Michael Steele's Republican National Committee is circulating a Request-for-Proposal (pdf) to rebuild the RNC website. The sketchiness of the document is raising speculation that Chairman Steele is simply going through the motions, having already picked out a consultant for the job -- despite his pledges to pump some oxygen into the party's tech ecosystem with outreach like the recent GOP Tech Summit. That, or there's something funny in the air over at party headquarters. The RFP lays out RNC HQ's tech vision in a way that might make more sense were hallucinogenic substances involved: "If we haven't thought of it -- think about it. If it hasn't been tried -- why not. If it's going to be 'outside the box' -- then not only keep it outside the box, but take it to someplace the box hasn't even reached yet." Like, woah.

Red State's Erick Erickson is a bit circumspect, but see if you can suss out his take on the RFP by reading through the lines: "[T]here is no way any competent person would put together an RFP like this. It's crap. It is not legitimate. It is unprofessional. It is illusory." The RFP is all buzz words -- "Flash," "widgets" -- but little in the way of specifics. No matter: the RNC wants all bidder to attach a firm price tag to their proposals. How much is "some place the box hasn't even reached" going for these days? On the Next Right, Dale Franks is holding on to some glimmer of hope: "Surely this is all some sort of elaborate joke. Perhaps on Monday the RNC will tell us that they were just having us on. Then, once we've all had a good laugh, they'll release the real RFP."

RNC Website RFP