Republican chairman feeling the heat from GOP

The camera pans across a bucolic river and a sunny cornfield, an American flag flapping in the breeze, as narrator Michael Steele extols the freedom to dream and achieve. Then, with the Statue of Liberty sweeping into the shot, comes a dire warning that freedom is fragile: Democrats, he says, are "experimenting with America." The camera zooms in on a bespectacled Steele, who asks viewers for donations.

The television ad, which aired in selected markets last month, is vintage Steele - affable, charismatic and seizing the spotlight. But the ad's star is not running for anything. He's the chairman of the Republican National Committee, with a mandate to promote his party rather than himself.

No longer in the background

Steele has put a public face on what had been largely a behind-the-scenes job, hoping to foster what he has called a "hip-hop" Republican renaissance.

That high profile has been accompanied by a record of lavish spending and a string of gaffes, leading some party activists to complain that Steele revels in the perks of the office while neglecting to work to reclaim majorities in the House and Senate. This narrative grew more damaging last week with the disclosure that RNC staffers approved a $1,900 bill at a Hollywood nightclub that features topless dancers.

Still there have been no calls for Steele's ouster, and some top Republicans have calculated that there is no upside in forcing out the first black chairman of a party largely dominated by white Southerners - especially not while the GOP is winning under his watch.

Yet some prominent party leaders, including three former RNC chairmen, are sidestepping his operation with independent efforts to help Republicans win in the critical November midterm elections.

And they are raising millions of dollars from the party's biggest donors, some of whom have stopped giving to the RNC amid the furor over Steele's leadership.

Mark DeMoss, who joined the ranks of big RNC donors after giving $15,000 in 2008, said he would not contribute to the RNC this year because he was offended by an internal fundraising strategy that surfaced last month featuring a caricature of President Barack Obama as the Joker and linking Democratic leaders with socialism.

"I am ashamed," DeMoss said of the PowerPoint presentation. "It's representative of a growing mind-set within Republican circles, and I don't want to associate with that."

Facing the wrath of the GOP

By last fall, Steele's relationship with congressional leaders had soured so much that they lashed out at him in a private meeting for outlining a policy agenda on health care. According to Republican aides present, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) forcefully told him: "Quit trying to set policy. Your job is to build the party."

The typical party chairman, particularly when his party is out of power, focuses on building an effective infrastructure and raising money to help candidates. Unlike his immediate predecessors, Steele does not spend hours poring over the latest polls, recruiting Republicans to run for office or calling major donors for money, his associates said.

Steele is not on the ballot, but his fate could be determined at the polls. His two-year term ends in January, and he has not said whether he would seek a second term.