DNC Ties NY20 Loss Around Steele's Neck (VIDEO)

That didn't take long.

Just over an hour since the special election for New York's open congressional seat ended with Democrat Scott Murphy victorious, the Democratic National Committee is up with a web ad hanging the loss squarely on the neck of RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

Steele was bound to take a hit on this one, even if the seat was previously held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, now New York's junior Senator. The RNC chairman went to 20th congressional district twice to campaign for Jim Tedisco, the Republican candidate and state assemblyman. He sent money and party resources there as well. And with the seat having been in Republican hands prior to Gillibrand's 2006 election, it was viewed as a real chance for a GOP pick-up.

"We've come to play, and we've come to win," Steele said during one of his visit to NY20.

Certainly, if Tedisco had emerged victorious from the recount, it would have been held as the surest sign yet of a Republican resurgence. Instead, the DNC gets to do a little gloating.

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