Priebus fires back at attempt to rein in Steele

RNC Chair Michael Steele is in the middle of a power play with some party members over the party's finances.

And state GOP Chair Reince Priebus is right in the middle of it.

RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen, backed by other party members, has proposed a resolution that would place new limits on Steele's ability to spend party money. They include requiring Steele to submit expenses of more than $100,000 to the executive committee and requiring the hire of a chief financial officer who reports to the executive committee.

Priebus, who led Steele's campaign for RNC chair and oversaw his transition, ripped the proposal in an e-mail to RNC members.

He writes that a quick scan of the proposal and its calls for "good governance" and "transparency" seem innocent enough. But a closer look tells a different story.

"This resolution is an attempt to usurp the Chairman's authority in a completely unprecedented and historic manner," Priebus writes, bolding the line in the e-mail.

Steele won a spirited campaign for RNC chair and has had some rough spots in the early going of his tenure.

Priebus dismissed the proposal as a continuation of "RNC election antics that really have to stop." He wrote after a "sometimes difficult" start, the RNC is beginning to "function quite well." But this "kind of divisiveness and diversion is the lat thing our party needs."

"I urge you to reject this hostile attempt to embarrass and neuter the Chairman of the RNC, and I urge these gentlemen to stop playing political games and begin thinking about what they can do to help our party move forward as we face the elections of 2009 and 2010," Priebus writes.

-- By JR Ross