I agree with John Dickerson. Tea Party folks probably shouldn’t be gearing up for war with Karl Rove. Or, maybe they should be, I don’t know. Let’s consider what Rove’s Conservative Victory Project is likely to do, in practice. We already know that they will support someone in Iowa who is not Rep. Steve King. They will probably oppose Michele Bachmann if she chooses to challenge Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota. They will try to find someone to replace the retiring Saxby Chambliss in Georgia who isn’t entirely crazy, although that may be hard to do. If Lindsey Graham or Susan Collins or Thad Cochran or Lamar Alexander or Mitch McConnell have any primary challenges, Rove’s outfit will try to crush them. In West Virginia, they’ll try to assure that Rep. Shelley Capito Moore wins the nomination to replace retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
Now, if you think Steve King and Michele Bachmann can win statewide, I have some crack cocaine for you to smoke. If you think it will help the Republican brand to have King and Bachmann running statewide and making daily national news, I need to up my offer to a speedball.
Rove is trying to increase the odds that the Republicans can win back the Senate. I don’t know what the Tea Party is trying to do.
All else being equal, Boo, do you REALLY think that Bachmann is that much different from Norm Colemean?
And as far as Stephen King goes, have you forgotton that he’s been elected since for fucking ever?
Yes, I think there a huge gulf between Michele Bachmann and Norm Coleman.
And Steve King represents the most conservative part of Iowa and always has. The western third of the state is extremely evangelical, rural, isolated culturally, and conservative. His brand of Republicanism has very little appeal in the eastern, more populous parts of Iowa.
Ok, I’ll give you Bachmann. Until she actually wins. After all, this is the state that elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura, and has more declared members of Posse Comitatus than any other.
But King? Not until they defeat HF138. At that point, ok; sure; you win; and thank the Great Sphagetti Monster you are right.
If they DON’T defeat HF138? Forget it.
If Rove follows his own advice he’ll focus on attacking the candidates’ ‘strengths’ first. Since the TParty claims it is not interested in social issues but instead a party laser focused on the economy how will Rove denigrate their austerity promotion with his guys’ balance approach without adding revenues into the GOP platform?
If he attacks TParty candidates for being insane then he’ll have to offer sanity…
Well, in this case, their strengths are likely to be their claim to be “the most conservative.” Rove will probably not want to dispute that.
Continuing the long march to purity, not realizing that their sugar daddies are slowly bailing.
In 2014, the TEA Parties will be working with AFP and ALEC to try to preserve their hold on the states they captured in 2010. Any runs by Steve King or Michele Bachmann will by being statewide will be attempts to beef up TEA Party candidates downticket in hopes of taking legislative or judicial seats. If Bachmann or King luck out an nab the Senate seat, that’s just an added benefit.
Progressives of all stripes suffer from Dee Cee tunnel-vision. A good national failed campaign can build a solid network for future local and state dominance.
The Tea Party is trying to UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION AND PROTECT FREEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!1!1!
OTOH, the TEA Party knows Booman and us contributors hate America and are trying to destroy it.
Simple answers to simple questions, from the mouths of simpletons.
Yes, the slow, cumulative effect of their persistence is imperceptible in real time. It is only in hindsight that their path will be able to be traced and examined. That’s what is scary. Chris Hayes talked this morning about that very type of thing relevant to women and women’s issues. One example was the Equal Rights Amendment. Supported by a significant segment of Republicans at the time in the House and Senate, in addition to a very strong endorsement by a Republican President. Now try and visualize something as expansive as the ERA getting even a halfway-serious discussion from many Democrats, much less Republicans.
It is mind-blowing how far the window has shifted to the right in my adult life. We can’t even agree on something like The Violence Against Women Act.
The Tea Party’s goal is very simple: enforce ideological purity. (For some it’s a conscious strategic goal, for others simply the outcome of their personal rigidity.) They want their brand of conservatism to be the default alternative when voters tire, as they inevitably do, of one or another Democrat. If they are successful with this strategy, at some point, they figure they will have enough power to enforce their vision of a capitalist theocracy.
It’s not a bad strategy, so long as you’re not aware (or concerned) that getting from here to there involves crashing the economy and causing enormous suffering, most of which will be blamed on you. They could not care less, so long as they eventually get in power.
As we saw with Bush, a President bent on “creative destruction” can do enormous damage to our country in short order, even more so with a solid legislative majority. It’s easier to tear something down than to build or repair something that’s been lost. What they want to do is dismantle this country as we know it, and it only takes a brief window of opportunity to achieve. When you know your preferred policies, in the light of day, are spectacularly unpopular, and you don’t care about the side effects (e.g., economic or environmental collapse), it’s really their only path to success that’s even remotely plausible.
Tea Party folks probably shouldn’t be gearing up for war with Karl Rove.
Exactly right!! If Bachmann doesn’t run in Minnesota, who will? Who can raise the sums Bachmann can? That’s Turdblossom’s problem in Minnesota. Steve King? Is there a non-nutso Republican in Iowa that can make a go of it?
Immanentize the Eschaton.
What is the Tea Party trying to do? Are you kidding? They’re fighting power and relevance within the GOP. From their point of view, far better to stand for their agenda as a minority than win a bunch of seats and stand for nothing other than power and the perks that go with it. I don’t agree with their agenda but I get why they’re fighting.
Ever see a knife fight, in the dark? Rove has the unfortunate task of crippling the Baggers in the primaries while needing them to vote in the general election.
If I were Rove, I would call it a day. The guy must have enough money to last a lifetime. Probably not so easy for a guy like that to hang with himself though.
When you’re wired a certain way, there’s no such thing as “enough” money. There is only “more” money.
How much of the $400 million Rove raised last year do you figure went to Rove and his cronies for consulting fees, administration, profits for the media buyers, the robocall companies, the direct mail go-to-guy, etc?
I’d guess about a quarter of it. And what went to TV ads at premium rates got them about 1/3 the viewers an Obama campaign ad reached.
Dickerson makes a decent point that pointing out the crazies is a part of the process the GOP needs to go through to become a serious party again, but if anyone’s trying to imply that Rove is doing that on purpose, for the sake of the party??
Karl Rove is as much a grifter as Dick Morris or Calamity Wasilla. Rove’s just more industrious and plain better at the long con than the others. The Republicans deserve to be doomed to a large grift tax on their campaign efforts because their whole philosophy revolves around ‘get what you can grab, screw the other guy’.
What is the Tea Party trying to do? win seats as long as possible for the program of their overlords, ALEC, Kochs, etc They run as many candidates as possible, some % wins