He has been Monroe County's version of Karl Rove: tough, combative, creative, outspoken, eminently effective, and - so it has been assumed - in complete control of both his party and local Republican elected officials. But in a heartbeat last Friday, Steve Minarik was gone, his removal by County Exec Maggie Brooks handled with surgical swiftness.

Brooks announced his resignation as Republican Party chair around 2 on Friday afternoon, and by 4:30, as he met with the media in party headquarters, a relaxed Minarik was already packing up his things. He joked with reporters and conducted one-on-one interviews - including a session with this newspaper, with which he has had little interaction. With City, he was gracious and friendly, saying, at the end, "I just wish your paper was more moderate."

For much of the interview with City, he was strictly on message. He said he has no idea who will, or should, succeed him. He said he didn't know that Brooks' request was coming, but that once he received it, he acted quickly, to "put Maggie's mind at rest."

"Maggie," he said, "wanted a directional change."

And he denied claims that he interfered with the search for a public defender and an MCC president.

Here's Minarik, in edited excerpts, on some key topics:

On his involvement in the public-defender and MCC-president search: "A lot of those things said are just wrong. I am disappointed that some members of the news media would take that as gospel because you have some ranting Democrats saying that, ‘Oh, yeah, Minarik's in charge.'

"The county executive is always in charge, and that's what we built our party on. I've had this operation working, and it's worked great with Maggie and Jack Doyle and Bob King and Lou Morin before that. That's what's made us successful, so I would never change that.

"I think people wrongfully put that out because they wanted to politicize some of these things. Like MCC: I had nothing to do with MCC. Like the public defender: I hate lawyers. It's well documented in many news articles. I hate lawyers. So there's no way that I would be involved in these things. But yet it became an issue because Democrats brought that up, and they actually politicized those issues."

On his accomplishments as party chair:"We started with nothing. We had a broken copy machine when we got there. That's what they had at Republican Party headquarters. So now we're a sophisticated, well-oiled campaign machine, well financed, and the party's in great stead, and that'll be good for the person who comes in and takes my job.

"I worked very hard trying to do what's right for the community. You satisfy one person and you have 100 new enemies."

On Maggie Brooks: "We are personal friends, Maggie and I. We've been that way for a long time. And so we have mutual respect for each other, and we are friends. I think Maggie genuinely believed - and not wanting to speak for her - that she wanted a different direction in the party. I'm pretty straightforward, I guess I like to call myself. Sometimes that causes angst with people, and so be it.

"I'm most proud of the fact that Maggie Brooks got to be county executive - first female county executive here in Monroe County. That was quite the accomplishment, because this community had not seen that. Our community, as much as we like to think we're so progressive, we're not pro-woman."

On collaboration and bi-partisanship in government:"I'm not really involved a lot in the government stuff. On the political side, I don't know what collaboration would be for me. Do I think I should work with the Democrats on things? Absolutely not. They are as misguided in this community as they are on a national basis."