Michael Steele is really showing just how much he resents the challenges to his financial authority from his internal RNC critics. Appearing on Fox News today, Steele seemed to threaten to resign if their proposed rules to curtail his financial control go through:

"Well, they can contemplate all they want to," he said. "But the reality of it is, if you want a figurehead chairman, you can have a figurehead chairman, but it won't be Michael Steele."

Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports that Steele has paid his hired staffers -- his own people that he brought in -- rather handsomely, with his personal assistant even making three times as much as her predecessor made under RNC chairman Mike Duncan.

Said the Hawaii GOP chairman: "These salaries we hear about are way out of line for what staff should be paid for working for a political party, which most of us think of as a cause."