Stupid Party? Establishment Demolition Derby! - Granite Grok

Stupid Party? Establishment Demolition Derby!

I had thought it would be cut and dried – it is clear that the intended standard bearer of the GOPe – Bush III – is a lost cause, and that the outsiders (Trump, Cruz, maybe Fiorina) are giving the GOPe a run for its money. Conventional wisdom, especially on Capitol Hill, was beginning to coalesce around the idea of Rubio as the Establishment front-runner, but Rubio’s attacks on Cruz (he dares not touch Trump) were backfiring, and those also-rans were not lying down.

Christie-Suicide-Bomber Then I ran across this headline last week from Ed Straker (NewsMachete/ AmericanThinker): “Chris Christie is a political suicide bomber detonating next to Marco Rubio”

In the ultimate case of an attack dog furiously chasing a hubcap, Christie has no way to take advantage of a victory, or lets be realistic, a decent placing in NH – from the article:

Christie has almost no campaign infrastructure beyond the first-in-the-nation primary state.

Most of the campaign’s time and resources have been devoted to New Hampshire, with Iowa a distant second.

In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s got a handful of staffers in each state. But in South Carolina, Christie has just one operative on the ground – whom the campaign declines to name. He currently has no full-time paid staffers in states beyond South Carolina.

Essentially, Rubio, Christie, Kasich, and JEB are running neck and neck in NH, and all of them need NH in order to have any momentum going forward. None will win Iowa, which is going to be Cruz-Trump or Trump-Cruz with the others all trailing, and maybe a Santorum or Huckabee picking up a few votes.

Maybe Rubio isn’t enough of an establishment toady for the GOPe, because now we read that the long knives are out for Rubio as the other, ahem, ‘leading’ Establishment candidates clamber over each other to get a slight advantage coming out of the early contests. The Shark Tank reports:

The Republican establishment long-knives are out in New Hampshire, and they aren’t pointed at Donald Trump. Both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have sharpened their blades and are coming after Senator Marco Rubio.

Why not? All of their past attacks against Trump have failed to knock off “The Donald,” so the easier, more vulnerable candidate to target is the person who they are competing against for the same voters.

imageRarely have I seen Establishment backers so divided over their choices: The Sununu family picked Kasich, The Union Leader picked Christie, a lot of somewhat conservative people picked Rubio, and nobody in particular picked JEB

Stupid Party? GOPe, rhymes with Dope? Demolition Derby?
Pass the popcorn – the boot is on the other foot this season!

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