Establishment GOP Leaders Afraid That Firing Steele Will Only Cause Them More Problems

US News & World Report's Washington Whispers blog:

"He's become our Howard Dean," says a top Republican leadership aide. Steele's latest remarks that the party won't take control of the House in the November midterm elections—a prediction he later backed away from—have revived talk of replacing him. But senior party officials say they plan something worse: just ignoring Steele. "It's going to be out of sight, out of mind," says one aide. And firing him won't work. "That would just expedite the talk show where he bashes us all the time," he says.