This is a full blown war within the party."
You're absolutely right, and like any war of the sort plenty of folks turn out to be something other than what they seemed to be and presented themselves as.Those who put keeping the skids greased ahead off all else and who have for so long been in control of the Republican Party are in a panic. They're finding out that a great many of the rank and file as well as middle level Party folks are still dedicated to the Reagan Revolution and haven't ever thrown in the towel.
When such folks have no choice, they keep their noses to the grindstone and work to beat fascists in the democrat party. When there's a clear choice, those who thought they were in control and could command the faithful are finding out that their hold on the reins of power has mostly been an illusion. Just consider SC, once the Governor and the party stalwarts with the big bucks weighed in, everyone was supposed to fall in line and be good Party faithful. Senators are supposed to be solid soldiers for the Party, but it didn't turn out that way in SC, not by a long shot. And DeMint is really pissed at even the "Conservative" media reporting that he warned Gingrich to tone down the attacks on others when what he really said was that all of the negative attacks ads were helping the democrats in the long run. So, yet another example of "Conservative" media behind the Party Apparatchiks rather than the voters.
The old beards in the party who were so sure they had total control and could anoint whoever they liked are scared to death the same sort of unexpected things will happen in FL, and if in FL, there's no limit to what sort of "shabby Reaganites" might end up winning the nomination and after that, winning Congressional, State, and Local elections. That's exactly why Romney is spending way more in Florida than is reasonable for this stage of a primary campaign. He knows and the Party big-shots know that they can't rely on the troops the Party has in the trenches and relies on to do the grunt work of keeping a Party running.
Kraut, Drudge, Coulter, a whole crowd who everyone accepted as true Conservatives because they talked the talk as long as it didn't upset the apple cart, are coming out of the woodwork to slander Newt. They know which side their bread is buttered on, and they're quite happy to be in the minority and see the country losing ground because it increase the market for the stuff they're selling. And none of them is now or ever has been selling solutions, only critiques of or counterpoints to what others propose and comments on "how bad it is". If there's going to be civil war in the Republican Party, and there is, they're going to stick with the buttered bread they have rather than bothering with winning the confidence of a whole new group of insiders they depend on for tidbits of information.
The Tea Party and the remaining Reaganites have to take control of the Republican party to build the sort of real Conservative party we have to have. There's no way third party can match the level of organization both national parties have in the time we have left before we lose the opportunity to spare the country what's on the way if we can't beat the combined Fascist/RINO axis now tearing into Newt.
Everyone is scared to death of Newt exactly because they thought they had already buried him. Now, it turns out, rumors of his death have been mistaken and if that's the case, it means a lot of those the Republican Party thought they were in control of have been working against the national RINO cabal all along. This is the last chance to have the sort of Republican Party Reagan and Newt wanted all the way back when Regan was first nominated. If we don't do it now, it won't happen, if it doesn't happen, we get least twenty years of whatever comes from fascists running the government without the consent of the governed,
So, that's my humble and overly verbose take on the situation.
Regards
“So, that’s my humble and overly verbose take on the situation.”
That was very well said, and I enjoyed every word. Thanks.