Establishment GOP Fears Midterm Disaster Thanks To Teawingers

With nine and a half months until the midterm elections, we’re already being treated to the biennial Villager media kabuki about how Democrats are at a total disadvantage, Republicans are guaranteed to take seats in the Senate,  and the blue half of America faces doom, gloom, and ignominious defeat.

What’s actually going on behind closed doors in GOP-land, however, tells quite a different story: the Party of Lincoln  is in the midst of an even worse “Civil War” than it faced six decades ago, and flop-sweat is flowing faster than Freedom Industries’ crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol!

With the Republican Party being torn apart by its internal civil war, an ideological battle that pits establishment Republicans against the no-compromise Tea Party/Christian Right, party backers are doing their best to suppress the craziness as the 2014 midterms approach. But are they succeeding?

The Chamber of Commerce and an assembly of anonymous plutocratic donors are pumping money into local congressional primaries to prevent Tea Party-endorsed candidates from scoring nominations. The plutocratic wing of the party is terrified of losing control of the House, and of missing its opportunity to win the Senate on the back of evangelical candidates who make factually incorrect remarks about rape or declare masturbation to be a sin.

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

The establishment wing is discovering that it’s hard to keep the crazy quiet when your party’s voter base consists of neo-confederates, white supremacists, know-nothing libertarians, and evangelical theocrats. Moreover, social conservatives are no wilting wallflowers when it comes to raising campaign money. A recent Politico piece reported that roughly 25 socially conservative groups combined to pull in more than $280 million in 2011 and 2012. Notwithstanding the fact that much of the Koch brother’s political spending goes to the ideologically insane, too.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council president and darling of the Christian Right, has urged social conservatives to dump moderates in order to save religious liberty…

“This election is when the Tea Party movement will professionalize how it engages in politics,” says Drew Ryun, the political director of the Madison Project, a conservative campaign group. “We are getting a game plan.”

This week, the Madison Project rolled out the first phase of its 2014 operation, announcing it would open five get-out-the-vote centers in Kentucky to work on behalf of Matt Bevin, the conservative businessman challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, in a May primary. Ryan says the Madison Project will launch mirror efforts in battlegrounds where the establishment wing of the GOP and the far right go head to head. “I don’t think it is any secret that the stakes for the 2014 election cycle are extremely high. That’s why it is important our groups know how to win in the trenches.”

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.