GOP Civil War: Will The Tea Party Or The Establishment Control The Agenda?

The Washington Post:

...The elections last week in Florida and Alaska also pointed to ideological differences and personal enmities that have played out in Republican primary battles all year and that threaten to leave scars and fissures within the party that will have to be dealt with later. Republicans have seen more turmoil in their ranks this year than Democrats, a sign of both robustness within the coalition and unresolved debates about the party's direction.

Read the whole story: The Washington Post

Comments

[alanramsey]

09:47 PM on 09/15/2010

How can the TEA Party be real if their candidates and their Party aren’t registered on the ballots with a “T” (instead of an “R”) and meet the same election rules requirements of Party registration and declared candidacy as other Parties must meet? It seems they have a sense of special entitlement and preferential treatment above the other parties.

Elections Commissions should require all parties to play by the same rules in such filing and campaigning by a stated Party candidate and pay their fair share in doing so.

Otherwise, what we are seeing is a “shadow” (TEA - theocratic) Party, an extreme right-wing party inside another party and a defacto “shadow” government therein, with their fingers on the nuclear arsenal and without any accountability for having been elected because of an undeclared Party nomenclature.

That’s not very American and it’s not what the Founders intended.

[LittleMittens]

11:47 AM on 08/31/2010

It's kind of hard to gauge at this point, the conservatwits only have 19% of voters who will still openly associate themselves with being a member of the gop. And the teabaggers are only 4% of registered voters, so they might NEED each other...and the gop is known for making deals with the devil...just remember how Reagan courted the southern religious fanatics to win in 1980...

[nypapajoe]

11:25 AM on 08/31/2010

It's deplorable how easily the public is manipulated by the propaganda being spewed by the puppet indebted republicans! How these mindless souls become do easily persuaded that their country and constitutional rights are being threatened! When the real threat of financial calamity to this country is being perpetrated by the corporate elite and it's CEOs! Religion is the opiate of mankind and it's Achilles heel for while the people pray the thieves will continue to rob us blind! It doesn't take an economist to figure this calamity out! So, people dwell on your petty fears of un-patriotic boggy men taking your country and your guns away while your evaporating middle class huddles in despair and you ponder your demise!

[R U Sirius]

09:53 AM on 08/31/2010

As long as they utterly destroy the Party, I don't care which.

[Gaylord P Farqua]

09:09 AM on 08/31/2010

To become Speaker the Orange man will give up booze for orange
pekoe.

[fr33d0mhawk]

07:39 AM on 08/31/2010

The WAPO article is much ado about nothing. The Teaparty is controlled by FOX and merely reflects the hidden agenda of the GOP at large. The same people who control the GOP control the Teaparty, namely FOX, Limbaugh, Coulter and the fringe Right. The GOP as a centrist party died in the 70's. Ronald Reagan would have to be the real first Teapartier shown by his giving Iranian terrorists millions of dollars of weapons, then claiming Democrats are soft on terrorism, by Reagan running cocaine in the US then claiming the Democrats aren't prosecuting the War on Drugs with enough zeal, by Reagan tripling the national debt and raising taxes yet blaming the Democrats for Bigger Government. The GOP had fully come out of the closet as the party of monumental hypocrisy by 1980 and its only been getting worse. Now we have Teapartiers, half of whom are on SS, whining about anyone else getting SS, that SS should be discontinued for everyone outside the Teaparty.

The Teaparty is not going to help Democrats win anything and the only risk of civil war is from the Teaparty against the USA to promote their anti-constitutional agenda, even admitting they are against every right except the right to bear arms, admitting they want Church is the fundamental authority in government. Its like saying the Al Qaeda is threatening civil war with the Taliban. News flash, civil war between dogs and canines, who will prevail?

[rougebaisers]

05:51 AM on 08/31/2010

What's the difference, really? Besides, isn't Glenn Beck controlling the message?

[ThankGodhesgone]

12:27 AM on 08/31/2010

I thought the teabaggers wanted to throw the incumbents out. I thought they meant Democrats, yet it seems that they are going after Republican candidates more than Dems.

Yes, please replace all of your senior repugs with political whackjobs and nobodies for the November elections.

[TN]

10:57 PM on 08/30/2010

Ask a teabagger who the minority leader in the house is and they have no clue. Nor do they know who is the sec. of defense, the Senate Majority leader, the Treasury Sec. and on and on and on.

Maybe we should have a test on these simple Q's before allowing a vote, cause these people have no clue what Washington is doing or who is running the show.

[Nagarjuna]

09:39 PM on 08/30/2010

"The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.

America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.

Government must have a heart as well as a head."

More from the Republican Party platform, 1956, that infernal Commie Marxist liberal document

[Nagarjuna]

09:28 PM on 08/30/2010

"We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people."

-- Republican Party platform, 1956.

Nowadays, this will get you branded a MARXIST.

But it helped re-elect President Eisenhower in 1956.

Was he the last sane Republican?

[the964kid]

08:46 PM on 08/30/2010

There's no problem here since people like Boehner are just pawns to the highest bidder anyway. He doesn't care about the policy just as long as he's collecting a check for his vote.

Remember this is the same guy who in 1995 actually was passing out checks from big tobacco to his fellow republicans on the House floor right after a vote that went in favor of big tobacco. This stunt made the House change their rules to say you cant pass out checks on the House floor. Here's the link of Boehner explaining why he did that:

http://uselesstriviaandmindlessrants.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-his-own-words-why-john-boehner.html

Boehner will do the Tea Party's bidding so long as he's compensated for his efforts.

[Orly Holmes]

08:17 PM on 08/30/2010

A little of both. Any tea party candidates elected in this cycle, will be bottom-of-the-totem pole freshmen, and will not have access to more powerful committee chairmanships as controlled by the Boehner establishment. The TP candidates will thus rely more on the bully pulpit rather than actually having the power to direct [say, House in the case], bills and legislations.

[mabinog]

07:40 PM on 08/30/2010

The teabaggers are a non-starter unless they are going to be new majority in of themselves.

First, even with a majority they are not a recognized third party and will not have majority leadership or chairs on any of the powerful committees.

Second, if they do not toe the line the current establishment will make sure they get no seats on important committees and any legislation they propose will languish.

Third, this leaves them with their freshman voting power and who are they going to side with? Republicans.

End result the teabaggers will sell out or be frozen out.

Teabaggers are a political dead end.

[dl63]

07:19 PM on 08/30/2010

Does it matter? They are both anti-american.

[Orly Holmes]

08:18 PM on 08/30/2010

Nonsense. One could say the same regarding liberals. This does not make it so, however.

[Nagarjuna]

09:32 PM on 08/30/2010

It's just an opinion. If one DID say the same about liberals, it would be false.