Ronald Kessler didn’t give Michael Steele a fawning profile when he became Republican National Committee chairman in 2009 — all he got was a mostly straightforward story on his plans. Kessler eventually turned on Steele, claiming that he “seemed to go out of his way to thumb his nose at fellow Republicans.”
But there’s a new RNC chairman now, and Reince Priebus is getting the full Kessler fluff treatment, right down to the banal personal details:
A lawyer from Wisconsin who ran the state Republican party, Priebus, 39, served as general counsel of the RNC under Steele. Priebus’ first name Reince rhymes with pints, as in pints of his favorite beer, Miller High Life from Wisconsin. In his office at just 6 p.m., Priebus offers me a cold Miller but does not seem offended when I go for a Heineken instead.
“I’ve got a bizarre name, but I’m about as normal as they come,” Priebus says. “I always tell people it’s what happens when you have a Greek and a German who get married. It’s a bit of a disaster.”
Priebus graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1994 and from the University of Miami School of Law in 1998. He met his wife, Sally, at a high school youth group; their first date was a Lincoln Day conservative dinner.
“We did go to a movie afterward,” Priebus says, “so it was a legitimate date.”
They married in 1998 and have two children, Grace, 1, and Jack, 6.
Priebus likes to fish and golf. He owns three shotguns, a rifle, and a handgun. He has enjoyed an occasional moose steak.
So Kessler is too good for American beer? Must be all that hanging around with Donald Trump.
Kessler also gets in some parting potshots at Steele, citing anonymous “RNC officials” as claiming that “Steele rarely got on the phone to raise money.”