Yesterday, the organizers of the “tea party” movement revealed that they had rejected RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s request to speak at Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. “Steele hasn’t shown any interest in this movement until now, until the cameras are rolling. We denied his invitation. In addition, this is a nonpartisan event, not an RNC event,” said spokesperson Juliana Johnson. However, U.S. News’s Paul Bedard spoke to RNC officials yesterday, who denied the claims:
“He never asked to speak,” says a party official. “There was never an expectation nor formal request for our participation.”
I called the RNC, which said that Steele plans to be in Chicago for a party meeting and was just interested in getting info on the event and the attendees. “He’s in a daylong meeting anyway, so we weren’t ever going to be speaking,” said an official. “It was just a ‘Hey, we’re going to be in town’ call.”
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