It sure looks like it:
Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts, The Washington Times has learned...
Under nearly constant fire from conservatives since his Jan. 30 election, Mr. Steele last Wednesday accused the resolution's proponents of a power grab "scheme." It looked like an impasse, with a showdown - and a possible no-confidence vote in Mr. Steele - coming at a special meeting called for May 20.But closed-door negotiations between Mr. Steele and his representatives and Mr. Pullen and the dissident group reached an accord. It represents the first time in memory that rebel members of the Republican Party's national governing body have successfully taken on the party's historically powerful national chairman and his loyalists.
This comes on the heels of his losing a fight with RNC dissidents (which he was on the right side of) over whether to hold a vote on a truly witless resolution to begin calling Democrats the "Democrat Socialist Party." It's hard to see how this situation is going to be sustainable, as successful revolts tend to invite further revolution.
--Christopher Orr