E.J. Dionne Jr.: A GOP reality-show race, thanks to the Tea Party

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-gop-presidential-circus-thats-steeped-in-tea/2011/12/02/gIQAnLesTO_story.html

A GOP reality-show race, thanks to the Tea Party

By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: December 4

snip//

A party that lived by the tea crowd in 2010 is being severely hobbled by it now. The Republican right wants the kind of purity that led it to take candidates such as Cain and Bachmann with great seriousness for a while. The same folks took Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell and Joe Miller seriously in the 2010 Senate primaries, too. None of them got elected.

snip//

There is talk of the “Republican establishment” swooping in to save matters, and things certainly seem ripe for a draft write-in campaign for some new candidate. But the Republican establishment, such as it is, is essentially powerless. It sold its soul to the Tea Party, sat by silently as extremist rhetoric engulfed the GOP and figured that swing voters would eventually overlook all this to cast votes against a bad economy.

That’s still Romney’s bet; yet his failure to break through suggests the right wing will not be trifled with. Republican leaders unleashed forces that may eat their party alive. And the only Republican really enjoying what’s happening is Newt Gingrich.

[DFLforever]

1. GOP has sown the wind

and reaped the whirlwind.

Gingrich is their perfect avatar.

[Vincardog]

2. GOOD and who didn't see this coming?

[zbdent]

3. I agree with what was said on the Thom Hartmann show ...

They should hold it on "the island" ...

and forget to come back for them ... but remember to leave one pistol, with one bullet ...