Party activists are sometimes worse than SEC fan bases. If you don’t produce immediately, you’re a bum, not worthy for consideration. Just check out the two dozen for sale signs in your front yard. Bum.

For the Democrats, it happened with Howard Dean. A good portion of the party thought, “What the hell are those bastard national committeemen/women thinking electing the screaming freakshow from Vermont to head our party? And a 50-state strategy? Yeah, like a Democrat will so win North Carolina, Virginia or Indiana any time soon.”

Egg, meet face.

A combination of good strategy and continual fuck-ups by the Bush administration led to a Democratic takeover of Congress (and the first female speaker) and a presidential win (and the first black president). Consider Dean the Pete Carroll of national committee hires.

So, it was with typical skepticism that we watched the GOP base collectively lose its shit almost immediately after Michael Steele was elected chairman. Hey, give the man a shot, we said. After all, the last guys lost Congress and the presidency — nowhere to go but up, from here.

OK, so he didn’t do so well out of the gate, screwing up one statement or another, saying something, taking it back, trying to split the difference and so on. But, surely everyone remembers Dean’s brilliance on “Hardball” in 2005 when he famously uttered, “Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in the this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can’t play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it’s called.” Certainly, it’s doubtful Bush wanted to play hide the salami with Harriet Miers.

This all brings us to today, in which the RNC chose not to concentrate on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, or the Democrats’ energy plan, or the Guantanamo/torture fiasco, but the Obamas’ plans for Saturday evening. Really.

RNC tweets

• follow as mark knoller tweets the Obama’s all expense paid evening in NYC courtesy the U.S. taxpayers.#RNC
• Some suggestions closer to home: Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” at the Folger Elizabethan Theatre; Valerie Harper in “Looped” at Lincoln Theatre”Rent,” at the Warner Theatre; Noel Coward’s “Design for Living” at the Shakespeare Theatre Company
• Other DC suggestions for the Obamas-”Rent,” is at Warner Theatre, Noel Coward’s “Design for Living” at Shakespeare Theatre Company #RNC
• If anyone else cares to suggest a more economical way the first couple could spend their evening…#RNC

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the most pressing concern Saturday was that the President and First Lady were going to New York City for dinner and a show. Never mind the fact that Bush got out of DC whenever possible, though this may just be payback for Democrats harping on the former president’s frequent vacations.

But seriously, if this is the best that Steele and his people can come up with, then maybe it is time to go to the bullpen.

The word among people in the know is that Karen Floyd, the presumptive next chairman of the S.C. Republican Party, has already selected her chief lieutenant.

Ryan Meerstein, who South Carolinians might remember as the state director of the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign, has been in Spartanburg helping Floyd recently and is widely assumed to be the SCGOP’s next executive director. Last year, he worked three other places in addition to the Giuliani campaign, including being the Ohio state director for the McCain-Palin ticket, but was suffering the post-cycle unemployment blues before Floyd brought him in.

According to those wonderful kids at George Washington University, Meerstein worked with the RNC on Sen. Bob Corker’s campaign in 2006 and was an RNC field director in Ohio in 2004, after graduating from Allegheny College in 2003.

He was also the star player on his high school basketball team. Playing ball for Allegheny, he started all 28 games his senior year, shooting 48.3 percent from the floor and averaging 14 points a game.

That is about what you would expect. But, in the fall of 2008 he was implicated by liberal groups in Ohio, along with other McCain campaign staffers, of voter fraud.

The Franklin County Board of Elections is probing the complaint of a liberal group is calling for an investigation of operatives for Republican John McCain who’ve registered to vote in Ohio, and in some cases have actually cast a ballot, with no intention of remaining in the state.

Deputy Elections Director Matthew Damschroder told The Dispatch that if the matter merits further investigation, the case “will be forwarded to the prosecutor immediately.”

ProgressOhio.org says the activity is the mirror image of Democratic activity that is the subject of an ongoing probe by Franklin County Proseuctor Ron O’Brien.

ProgressOhio called on the Franklin County Board of Elections to refer the new material to the Franklin County prosecutor.

One example cited by ProgressOhio involves Ryan Meerstein is currently the state director for McCain’s campaign in Ohio. The group says that online biographies indicate he has worked for political campaigns or parties in four different states during the past two years, attended college in a fifth state, and his given hometown is in a sixth state.

The Franklin County Board of Elections reports receiving his completed absentee ballot last Tuesday, even though he current is registered to vote in South Carolina, ProgressOhio says.

Others in much the same situation include McCain’s top Ohio spokesman, Paul Lindsay, and Jason Levine, brought into Ohio to help the state Republican Party.

Needless to say, this does not make a brilliant start for Floyd’s chairmanship.

Wonkette, the nation’s premier political satire source on the Internet, has stumbled upon the crazy-as-a-sack-of-weasels atmosphere of S.C. politics before, but today the Palmetto State struck twice.

Mark Sanford Is Queen Of Welfare Queens

Southern Slave Owner Plotting Hit On Michael Steele

In all due respect to Chairman Dawson, painting the scene in 2002 as some sort of low-water mark for S.C. Republicans is absurd. Yes, Dick Harpootlian was a badass as chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party. Yes, the SCGOP had a large debt. But, really, even spin has its limits. And, while you may not think so, the preceding is actually an objective view of the matter. As someone who saw the whole blood and guts up close, the Democrats got damn lucky in 1998. As I have said before, they practically Forrest Gump-ed their way into control of state government. It was obvious it was not going to last, no matter who was in control of either state party.

After the departure of former Mike Huckabee campaign director Chip Saltsman, and after some significant horsetrading on the floor of the Capital Hilton, Michael Steele became the new chairman of the Republican National Committee today.

The vote, 91 out of 168 ballots, came on the sixth round of voting. SCGOP chairman Katon Dawson made it to the final round, but went into the sixth ballot trailing by 10 votes and could not make up the difference.

RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, after seeing his support slip, was the first to pull out of the race, followed by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis, who was in the lower level of voting on each ballot, pulled out after the fifth round.

The first two rounds of voting were basically similar, with Steele performing better than some observers believed. The GOPAC director and former Maryland lieutenant governor had been under pressure in the past few weeks because of the perception among some in the party that he was too moderate. Duncan held his own, garnering 52 votes and first place in the first round, and tying with Steele at 48 in the second round.

While the third ballot was cast and counted, Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox tweeted from the event that the rumor was Duncan would lose his support in the third round, though that conventional wisdom was countered by a GOP insider. Republican Internet strategist and blogger Patrick Ruffini, a little after 1 p.m., tweeted that the race was effectively down from five men to three.

Indeed, Duncan did remain in, but he lost four more votes and Steele jumped into first place with 51. Dawson picked up five, but remained in third behind Duncan. Anuzis, holding tight at 24 votes, became the topic of speculation as The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder tweeted that the Michigan GOP chairman could make a deal with Steele. Cox, though, tweeted that such a move wouldn’t happen because it made too much sense. Again, she relayed a remark made at the event that Duncan was done.

Before the fourth ballot, Duncan stepped up to the podium and withdrew his name from consideration. With Steele and Dawson about halfway to the Promised Land, and Steele with a 17-vote lead, Duncan’s 44 votes were set up to be a potential game-changer. As the votes were being cast, the race largely came down to Steele and Dawson, with Anuzis and Blackwell bringing up the rear.

Dawson was the big winner after the fourth round, gaining 28 votes and leaping past Steele, holding a 62-60 advantage. S.C. politcal consultant and staffer to Rep. Gresham Barrett, B.J. Boling, tweeted that Duncan would be voting for Dawson. Cox surmised that if Blackwell dropped out, which looked increasingly possible after not picking up any votes, his social conservative backers would go to Dawson and effectively decide the race.

“Anuzis [who holds 31 votes] can stop the all-white country club guy from winning if he really wants to,” Cox tweeted. “Not that I’m encouraging him.”

As of the 3 p.m. reconvening of the meeting, Blackwell stepped out of the race. Blackwell tossed his support to Steele, influenced, he said, by the Good Book. If Steele pulled his total number of votes, then he would be sitting pretty at 75, just 10 shy of the winning total. Boling did not believe it would make a difference, and that followers of Blackwell would still move into the Dawson camp.

The move to Dawson didn’t happen, but the move to Steele did. He pulled 19 more votes on the fifth ballot, pulling within just six votes of taking the chairmanship. Dawson came in second with 69, and Anuzis, pulling just 20, went in front of the committee shortly after the vote to drop out of the race. He did not publicly pick either Steele or Dawson, which leaves the door open for his supporters. But, Dawson still needed 16 of the 20 to win on the sixth round of voting.

Cox tweeted that Anuzis told RNC members that he was never interested in making a deal for the chairmanship, but that it was unlikely that his supporters would back Dawson in the final vote. S.C. consultant Wesley Donehue was of the same mind, tweeting that there was “No doubt at all that Anuzis voters will go to Steele.”

And, they did, with Steele picking up 12 of the Anuzis backers.

Enjoying significant support among his native South Carolinians, Dawson was rumored as far back as fall 2007 to be running for RNC chair, but only officially kicked off his effort in late summer of last year.

Recently-elected RNC committeeman Glenn McCall put Dawson’s name in nomination, saying, “The Lord has put great mentors into my life, and Katon is no exception. I know his heart — he’s a great man, and he has turned our party around with a lot of hard work. I feel that the things we need from a chairman, that inspire voters…we can raise funds, but if we don’t have inspired voters, it’s all for naught. Katon has done those things, so the things that we need in a new chairman of the party, someone that can inspire voters, someone that can rebuild the grassroots operation — like Katon has done in South Carolina — someone that can work very hard, which you do every day, to protect our Republican brand, hold our elected officials accountable, and he does that with a very simple statement at how he’s brought coalitions together in South Carolina. Some of you may think that its really easy, because it’s South Carolina, but it’s not. We have coalitions in every state, all across the country. In South Carolina, Katon has been able to bring those coalitions together….”

McCall continued, “If you look at his record, and that’s what it is all about, we’re not like the Democrats, we’re about experience and accomplishments, and that’s what we need in our next chairman. Out of all the candidates, great candidates, he’s the only one that has the experience to actually, and the accomplishments — proven accomplishments, to move our party forward.”

As the vote drew closer, Dawson was under increasing heat for not only his 12-year membership in the all-white, elite Forest Lake Country Club, but also his comments at a West Forum event at USC in 2003 in which he said he was inspired to get involved in politics because of the desegregation of A.C. Flora High School. Additionally, some were pointing to his participation with the Camellia Ball, one of a number of exclusive, and usually all-white, debutante balls in the Columbia area.

Dawson counted on the support of black RNC members like McCall and N.C. committeewoman Ada Fisher to blunt the accusation that he was racially insensitive. However, it did not stop Democrats, and Republicans supporting other candidates, from spreading these stories across the Internet.

In the coming days, it will be determined whether having to defend his background harmed Dawson enough to where he could not take the win.

While it may seem like SCGOP chairman Katon Dawson has most of the Palmetto State’s Republicans in his camp, one man has gone to work for the opposition.

Jim Dyke, a political communications consultant from Charleston, is serving as former Maryland Lt. Gov. (and GOPAC chairman) Michael Steele’s spokesman for his campaign for RNC chair. Dyke has a long history in Republican politics, recently serving as Rudy Giuliani’s senior communications adviser, and a communications adviser to former Sen. Bill Frist and to former President George W. Bush during, putting it mildly, the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination debacle.

The native Arkansan is also helping put together U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett’s anticipated 2010 run for governor.

Could that mean possible problems between the consultant, or Barrett, and the Dawson team? Doesn’t look that way.

“Michael Steele is fortunate to have someone like Jim Dyke in his corner,” state Republican Party spokesman Rob Godfrey said. “The great thing about this race is that Katon, Michael Steele and Jim Dyke share a common goal — rebuilding the Republican Party. Regardless of the outcome of Friday’s vote, they will continue to share this goal and hopefully work together toward achieving it.”