DC Trawler

Steele-y pimpin’

Font Size:

The headline’s all I got right now, folks. I don’t know how I can improve on this:

According to two knowledgeable sources, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel…

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

Read the whole thing. Just keep in mind that if you’ve got anything negative to say about this, you’re a racist.

Update: The RNC is pushing back:

An RNC spokesperson told POLITICO that the committee is “investigating the expenditure in question” and went on to question the reporting behind the story.

“The story willfully and erroneously suggests that the expenditure in question was one belonging to the chairman,” the spokesperson said. “This was a reimbursement made to a noncommittee staffer. The chairman was never at the location in question; he had no knowledge of the expenditure; nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable.”

Who’s the staffer? What’s going to happen to him (or her) for spending the RNC’s money that way? Just wonderin’.

Update: RNC says member will return $2,000 reimbursed for visit to bondage club

Update: And the naughty boy is:

The Republican who spent $1,946.25 on “meals” at a bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub — and expensed the charges to chairman Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee — is the owner of a marketing firm who recently worked for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in California, The Daily Caller has learned.

Erik Brown, who owns Dynamic Marketing Inc. and within the last year charged the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign more than $10,000 for campaign literature and mailings, was reimbursed by the RNC for the almost $2,000 in charges at Voyeur West Hollywood, according to FEC filings and online reports reviewed by The Daily Caller.

They must have thought he said “a Thai place,” not “a tied-up place.”

Update: Tucker Carlson responds to RNC complaints about DC’s Michael Steele article

Update: If you need more info on this, just go to the front page right now. Whew!

Jim Treacher