Potential Steele Replacements

Michael Steele will probably survive his bewildering comments on Afghanistan, but who will be the Republican National Committee's next chairman when all of Steele's enemies finally get a chance to vote on a successor?

Hotline OnCall's Reid Wilson, who knows internal RNC politics like Phil Jackson knows the triangle offense, has a rundown of Steele's potential replacements once his two-year term ends in January and the built-up vexations with his tenure are, most likely, expressed with his ouster in a heated race for the chairmanship.

Some of the candidates were runners up to Steele in the 2009 race for the chairmanship: Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis and South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson (a member of an all-white country club) ran serious campaigns but lost out to Steele. Others didn't run last time, such as RNC co-chair and Wyoming committeewoman Jan Larimer, Mississippi national committeeman Henry Barbour (brother of Gov. Haley Barbour), and North Dakota GOP Chairman Gary Emineth, who is stepping down from his post to mount a challenge to Steele. Sarah Palin, despite a report of rumors, is not a serious candidate for the job. Ex-Sen. Norm Coleman (MN) has been floated as a possibility, Wilson reports.

For more on each potential replacement, see Wilson's post at Hotline OnCall.