Isn't being elected to office actually mean you are working for the government?

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:

The latest from RNC Chair Michael Steele: "Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job."

This is such transparent nonsense it's hard to know where to start; but I guess it builds on the DeMint nonsense. Has Steele ever heard of government road building? Defense spending? NASA? We don't even need to get into the many ways that government spending on many things has spin-off effects in terms of heightened economic productivity either because of technological innovation or transportation efficiencies, or whatever. How we doing on the spending on research and initial deployment that created the Internet?

Really? Is that true, Mr. Steele? Then who paid your salary while you were holding elected office?

Michael Stephen Steele[2] (born October 19, 1958) is an American elected official and chairman of the Republican National Committee, and is the first African-American to hold the position. Prior to this, Steele served as chairman of GOPAC and worked as a partner at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf. He also served as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007.

Steele was the first African American to serve in a Maryland state-wide office and the first Republican lieutenant governor in the state. From 2003 to 2005, Steele and Lt. Gov. Jennette Bradley of Ohio were the highest-ranking elected African American Republicans in the United States. Steele held this distinction solo from 2005 to 2007 after Bradley resigned to become Ohio State Treasurer.

Being the RNC Chair must mean you have to check facts at the door...

Update 2/3: Bryan of Why Now? says it best:

I think the choice was based on the same misbegotten concept that led to Sarah Palin, a riff on what the Democrats are doing. They are stuck with believing that winning elections is all about marketing, rather than policies.

It worked so well before.. selling us the war, the erosion of the Bill of Rights, keeping us afraid, blustering about the right to life but supporting death, gutting the treasury while ranting about deregulation...

They don't realize we're on to them and their agenda. We've seen what the Republicans can do when given unchallenged power and we're sick of it.