Steele, fresh off his defeat in the election for RNC chair last month, was feeling relaxed. (Even as revelations of mismangement during his tenure continue to emerge.)

TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro asked Steele, “who do you want to see out there at CPAC?” To which Steele replied, with a grin: “I have no one in particular.”

“I’m being a free agent,” he added.

Dave Weigel also has an amusing description of Steele’s meeting with Hawkins.

Watch the encounter (and apologies for the shaky video):

Skip straight to 2:00 in. You will not regret it.

This guy is Wisconsin Republican Party head Reince Priebus, who is apparently a front-runner for the chairmanship even though he was, according to the New York Times, “once part of Mr. Steele’s inner circle,” which means he was probably complicit in all the money-wasting and so forth.

The RNC is deep in debt and no one wants to donate to it anymore, which actually did not really hurt the Republicans in this last election, so maybe Michael Steele has a point. In a post-Citizens United world, why not have a laughingstock as the public face of the party while various secretive groups actually do the campaigning?

There are early vote tallies for the challengers floating around, but they are pretty meaningless, because the election will consist of several votes with secret ballots, and after the first couple it tends to be anyone’s game.

Other leading candidates include Michigan’s Saul Anuzis, who lost to Steele in 2009 and who is not as weird as Steele or Priebus, and two women — Ann Wagner and Maria Cino — who will probably receive some token support early on and then immediately fade from consideration.

Check back for exciting coverage of the election as it happens. It may be time to say goodbye to Michael Steele.

On Saturday night, Steele sent an email to committee members, inviting them to join him for a private conference call at 7:30 tonight:

“Dear Members, Please join me for a private conference call, Monday December 13th at 7:30pm (EST). For your personal conference code please RSPV to … Thank you, and I look forward to talking to you Monday evening. Michael.”

Several publications are reporting that Steele is expected to announce his decision not to run for re-election. Politico was among the first to report that Steele would probably bow out — yet the Politico story emphasized twice that Steele’s allies say he has not revealed his plans.

Two main signs point to a decision to step aside. First, Steele has not built the kind of campaign team needed to fend off tough challenges from a growing list of potential opponents. Second, the format of tonight’s call makes a re-election bid unlikely:

Three Steele critics who received the e-mail said they took the fanfare-free message as an indication that he is unlikely to mount a reelection bid.

The call will give Steele an extended platform to deliver a message to his committee. But if he were announcing a run, he would be more likely to build support by contacting members individually.

Last month, Steele presided over the biggest landslide victory in the House of Representatives in more than 60 years, as well as more modest gains in the Senate. But Steele has drawn criticism for uttering whatever thoughts happen to enter his head — including two major no-nos for a Republican: calling abortion an “individual choice” and attacking Rush Limbaugh’s show as “incendiary” and “ugly” — and for poor fundraising efforts that have seen the RNC consistently outraised by its Democratic counterpart. This March saw the “nail in the coffin” for Steele, according to a Tea Party leader, when The Daily Caller revealed that the RNC had dropped nearly $2,000 at high-end Hollywood bondage club.

Steele, the first African-American chairman of the RNC, will be succeeded by the winner of a RNC election whose front-runners include a man accused of race-baiting and defending a white nationalist, and a guy named Gentry. This ought to be fun.

With balloting set to take place in just two months, many just want Steele to go.

“You can’t keep spending the kind of money they’re spending every month just to operate the RNC,” said committee member Ada Fisher of North Carolina. “I would hope he would step aside.”

“The question is who should be hired for the next two years, It’s not a matter of firing anybody,” said James Bopp, a committee member from Indiana who holds great sway among social conservatives on the panel. “I just don’t think Steele has performed at the level we need for the presidential cycle.”

In interviews with 51 committee members, 39 said they preferred Steele not be on the ballot when they meet near Washington in mid-January to pick their leader.

For his part, Steele hasn’t said whether he will pursue the 85-vote majority needed for a second term. Already, members have been hearing from others interested in that quest.

Michigan committeeman Saul Anuzis has announced his candidacy. Former RNC strategist Gentry Collins, an operative who is warmly regarded among RNC members, has formed a committee to explore a chairman’s race. So, too, have Missouri chairwoman Ann Wagner and former Bush administration official Maria Cino.

A group of committee members, meanwhile, is courting Wisconsin GOP chairman and RNC lawyer Reince Priebus, who ran Steele’s 2009 bid for chairman but has not ruled out challenging him.

Connecticut chairman Chris Healy also is weighing a run. And several GOP governors have urged Republican Governors Association executive director Nick Ayers to seek the position, a suggestion he has been reluctant to embrace.

Steele, too, is talking to committee members, highlighting his role in the Republican landslide.

Voters punished Democrats from New Hampshire to California, giving Republicans at least 63 new seats in the House. Republicans picked up 10 governorships and added six Senate seats. The party also gained control of 19 state legislative chambers and now hold their highest level of state legislative seats since 1928.

“Now is not the time to trade in proven electoral success for unproven hope,” Idaho Republican chairman Norm Semanko told fellow RNC members. “Now is not the time to change leaders. And now is not the time to be distracted into internal strife and battles among one another for power and control of the GOP infrastructure.”

Looking ahead, the GOP focus is voting Obama out of office. To do that, Republicans need a coherent message, a strong party apparatus and a sizable account that Steele has seemed uninterested in building.

When Collins resigned from the national committee last week, he wrote a scathing letter questioning the ability of the RNC, under Steele, to lead the charge against the Democrats.

“Sadly, if left on its current path, the RNC will not be a productive force in the 2012 campaign to deny President Obama a second term, retain our House majority and elect a Senate majority,” he wrote to the party’s leadership.

The letter was a playbook for any of Steele’s potential rivals, noting that the chairman had maxed out a $15 million credit line the committee had approved.

“I think the Gentry Collins letter made it impossible for Mike Steele to be re-elected,” said Virginia committee member Morton Blackwell, who is backing Anuzis.

Steele started the job with a $23 million surplus; the RNC raised more than $79 million this year and has spent all of it. Some went to places that previously saw little RNC cash or interest, including five U.S. territories that each has three votes on the central committee.

“There are two things that a chairman needs to understand. They’re going to start with a deficit. That’s fact. They also will need to figure out how to get the major donors back on board because they weren’t on board last time,” said Linda Herren, a committee member from Georgia. “They still helped elect Republicans. But it was not through the RNC.”

Third-party groups, led by veteran GOP operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, raised in a few months almost as much as the RNC has since January 2009. Those dollars fueled blistering television ads that helped Republicans to victory but were an embarrassment to the RNC.

During Republican governors’ private meetings last week in California, a consensus emerged that Steele must leave his post when his term expires. Governors returned to their states and this week shared that message with their committee members, telling them that retaking the White House requires someone else.

Others say they still like the chairman — and his doting attention, his speedy replies — but believe it’s time for him to go.

“He’s a wonderful man. He’s done a good job,” said Cindy Costa, a committee member from South Carolina. “But it would be better for him — and I want the best for him — to step down knowing he gave an honest shot and did a good job this election cycle.”

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AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.

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Republican National Committee: http://www.gop.com