Establishment GOP to Tea Party: We’re Just Not That Into You

This article is for any grassroots organizations who still think working with Republican leadership is the way to change the political landscape for the better:

You’d have to be intentionally oblivious to be unaware that the Republican Party powers-that-be and the associated high rollers who fund the Party and the candidates it fields have a very dim view of conservatives, generally, and those “Tea Party” types, in particular. At best, “the conservative wing of the Party” is viewed as a necessary evil. At worst, they are blamed for every election contest the GOP has lost in recent memory.

To hear Karl Rove and a select group of his GOP cronies, but for those radical conservatives who chose the wrong candidates to run for U.S. Senate seats in 2010, the GOP would now control the Senate as well as the House of Representatives. This is largely self-serving myth. Sure, some of the “Tea Party” Senate candidates went down in flames, but so did more than a few candidates who were “mainstream” or “establishment” Republicans.

Regardless of the facts, Rove and his buddies are armed, primed, and loaded for bear.

A recent article published in the New York Times, featuring a byline of Council Bluffs, Iowa, made the following announcement:

“The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate.

“The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races.

“‘There is a broad concern about having blown a significant number of races because the wrong candidates were selected,’ said Steven J. Law, the president of American Crossroads, the ‘super PAC’ creating the new project. ‘We don’t view ourselves as being in the incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative candidate who can win.'”

Source: Shared many times on Facebook

LET ME GUESS, just like these guys, RIGHT?

[Sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.]

The article continues:

“The effort would put a new twist on the Republican-vs.-Republican warfare that has consumed the party’s primary races in recent years. In effect, the establishment is taking steps to fight back against Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations that have wielded significant influence in backing candidates who ultimately lost seats to Democrats in the general election.”

Apparently, the gloves are coming off.  The group plans to use “hard-edge campaign tactics, including television advertising, against candidates whom party leaders see as unelectable and a drag on the efforts to win the Senate. Mr. Law cited Iowa as an example and said Republicans could no longer be squeamish about intervening in primary fights” (emphasis added).

Kudos to Norlyn for spotting this announcement and forwarding it along to me. Norlyn — a guy with superior taste in music, even if he does say so himself — recommended the following song as the perfect musical representation of the message the Republican leadership is sending to the Tea Party crowd.

I see the relationship between the two groups, particularly since the 2010 mid-term elections, like the lovers in this Human League tune, with the Tea Party crowd singing the masculine lead:

For readers new to the site; those among you with short memories; or those readers who have chosen, up to now at least, to think that the Nebraska GOP differs from Rove and his establishment cronies in its view of the Tea Party crowd and/or true conservatives here in Nebraska, browse through some — or all — of these articles from the GiN archives and be enlightened:

• “Tea Party” People: See Anything Wrong With This Email?
• GiN Tea Party Questions: GOP Employee Seems to Protest Too Much
• More Readers, More Questions about LCGOP, AFP Email
• Nebraska’s Ruling Class and the Perils of (Assisted) Political Suicide
• Governor Heineman Really Liked Purple People Before They Were ‘Cool’
• NEGOP Tried to Capitalize on Grassroots Candidate Loss & CIR Reform Failure
• Nebraska is Essentially a One Party State
• Nebraska’s Ruling Class and the Media — Lincoln Journal Star’s Don Walton
• Political Influence in Nebraska: Where the Money Leads
• Tea Party Hijack by GOP and AFP in Progress in Lincoln, Nebraska
• Sometimes NO is the Right Answer