Martinez, not Steele, will head RNC

Despite reports that the job had been offered to outgoing Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez will replace Ken Melman as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Martinez resigned after Tuesday's election disaster, but says that he had been planning to leave the post after the midterm elections since last summer.

Perhaps somebody in the Bush White House still has hopes of salvaging the Hispanic vote, which has probably been alienated forever by the insistence of many in the Republican party on relying entirely on what are certain to be ineffective enforcement measures to deal with the crisis in illegal immigration.