Steele Must Stop Trying to Be Shadow President

The headlines about the Republican National Committee's embarrassing week will fade, but the party has a bigger problem, warns Kimberley Strassel. "Michael Steele has yet to figure out his role." The RNC chief is acting like a glitzy "shadow president" instead of doing what a party chief must: focus on the boring, nuts-and-bolts machinery of party fundraising.

"That confusion could mean the difference between a decent GOP midterm victory and a big one," she writes in the Wall Street Journal. The flap over luxury spending is troubling "not just because it is burning up vital money, but because it threatens the RNC's ability to capitalize on donors in the crucial months ahead." It's not too late for Steele to wake up. Otherwise, Republicans are going to blow their big chance. (More Michael Steele stories.)