Michael Steele On GOP’s Nightmare Primary: Don’t Blame Me, Blame Mitt!

Benjy Sarlin

While top Republicans are tearing their hair out watching the Republican primaries slowly grind their way to a relatively small Super Tuesday, the RNC chair who designed this year’s calendar, Michael Steele, says the process is working exactly as planned. It’s the candidates who are the problem.

As TPM reported Tuesday, the longer GOP primary calendar is thanks in part to efforts by the RNC to extend the race and spread out its major contests over a longer period, efforts that critics like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie now call “the dumbest idea anyone ever had.”

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“It was designed exactly for that purpose, to properly vet all the candidates, but most importantly to give the base a chance to have their voices heard in states that aren’t Iowa and New Hampshire and the bigger states that play early,” Steele told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday. “So this is the process and I think I think it’s healthy, I think it’s exciting.”

But Steele acknowledged that the primary fight’s sharply negative turn in recent weeks was a legitimate issue, comparing Mitt Romney to Darth Vader for his willingness to destroy his opponents.

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