Oh, this is happening faster than I thought.

We have a sort of running joke at my place of employment– whenever we hear a CEO come out publicly and insist that his company’s stock dividend is completely safe, we start the countdown clock to the company’s dividend cut/cessation. It’s pretty much inevitable. Citi, Bank of America, GE… The dividend is generally toast within the next couple of months, although occasionally the CEO will be insisting things are all good right up until a few weeks before the shit goes down.

With that in mind, here’s RNC Chair Michael Steele, who was guest-hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show this week, responding to a caller:

STEELE: It’s been a good week, it’s been an instructive week. That’s really what I take away from a week like this. … The instruction is particularly for republicans is that you need to stay focused, other wise you get scapegoated. […]

CALLER: I hope that Paul Begala and Emanuel and Carville don’t convince you to resign your position.

STEELE: Aww, trust me. Not me Baby! Nuh-uh. Not happening. No way, no how!

Yeah, I know, what else is he gonna say? But I am a keen observer of the human condition, and I can smell a drop of desperation in a pool of false confidence…

Not enough for you? Here’s The Huffington Post:

A Republican strategist familiar with how the RNC has restructured itself under Steele described a staff distraught and upset with personnel decisions and under-staffed in key areas.

“There was a firing of tons of staff,” said the strategist. “The way the firing was done, more specifically, was problematic. There were a lot of people pissed about them being let go. … The RNC is currently functioning without research staff. The RNC fired all the communications staff then went and told about five or six who were deemed “indispensable,” that they weren’t really fired and that they should stay on for another month but not tell their soon-to-be-former colleagues.”

“Steele kowtowing to [Limbaugh] totally sucks,” the strategist added. “But I also think there’s some really bad decision-making that has gone on in terms of organization.”

And even better– Steele’s blog has been taken down and now simply redirects to gop.com after days of Steele getting blasted by conservative commenters (see here for a few screenshots of said blasting).

But I’m sure Steele’s dividend is safe. Buy! Buy! Buy!