Well, it sure as hell seems that it hasn't been the best of weeks for the national Grand Old Party or its little sister, the Michigan GOP, far adrift in the Midwest. 

Oddly enough, they both have one thing in common: Ronna McDaniel is now the chair of the national GOP; she was chair of the Michigan GOP back in 2016, when Michigan went to Donald Trump by 11,000 votes.

Oh, how times have changed.

As my colleague Teri Christoph covered here earlier on Friday, Ronna is probably missing her days as head of the MI-GOP.

CONFIRMED: The RNC Refused to Spend Money in VA, McDaniel Refuses to Accept Responsibility

As we do a forensic analysis of what went wrong in Virginia this election cycle -- and there's plenty of blame to go around -- one fact that can't be ignored is that the Republican National Committee denied the Republican Party of Virginia's request for money.

This isn't up for debate. News of the RNC's refusal to provide financial assistance surfaced well before the election, with RPV officials meeting with Ronna McDaniel's staff at the RNC to request a match for how much the Democrat National Committee was committing to their state party. That match would have added a cool $1M to the RPV's war chest. 

This meeting took place over the summer, and the RPV's request was turned down flat by the RNC. Not only would they not be getting that $1 million match, they wouldn't be getting any money at all.

As some of you might recall from my previous writing here, I have been highly critical of the new direction of the Michigan GOP, which seems to want to mimic the Titanic running into an iceberg after getting iceberg warnings. I would have loved to use an Edmund Fitzgerald reference here, being it is the 48th anniversary of her sinking Friday -- but that was a freak accident. The people who sank the Titanic did it in pure negligence; that is also the case with Chair Kristina Karamo and the Michigan GOP.

As I wrote here recently, about the direction of the party.

With Just Over 30k in the Bank, the Funeral March Has Begun for the Michigan GOP

From an article, I read today that should seal the deal for Karamo to take her own advice and pound sand.

A listing of Michigan Republican Party account balances from West Michigan Community Bank showed $35,051 across seven accounts, with expenses for many of the scheduled speakers at the Sept. 22-24 conference on Mackinac Island not yet paid, including author Dinesh D'Souza and unsuccessful former Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake.

At this point, 13 months before a presidential election, the Michigan Republican Party should have about $10 million in its accounts, said Tom Leonard, a former Michigan House speaker and former finance chairman for the state GOP.

The party had less than 1% of the $10 million target.

You should have 10 million dollars this far out from a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION and you have less than 1%? Sign me up for this leadership team to lead the state GOP to victory. Hell at this rate the Get Out The Vote strategy and money raising is going,  Trump could lose this state by even more than he did in 2020.

Karamo went on in the article listed above to say this.

During a closed-door state committee meeting on Sunday, the final day of the Mackinac conference, Karamo spoke about the health of the Michigan Republican Party's finances, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The News.

"The party is not going bankrupt," Karamo told state committee members.

As predicted, the end is approaching with a budget person jumping off the ship, by giving her resignation letter Thursday (and the story was covered right here).   

The Michigan Republican Party is considering how to deal with "imminent default" on its line of credit, according to a resignation letter from a member of the state GOP's budget committee.

The message, obtained Thursday by The Detroit News, reveals the seriousness of the financial problems facing a party in a battleground state a year before the 2024 presidential general election. Kristina Karamo, the Michigan GOP's chairwoman, has struggled to raise money after rising to power in February while railing against the party's "establishment," including past donors.

Jessica Barefield of Livingston County serves on the Michigan Republican Party's state committee, which features about 100 members. She also had been one of 13 Republicans on the influential budget committee, helping to oversee the finances. Barefield said in a resignation letter the budget committee had a Friday "emergency meeting" when the panel "was asked to weigh in on action steps regarding the imminent default on the line of credit," indicating the party is struggling to meet its obligations to pay back its past debts.

The best part of this is that the party brass has an idea: sell the building that they abandoned back in February, which they do not own. Crackerjacker team we have here in Michigan.

During the Friday budget committee meeting, members of Karamo's leadership team presented members with the idea of trying to sell the Michigan Republican Party's former headquarters on Seymour Avenue in a bid to alleviate hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding debts.

However, the downtown Lansing building is owned not by the party but by a company controlled by a trust featuring former party chairs. And it appears, according to Ingham County records, that Karamo's team won't be able to force the property's sale on its own.

The party is being flushed down the toilet because back in February, the party faithful said they wanted a clean break with the old guard of the Republican Party. That, of course, meant that Ron Weiser, the Michigan GOP chair at the time, needed to get flushed out with his co-chair, Meshawn Mattock. Mattock, since leaving office in February, has shrugged her shoulders and acted like she didn't know what was going on. But Donald Trump can cure all ills.

The very odd thing about this is that Donald Trump is on track to become the GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential race. He won't have a shot in hell of winning Michigan, though, because the Michigan GOP is dead in the water with no money.

Now, I fully understand why the grassroots of the party is absolutely frustrated with how both the state and national parties are run. Yet, here is the dirty little secret that most people won't talk about, but I'm just dumb enough to say it out loud. 

Obviously, the grassroots, which spends a lot of time going to parties paid for by the establishment folks with money, and then goes home and tells everybody on Facebook what a great time they had and how much of a difference they're making, aren't donating jack squat to one of Donald Trump's people who's leading the Michigan GOP. Karamo is a Trump person through and through; where is Donald Trump -- and all of the people who think that Trump should be the nominee, and he's the only person who can save the country? 

Wherever they are, they're not coughing up any cash to the Michigan GOP right now.

So strange.

Donald Trump's not going to come in here and bail out this party; he doesn't spend his own money, he spends other people's money. He's dealing with a number of court cases right now. So, where are the Trump loyalists who know that Karamo is a Trump person, being the former President has spoken warmly of her? They should have, at least, been able to raise 2 million dollars since February to keep the party afloat.

Nope. 

As the Michigan GOP falls Into obscurity, I have no idea who's going to be picked before February 2025 when the current chairperson's term expires. The people in this state who are conservative Republicans (or generally just vote for the people with an R after their name) have to come to the realization the party is about damn near dead. 

I'm sure the autopsy report will be an interesting read, when the dust settles and the smoke finally clears. But I have a sneaking suspicion that one thing will turn out to be absolutely true, when all is said and done.

Kristina Karamo will be the worst state GOP chairperson outside of any GOP chairperson elected in Illinois.

 Also, while she has overseen the party getting run into the ground, she has never missed a paycheck.

That's true leadership.