Get On the Priebus

Reince Priebus, a name unfamiliar to average Americans and to spell checkers, was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, making him the de facto leader of the Republican party. As Michele Bachmann would say in reference to Priebus, he da man! He replaces Michael Steele, who was da man until da probs got da better of him. And, having proven myself to be as inept with the contemporary urban vernacular as Bachmann is, I'll cut it out there.

Steele hoped to retain his job by citing the victories the Republicans won in the 2009 and 2010 elections under his watch, but with mismanagement and a $22 million debt, plus some reports on RNC staffers in engaging in some unsavory activities, he sounded like members of the widely discredited United States Olympic Committee trying to take credit for successes at last year's Winter Games. (The Tea Party helped the Republicans win. Steele had little to do with any of that.) Priebus, the recent chairman of the Wisconsin state Republican party, is regarded as a man who can walk and chew gum at the same time - that is, he is a competent manager who knows how to win elections. Certainly the Grand Old Blowout in Wisconsin, where the Republicans won everything this past November, proves that. With control of the U.S. Senate and a presidential election coming up in 2012, the Democrats have a worthy opponent in Reince Preibus.

And Reince Priebus has a worthy ally in campaign donors, freed from those pesky rules and regulations by a reactionary Supreme Court.