Murphy win still getting national ink

That is, as it’s come to represent larger failures of the Republican Party and its national chairman, Michael Steele.
The conservative columnist Kathleen Parker invokes the special election in a piece in The Washington Post today called “GOP Disorder: Binge or Purge?”

Insiders feel that the GOP should have won the New York special election to replace Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the Democrat who succeeded Hillary Clinton in the Senate. And internal polling showed that the contest, lost by just 700 votes, was winnable. Although Steele directed some money to New York, his critics say that it wasn’t spent strategically enough to draw out soft Republicans — the GOP’s real target demographic.

Even the most empathetic judge perusing Steele’s record would be forced to wonder: What’s up with that?