Changing of the Guard at RNC

Posted on Jan 15, 2011

AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

New Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus holds up an oversized gavel after his election to the post.

There’s a new sheriff in town for the Republican Party. Ousted Chairman Michael Steele has been replaced by Reince Priebus, former party chief in Wisconsin and a friend of the irascible tea party movement. —JCL

The New York Times:

For Reince Priebus, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, politics has long been more than simply a hobby. It provided the entertainment for the first date with his wife.

More than a decade ago, when Representatives Henry J. Hyde of Illinois and James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin were delivering keynote speeches at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Kenosha, Wis., Mr. Priebus reserved two tickets and turned the event into part of his courtship.

“I know. Nerd alert,” Mr. Priebus said in an interview a few hours after he was elected on Friday to lead the national Republican Party. His voice was filled with self-deprecation as he recalled the moment “But we went to a movie after that.”

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