Page 1 of 2  Michael Steele: "I Wanted a Brokered Convention"
Before he was booted as GOP chair, Steele changed the party's
primary contest rules—and now Romney and the Republican
establishment are paying for his chaos-theory experiment.  | Mon
Mar. 12, 2012 6:00 AM EDT Michael Steele.  Is the never-ending
and ever-bitter 2012 Republican presidential race—which at this
point seems to be alienating independent voters—Michael Steele's
revenge?  In January 2011, Steele, the first African American
chair of the Republican National Committee, was unceremoniously
denied a second term by the party's governing council, after a
tumultuous two-year stint marked by the historic GOP takeover of
the House but also multiple gaffes (Steele called Afghanistan "a
war of Obama's choosing"), blunders (spending $2000 in party
funds at a West Hollywood bondage-themed nightclub), and charges
of profound financial mismanagement. But during his rocky tenure
at RNC HQ, Steele pushed for and won significant changes in the
rules for th