Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

While Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele has been on the receiving end of a non-stop stream of criticism, his organization took aim Wednesday at his Democratic counterpart, Tim Kaine.

“The DNC under Kaine has been a ‘disaster’,” a newly released RNC research brief states, invoking a statement former Democratic National Committee member Steven Ybarra recently made to the Los Angeles Times.

The brief goes on to claim that the DNC has also had difficulty outpacing RNC fundraising efforts, citing a release from the Federal Elections Committee that found the DNC had only raised only thousands more than the RNC by the end of 2009.

Kaine simultaneously served as both Governor and Democratic National Committee Chair for much of 2009, a year that brought his party election losses in Virginia and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races. After Kaine’s replacement as governor by Republican Bob McDonnell, Democrats suffered another defeat when the opposition party claimed the Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy.

The RNC’s brief comes shortly after Douglas Wilder, another former Virginia governor, published an opinion piece on politico.com claiming that the Kaine’s chairmanship position was “the wrong job for him.”

Still, the shot against Kaine from the RNC seems surprising. The inner-party troubles facing Kaine seem nearly paltry in comparison to those plaguing the RNC’s Steele. Congressional Republicans have moved to block the former Maryland Lt. Governor from policy decisions, and a conference call between the RNC and Capitol Hill staffers reportedly grew heated after Steele mused in an interview that Republicans were “not ready” to win back the House. In addition, other high-profile gaffes have become You Tube gold.

However, it may be too early to judge either chairman’s performance. Both parties have had only a handful of special elections by which to measure their committees’ effectiveness and the true standard-bearer for both organizations is still on the horizon: the 2010 midterm election.