Well, bowl me over with a feather
by digby
... the War of Tea Party Aggression doesn't seem to be taking off as everyone predicted:
The Republican civil war erupted into full view this fall, and the establishment looked like it was about to shove the movement back in line.
But the early skirmishes ended with the tea party no weaker than it was.
And while the party’s internal fight will rage on, the opening battles suggest the establishment is just starting to see how much it will take to reclaim the power it has ceded to the movement in recent years.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s first big play: threaten to blacklist any consultant who does business with a key group taking on sitting Republicans.
The result: pretty much business as usual.
Meanwhile, members of Congress pleaded with corporate America to commit big money to support business-friendly candidates willing to take on the tea party.
The result: early interest but no coordinated effort to take out challengers.
Shocker, I know. Just when the Villagers all went on the record saying that the rubes had gone too far, it turns out that the Republicans aren't actually doing much to constrain their crazies. I'm going to take a wild guess that this might have something to do with the fact that they think they can parlay 2014 into another 2010 and take back the Senate. That means they need their "wacko-birds" to come out in force.
I'll expect a little bit more muscle will be applied to 2016 but even then, there's only so much the establishment can do to stop this. These are real voters with a real agenda. The Tea Party is a serious grassroots movement. And a few of them at least, happen to be billionaires who have more money than God.
They are the Republican Party. The mythical establishment consists of a few elected officials, some centrist pundits and a couple of businessmen. Think about it: raging Randroid General in the War on Women, Paul Ryan is considered a centrist elder statesman. The lunatics took over the asylum a long time ago.
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