Eric Kleefeld January 21, 2011, 10:10 AM

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared last night on the Rachel Maddow show, offered a vociferous defense of his performance as chairman — and said how some people had opposed his style of managing the party from the very beginning.

In her introduction, Maddow discussed the immediate scheming that occurred against Steele, and how right-wing media outlets such as the Washington Times quickly began agitating for his ouster.

“I think you nailed it pretty well,” Steele said, “that, you know, from the very beginning, literally within the first 30 days of my being on the job, there were calls for my resignation. Now, I don’t know how one does — how you screw up so badly in 30 days on a job that they want to get rid of you when you don’t even know where the washrooms are.

“But clearly, there was — there was a distinctive style issue for me. I mean, I’m a very, you know, grassroots guy. I’m very oriented on being in the neighborhoods and communities,” Steele said. “My first venture out of Washington was to Harlem. And I remember a member asked me, why are you going to Harlem as RNC chairman? I said, because there are votes there. Let’s take our message to the people.”

Hmm…it wasn’t quite within the first 30 days, but there were some pretty fun gaffes that Steele committed just over a month into his tenure: His belittling of Rush Limbaugh and the subsequent apology. Not to mention his apparently pro-choice and pro-gay statements, from which Steele also quickly backed off.

The key moment occurs at about the 6:00 mark below:

Steele also defended his record on the financial front, pointing out that his $192 million raised far outpaced where the Democrats were four years earlier, when they were in the role of the party out of power during a midterm cycle. As for the party’s debts going into the 2012 cycle, he also contrasted his performance favorably with that of another past RNC chairman during an out-period: Haley Barbour, now the governor of Mississippi and a potential presidential candidate, whose nephew Henry Barbour backed Reince Priebus in the RNC chair race. That moment comes at about the 9:50 mark above.

“Well, in 1996, after we got the drubbing in 1996 at the end of Haley Barbour’s term as chairman, we entered the new — 1997 with $10 million of debt, which is equivalent to today. $10 million in debt, no wins under our belt, and no real way to raise those dollars,” said Steele.

“This is a very different situation, which is what I explain to people. When we went into these budget discussions I made it very clear, I don’t want to incur the debt. But the party wanted to make the leadership choice, and we did. And we were all in it together to win. That was the goal — to win. And we’re willing to put it on the table to do just that.”

When Maddow suggested that Steele thought he was misunderstood, he quickly corrected her on the point: “I don’t think I was misunderstood. I think people understood me very well. They just didn’t like it.”

And here is the second half of the interview, in which Steele talks about how he was kept away from media outlets he wanted to appear on, such as his old friend Bill Maher — and Maddow herself:

Haley Barbour, Michael Steele, RNC, Rachel Maddow