. Recently he insulted and apologized, in rapid succession, to Rush Limbaugh (who continues to ridicule Steele in his radio show). NYT's profile is as much a mixed bag as Steele may be to the Republican party: "He has often been a victim of his own impetuousness," the profile says, noting Steele's habit of "pausing whenever [his own image] appeared on the giant television close by his desk." Steele says he would like to go on the Colbert Report and compares himself to a roller coaster: "Be prepared; you have no idea. Just buckle up and get ready to go."