Michael Steele comes out swinging at the guy who made him what he was–the former chair of the Republican National Committee.

Steele had appointed Priebus to a coveted job on the RNC: general counsel. Priebus later turned his back on Steele when he decided to make his own bid for the Chairmanship.

“I know exactly how Caesar felt,” Steele says, without a hint of irony. “It is what it is.” He claims that Priebus had been planning to defect for six, seven, eight months before announcing a bid for the chairmanship. Steele was blindsided. “I trust my friends. Well, I guess the adage is right. In Washington, you should get a dog… We put a lot of resources in Wisconsin over the last two years… that’s what you do for [the] team.”

Point taken, but it ignores the fairly large fact that but for Priebus, Steele never would have been RNC chair, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Priebus didn’t receive that counsel’s post as a gift, but as a kind of fee for services rendered.

But Steele is right when he resurrects the old maxim: If you want a friend in politics, get yourself a dog.