WASHINGTON – Let’s stipulate for the record that Michael Steele has no buffer between his brain and his mouth. Or that he’s a few chads short of a legal ballot. Or that some Republicans are out to get him so they surreptitiously film his private meetings in hopes of documenting a stupid remark.

You might say: Who’s Michael Steele and why would anyone in the GOP want to see him stumble?

And you’d be right on.

Steele is the chairman of the Republican National Committee, and he’s been a regular headline machine in the political press for a series of stupid remarks and stupider decisions. Most recently it was coaching GOP congressional candidates that Afghanistan was “a war of Obama’s choosing.”

Yep, the chairman of the GOP forgot it was the previous president who began the war in Afghanistan – with the strong support of Republicans in Congress. At a supposedly private meeting with congressional candidates, he not only implied President Obama initiated the war – as a choice, like it was between a bacon cheeseburger or a plain cheeseburger! – but Steele also said invaders can’t win a war in Afghanistan because of the terrain. These comments became public right at the most flag-waving day in America.

Steele may oppose the war – a legitimate position for anyone of either party – but his characterization of it was both inaccurate and an attempt to politicize it. Bad chili.

(The full remarks, caught on a hand-held camera, were: “Keep in mind, again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in. If he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that.”)

This blunder follows on his organization’s reimbursement of a $1,900 tab at a bondage-themed club for RNC staffers; Steele’s national travel to promote a book he wrote; and his decision to hold the organization’s winter meeting in Hawaii during a major recession. All provoked criticism from Republicans who wondered about Steele’s judgment, and they complain that the RNC hasn’t raised as much money as you’d expect in a year when the Democratic president is battling hum-drum popularity ratings.

Democrats, as you can imagine, see Steele as a wondrous gift in an otherwise bleak year.

But just how much damage can the chairman of the Republican Party do to GOP congressional or gubernatorial candidates?

I suggest not much because 1) few voters know who Steele is, let alone care what he says or does and 2) even if they do, why in the world would they blame the local Republican congressional candidate for idiocy at the national party headquarters?

Democrats should be wary of trying to bring Steele into the upcoming races. Plenty of Republicans have already given Steele a public thrashing, making it clear he’s not speaking for GOP candidates when he tried to politicize the war.

The GOP will no doubt pick up a significant number of congressional seats in November, and that should ensure Steele’s job through the 2012 presidential elections. But it won’t. He’ll be booted out in favor of someone who is stronger on fundraising, has less of an inclination toward foot-in-mouth disease and is a better executive in running a large organization.

Steele will go on to punditry (he really can be charming and well-spoken) or some other advancement. One thing that won’t happen – and we have Obama’s election to credit for this – is accusations of racism.

Women used to say we’d know we had reached parity in U.S. society when we could do just as good a job as a man (not twice as good) and receive the same credit and when we could mess up just as much as men without having our gender blamed.

The fact that no one said Steele was being treated unfairly because he’s black is, I think, a good sign. He screwed up. Folks (including Steele himself) said so. His mistakes are because he’s a mismatch for the position, not because he is black. And the blowback he’s getting is because of those mistakes, not racism on the part of the critics.

That’s progress.