Nancy Pelosi once famously derided tea partiers as not grass roots but “Astroturf” with little popular support. Yet somehow they keep beating the Republican establishment in U. S. Senate races in Alaska, Utah, Nevada, Kentucky, Colorado, Florida, and now Delaware. This year has been RINOgeddon.
And that blows up another myth about the tea party movement, that it is simply a tool of the Republican Party. The National Republican Senatorial Committee openly supported Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio in the Florida primary. And the Republican establishment opposed the likes of Joe Miller, Mike Lee, and especially Christine O’Donnell. Even after her primary victory, establishment Republicans are already undercutting O’Donnell with Karl Rove saying she cannot win in November and with the NRSC withholding money. (By the way, if NRSC head Cornyn doesn’t get a good primary challenge next time around, I might do it myself.) No, the Republican establishment is not happy about what has transpired.
You know it’s funny. Every time the Republican establishment feeds us conservatives sorry candidates, we are told to support the party. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, they are sore losers, refusing to endorse or fund the winning tea party candidate, and even considering a write-in campaign. RINOs sure are sore losers.
And tea partiers are doing the Republican Party and the country a favor by beating these losers. When you really need RINOs to step up and do the right thing, they stab you in the back. Remember Arlen Specter participating in killing Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination? I do. Who needs enemies in the camp like that?
But back to my original point – the tea party movement has already succeeded beyond even my expectations. I remember back when it started in Spring ’09. Conservatives, including this conservative, were disheartened. I personally felt under bombardment from Obama on multiple fronts. Day after day, he pressed something new in his Leftist agenda. Stopping the Obama/Pelosi/Reid machine looked like a long shot. And taking Congress from the Democrats in 2010? Yeah, right.
But now look. Those who derided the tea party movement are now the ones who look silly (like my headline). Democrats, and RINOs too, are on the run. A lot of thanks for that should go out to the tea party movement. They began this fight back when hope was fleeting.
The work is far from done. But I do not think it too early to salute them.
UPDATE: NRSC head Cornyn has seen the light (which is a tea party freight train coming right at him) and is supporting and funding O’Donnell.
Funny how he always shows up late to tea parties.
1 comment:
You've described it beautifully. The entrenched GOP has yet to comprehend what they're dealing with.
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