RNC denies offering chairmanship to Steele

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The Republican National Committee this week said it never offered Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele "a specific role" at the committee after his unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Many conservatives were surprised this week when, after reports that some leading Republicans favored Mr. Steele to succeed Ken Mehlman as chairman of the RNC, the White House leaked word to news agencies that President Bush would back Florida Sen. Mel Martinez for the top post at the committee.

The Washington Times reported Nov. 10 that Mr. Mehlman would not seek a second two-year term as RNC chairman in January and that Mr. Steele had been offered a Cabinet or top RNC post in recognition of his hard-fought Senate campaign that ended in defeat on Nov. 7.

The Times on Wednesday asked the White House, the RNC and Mr. Steele whether, as the paper also had reported, anyone from the administration or RNC had told Mr. Steele or any of his aides that he was not a "team player" because he had talked to The Times about the jobs in question and that those jobs could be withheld in retaliation.

RNC spokeswoman Tracy Schmidt on Wednesday declined to respond to the questions.

But an RNC official who insisted on anonymity said, "Ken Mehlman is a big fan and believer in Michael Steele, but at no point did he approach him about the specific role of RNC chairman."

Mr. Steele told The Times on Wednesday that neither White House adviser Karl Rove nor Mr. Mehlman "offered me formally" any job.

"I got calls from various state party chairmen and national committee members to take the chairman's post on Thursday and Friday of last week," Mr. Steele said. "I told them, 'This is clearly a White House decision. We'll just have to wait to see what the White House decides.' This isn't something I actively pursued. It grew up out of the grass roots."

Mr. Steele said he was "surprised after the election when I ... saw this blog about me succeeding Ken Mehlman, that I was being considered for the job."

"I said, 'Wow, I didn't know that,' " Mr. Steele said.