Michael Steele: RNC’s Wisconsin response ‘wimpish’ and ‘late’

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele ripped his old committee for not responding strongly or quickly enough to the fight over Wisconsin’s controversial budget plan.

During an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday night, Steele said that newly elected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) could have greatly benefited from a more robust response from the national party.

{mosads}Asked if he would have “hitched” the RNC’s image to the Wisconsin fight like current Chairman Reince Priebus has, Steele said that he would have done it differently.

“I would have but not the way they did. I think, in fact, that they were woefully late to the game,” he said. “I mean, coming out with a TV commercial that was rather wimpish in its own right — you know, three, four, five weeks after the fact, I think, undermined the effort there.”

Steele has kept a relatively low profile since he lost to Priebus in January. His comments Tuesday are some of the toughest he’s had for his successor, who happens to be the former chairman of the Wisconsin GOP. 

Steele’s run as RNC chairman was marked by controversy: Priebus said last month he entered the chairmanship with the committee $23 million in debt.

The RNC did not immediately respond for comment.

The party released statements and research briefings from the beginning of the fight, which began in mid-February. It released its television ad on March 2 titled “Obama’s Union Bosses,” accusing the president of being in bed with unions that are blocking progress and “intimidating taxpayers.”

Since the protests began, national liberal groups such as organized labor have targeted Walker and state Republican lawmakers over their controversial budget-fix plan, which includes curbs on public employees’ collective bargaining rights. President Obama even called the plan an “assault” on unions.

Steele said the RNC would have been more effective by imitating the Democratic National Committee, which helped mobilize protesters in the early days of the demonstrations. That move, however, reportedly earned the scorn of the White House, which put a stop to the organizing activities.

Walker has seen his approval ratings slide since the beginning of the budget fight.

“I think something as big as this, where you have the DNC and White House mobilizing unions and activists from around the country — in a way that galvanizes this debate. To define this debate early on to me was an opening that was missed,” he said. “And I think now the governor finds himself in the untenable situation of having to deal with a lot of extra noise.”