GOP ousts Steele, picks Priebus to head party

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The national Republican Party, coming off huge election victories but facing a $22 million debt and an internal war over identity, ousted chairman Michael Steele Friday and chose Wisconsin party chief Reince Priebus to lead in the run-up to the 2012 presidential race.

The embattled Steele dropped his re-election bid halfway through the balloting when it became clear he could not win another two-year term after a first marked by verbal missteps and financial woes.

"We have to get on track. And together we can defeat Barack Obama in 2012," Priebus, the chairman of the...