Gee, I've been saying this for a while... - Granite Grok

Gee, I’ve been saying this for a while…

Generally during discussions of whether the TEA Party SHOULD become a real political party and Republicans scoffing at the idea:  We may not win [as a third party] but you will certainly lose.  Well, I guess I am not the only one any longer – Rush Limbaugh today.  There’s a bunch of topics in this abstract, so go read the whole thing (emphasis mine, reformatted) but here are the parts that speak to the enmity between the Establishment and the TEA Party:

What do you think is the only thing that can stop the Republican wave, folks? This appears to be conventional wisdom now.  I, your host, on February 13th predict a wave. Later that same day, my prediction is pooh-poohed and disqualified because I don’t know politics. It happened on Fox. They said that. Then a month later, we had this sound bite montage of all kinds of Republicans and Democrats forecasting a wave election. One month after I predicted it. One month after saying I was crazy, didn’t know what I was talking about.

So, given that, what is the one thing that could stop this wave election? What is the one thing? What is, in fact, the only thing? Yes, let’s really drill down here and get right to it. What is the only thing that can stop the Republican Party in 2014 and in 2016? What would you say off the top of your head would be the only thing that could stop the Republicans from this big win? I’m talking about the GOP.

What is the one thing that could prevent this big anti-Obama vote?

Well, let’s go to Fox News and a program called Happening Now. It happened this morning on Fox News. Gregg Jarrett was speaking with Democrat strategist Joe Trippi about the 2014 midterms. Gregg Jarrett said, “The numbers favor Republicans, but in the states where Democrats normally would win, the president’s approval rating is in the tank, which likely is what led to the New York Times story over the weekend, Democrats fearful the president’s gonna be dragging ’em down.”

TRIPPI: It may be what happens in the Republican primaries, whether they get to the magic number six or not. There are the number of races — Georgia, Mississippi, and Kentucky…among them where the Republicans are having the establishment versus the Tea Party fight like they’ve had in previous years, and how those play out could actually decide whether Republicans can take advantage.

RUSH: Okay, so they’re talking about the Senate here, but Trippi is basically saying, “Well, you know, the only thing that could stop this big Republican wave is the Tea Party.” Imagine that, folks! A Democrat is saying that the only thing that could stop a Republican wave would be the Tea Party. How would that happen? Well, it’s simple. These Tea Party people are a bunch of extremists, racist, pro-life conservatives.

…Like that dinner party I attended in the Hamptons where this big, rich donor came up and poked me in the chest and said, “What are you gonna do about the Christians?” I said, “What? What do you mean?” “They’re killing us! The pro-lifers, they’re killing us. I’m embarrassed to go to convention with ’em. My wife’s nagging me all the time. They’re gonna kill us. We’re never gonna win anything so long as we got all these pro-life people.”  Well, that’s what the Tea Party is now, and the Tea Party has become the equivalent of that (i.e., conservatives). So in the conventional wisdom inside the Beltway, the only thing that can stop the Republican win is the Tea Party. Now, you and I know that the Tea Party is going to be the reason Republicans win. It ain’t gonna be the Republicans. It’ll be Obama and the Tea Party.

And he goes on to paint the picture that the TEA Party as being the current day Goldwater – a most embarrassing loss for the Republican Party and every TEA Party candidate is now a Todd Akin.  Yet, it was the TEA Party that brought them to such tremendous victories in 2010.  Then it seem that we came under attack from both the Democrats AND the Establishment for 2012 – and what happened?  We stayed home.  Sure, the Obama data machine has now changed campaigning forever.  But when you count the votes, 4 million plus Republicans stayed home – they heard the message and went “K dudes, you just keep running the show like you always have”.  So, we can blame the Establishment Republicans (and the politico-industrial complex that keeps licking their boots) for the losses for NOT animating and enthusing their base, right?  If a bunch of first timers and amateurs did it in 2010, what’s wrong with you, Establishment with your ‘we’re the professionals here” attitude – why did you fail where the grassroots succeeded?

…Then they come up with their selective definitions of Reagan to exempt him, “Reagan really wasn’t Goldwater. Reagan was running against Carter. Reagan’s power was his personality. Reagan didn’t win ’cause he was conservative.” And that’s what survives. So now the Tea Party may as well be, as far as the establishment is concerned, the Goldwater campaign. That’s how they look at it. I’m just telling you so you’ll know. ‘Cause I can’t tell you the number of people who ask me, “Why does the Republican Party hate the Tea Party? Why don’t they form a coalition with ’em and have this massive majority and just sweep to victory?” Because they think — you just heard it here — Trippi believes that the Tea Party is the only thing that can derail the Republicans, and they really do believe it.

It’s not just a lack of objective analysis. They really believe this. And so do a lot of Republican consultants, folks. Just so you know. Meanwhile, the New York Times does have this piece about how Obama has become poisonous for the Democrats. But the Republicans are more frightened of the Tea Party than they are eager to exploit the weaknesses of Obama.

The only thing that will stop the Republican wave election is if the Tea Party stays home again, like they did in 2012. Do you realize four million Republican votes were not cast.

Voters didn’t show up in 2012, and I’m gonna tell you this. If the Republican establishment keeps beating up on these Tea Party types some of them are gonna get ticked off and just stay home. “All right, all right, fine. Okay go win it on your own.” The thing is, the Republican establishment would prefer to lose with honor than to have the Tea Party win. That’s about where we are. The Tea Party winning or being responsible for the win, that’d be as embarrassing as, “Oh, no, oh, what do we do, now?”

…But let’s look at some recent histoire. Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney. Who’d they run like? Didn’t they run like moderate Republicans? They lost. … I’m telling you, every time the Republican Party goes moderate, goes centrist, goes McCain, they lose! They just lose. The only time the party wins is when they go conservative.

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