Washington, D.C. ? Michael Steele is staying put as Republican Party chairman.

Despite his widely condemned comments on Afghanistan, even his GOP critics want to avoid a drawn-out fight over the party’s most prominent African-American just four months before midterm elections.

Instead, GOP elders are working around Steele, illustrating their lack of confidence in his leadership of the Republican National Committee and the challenge he would face should he seek a second term in January.

The outspoken Steele has faced calls for his resignation from conservatives and some in the GOP after he said that the nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan was a mistaken “war of Obama’s choosing.” So far, Steele has ignored demands for him to step down.

And interviews with more than a dozen party operatives indicate there’s little desire to wage a complicated, perhaps uncertain, effort to oust him with just six months left in his two-year term.