• I just said I wasn’t comfortable with it. … I think it’s important to understand that Rand Paul has clarified his statement and reiterated his support for…pushing civil rights forward, as opposed to going backwards.
• Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele • Talking on “This Week” about Rand Paul, who has successfully made Steele into the second most likely person in the party to commit a major gaffe. Steele didn’t seem like he was very comfortable with broaching the subject. For his part, he did note that Paul’s view was a “philosophical position” due to his libertarian leanings, even as he questioned Paul’s approach. “Any attempt to look backwards is not in the best interest of our country certainly, and certainly not in the best interest of the party,” Steele said. Oh, and DNC counterpart Tim Kaine thinks it’ll make it easier for Paul’s competitor, Jack Conway, to win the seat. We’re disappointed it’s not Tim Conway. His golf videos are funny! source

• one Bickhart was behind a Powerpoint presentation that compared Harry Reid to Scooby Doo and promised a fundraising campaign driven by “fear” of Obama.
• two As a result of that Powerpoint, Bickhart’s compensation came under scrutiny. Dude got paid $370,000 over a nine month period – or more than the president.
• three Then there was the strip club scandal. That little piece of drama caught the media’s attention and made Bickhart’s performance look even worse. See ya! source

• You can’t please everyone, but you can certainly make them all mad at you at the same time. And that is a lesson well-learned. It is an opportunity as well.
• RNC Chairman Michael Steele • At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, attempting to apologize for the drama around the group he leads, including the insane spending the group is accused of doing. During the speech in a half-full hotel conference room, Steele didn’t appear ready to resign from his leadership spot, but did apologize and try to build future optimism. “Folks have been mad at us in the past,” he said, “and we have learned from that past and we are ready to move on to a bright future, as leaders, as Republicans, as conservatives.” source

• Let me be clear so that there is no misunderstanding. I don’t care if the $2,000 was spent in February at a strip club or a pizza parlor. This is a matter of principle. That $2,000 should have been used to promote our conservative ideals.
• New Hampshire Republican National Committee leader Sean Mahoney • Sending in his resignation in a way that stings. He’s not even the first member to quit the RNC since the scandal hit, but his both-middle-fingers-in-the-air approach is fun to watch. Michael Steele, by the way, will likely remain in his position at least until January when the next RNC election takes place. source

• When 71 percent of Republicans think you’re a liability for your party, and you’re in charge of raising money for the party, it might be time to consider a different career path. In other news, Steele brought his race into the debate, suggesting that while he had a slim margin of error, “Barack Obama has a slimmer margin than others.” source

• RNC Michael Steele, who got elected to the post last year, has made numerous errors, often grabs the spotlight, and is now the subject of questionable spending practices.
• DNC Kaine, the former Virginia governor appointed to the DNC by Obama, has been called “boring” in his leadership role, but dude runs a tight, scandal-free ship. source

• $17,514 amount RNC chair Michael Steele and his staff spent on chartering private jets in February alone
• $0 amount DNC chair Tim Kaine and his staff spent on chartering planes during the whole year so far source

• » Also, a shout-out: Kudos to The Daily Caller for your handling of this story, which includes far more tawdry, damaging facts than this one, although this is pretty damaging for the RNC. We like the way your journalism rolls.

• We’re gonna have the most popular games. There’ll be Guitar Hero. There’ll be Dance Revolution. There’ll be Call of Duty.
• Radio Host Kevin McCullough • Regarding some of the techniques CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, plans to use to draw a younger, hipper audience. Hip-hop will also be playing in the background, because that’s what the kids like. Last year at CPAC, Rush Limbaugh famously said that he hoped Obama failed, which was the first touch of resistance the then-made-of-Teflon president felt. To us, a video game room hosted by Michael Steele seems like a significant “we’re trying too hard” downgrade. source

• 17% of the budget will be affected by the cap

• » Subject to cuts: Reports say that the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Energy, Transportation, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services will be affected by the cuts. Guess what, kids? D.C.’s about to have a three-year recession.
• » Unaffected by cuts: Social Security and Medicare (he couldn’t touch those even if he wanted), and organizations affected by military, veterans, homeland security and international affairs. The cuts only take on discretionary spending.

A douchey comment by Michael Steel:

• Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest.
• Rep. John Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel • Regarding the budget cuts. Considering the year of controversial spending that the Obama administration has just had, we imagine any cuts in the nature of this would be welcomed by the right. Or maybe they’ll make jokes about pie contests. We’ll see. source

• Note: in an earlier version of this story, we mistook Michael Steel for RNC chair Michael Steele. We apologize. We’re sure he gets that a lot. At least we’re not alone in making this boneheaded mistake.Thanks to Joel McDonald for correcting us below. Much appreciated.
  

• 
  RNC VS. DNC: RAWR On “Fox News Sunday,” pretty much the only news show worth watching nowadays if you’re being sarcastic, DNC chair Tim Kaine and RNC chair Michael Steele took on the Harry Reid thing. And they both answered as you’d expect, really. Michael Steele comes off as a douche.
• 
  Painting: terminated When California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks, paintings fall down. Was it perhaps a result of the aftershock of speaking to the effervescent David Gregory, or maybe the Eureka quake last night? Either way, we’re freaking amused, just like David Gregory.
• 
  Bad point, bob A week ago, we were giving CBS’ “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer credit for making a pretty spot-on point about the political echo chamber. How does he follow up? Well, by talking about what we could learn from dogs. Uh, WHAT?@! This is an e-mail chain letter.