GOP leaders fretting over Steele's gaffes

WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) -- Senior U.S. Republicans are worried the party has made a mistake in naming Michael Steele the Republican National Committee chairman, sources say.

Steele, the party's first African-American chairman, doesn't have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director and has made public relations gaffes that are turning him into a punch line, the Washington publication Politico reported Wednesday.

"There's frustration that there's no discipline, no planning," an unnamed Republican consultant told Politico. "He's risking being overexposed by accepting every interview, which makes gaffes more likely."

Steele has become late-night television comedic fodder for sending out "slum love" to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, calling civil unions "crazy" and promising "urban-suburban hip-hop settings" for public relations campaigns, the publication said.

Steele told Politico his GOP critics are "nervous Nellies," adding, "If I told folks what I really thought, I'd probably be in a lot more trouble. I think that's what I bring to this job, as a voice of the party: I think it's important to have that kind of newness and rawness to it that grabs folks' attention and hopefully … take a look at what we're doing."