Free Republic

In considering Will Marshall’s argument that Tuesday’s primaries show that Tea Party influence on the GOP is on the wane, I countered with the suggestion that intimidation of Republicans by the Tea Folk is a more important part of its strategy than replacing “RINOs” in primaries. A case in point is the ongoing pander-fest being conducted by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who faces divided and underfunded Tea Party primary opposition next year, and is trying to overcome conservative anger at his role in supporting immigration reform legislation and then ending the government shutdown. First you had him risking the Mother of...

If you haven’t paid enough attention, you would likely assume that there are only two elections in the entire country. The first, involving that often seen rhinoceros species Governor Chris Christie – who has been in bed with more Democrats than Ted Kennedy, and the second, involving the gubernatorial race pitting Ken Cuccinelli – a real conservative and Terry McAuliffe – an old Clinton retread whom Rush Limbaugh lovingly refers to as “the punk.” Many conservatives are holding their breath – rightfully so in Virginia – and hoping for a victory for Cuccinelli. I couldn’t agree more. He has solid...

Mark Levin opened his show today explaining how both the establishment Republicans and the Democrats are targeting the Tea Party in the Virginia gubernatorial race between Mcauliffe and Cuccinelli. Levin says that Republicans would be happy for Cuccinelli to lose in order to “prove” the Tea Party can’t win. He explains below:

Senate Republicans are spoiling for a fight this primary season as they try to take back control of the party from conservative activists. -snip- “If super PACs are going to get involved in primaries, there has to be some other people involved in primaries who are interested in actually winning the election in November — and not just purifying the party in the primary,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the past two cycles and faces reelection next year. With the blessing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the hardball plan is already...

While the Republican establishment was obsessing over the government shutdown, the evils of Ted Cruz, and the latest Jurassic media poll designed specifically to fool them, they remained blind to the massive iceberg that was about to nearly destroy the McAuliffe money machine campaign. As such, they missed a golden opportunity to nudge Ken Cuccinelli across the finish line -- an opportunity the GOP base understood. While Michael Barone did not say this in so many words, these are the inescapable conclusions of his Virginia race analysis. That iceberg? That would be the reality of ObamaCare, as it sinks in...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is taking an unusually aggressive posture toward one of its conservative antagonists, putting out word that GOP groups shouldn't hire a consulting firm that works with the Senate Conservatives Fund. The New York Times's Jonathan Martin reports: Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to...

Reagan conservative Ken Cuccinelli lost his bid for the Virginia governorship because the patrician, turf-protecting Republican Party establishment in his state wanted him to lose. It's really that simple.  Cuccinelli campaign strategist Chris La Civita suggested on election night Tuesday that the federal government's partial shutdown last month may have hurt his candidate in parts of Virginia where many federal employees and contractors live. He also suggested that Cuccinelli could have won if he had received more money from national GOP sources, which he said dried up as of Oct. 1. "There are a lot of questions people are going...

Leaders of the Republican establishment, alarmed by the emergence of far-right and often unpredictable Tea Party candidates, are pushing their party to rethink how it chooses nominees and advocating changes they say would result in the selection of less extreme contenders. The push comes as the national Republican Party is grappling with vexing divisions over its identity and image, and mainstream leaders complain that more ideologically-driven conservatives are damaging the party with tactics like the government shutdown. The debate intensified on Wednesday after Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the deeply conservative Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, lost a close race...

If Republican Ken Cuccinelli does not defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s race for governor Tuesday, there is a strong possibility the GOP establishment will actually be happy, according to talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh. “‘You’re losing elections for us!’ I think that’s what they want to say,” Limbaugh said Monday. “I don’t know this, but I’m telling you that I don’t think there would be that much disappointment if Cuccinelli lost.” “If that’s right, if that happens to be true, stop and think about what that means: that you actually have the Republican establishment with a chance to win another...

Hot Air’s Allahpundit and Erika Johnsen have both documented a growing movement to boot Tea Party members of Congress over the next two election cycles. It seems that the business community is behind this conspiracy; horrified over the fact that a rather significant proportion of Republicans in Washington were willing to roll the dice on default. In the aftermath of the government shutdown, which was highly enjoyable, the Republican establishment is striking back – and one of their targets in the Senate is Mike Lee. [In Utah,] prominent Republicans and local business executives are openly discussing the possibility of mounting...

So what was accomplished by the government shutdown? Peter Beinart declares that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the resolution of the shutdown was a Republican victory because their "surrender" consisted of perpetuating federal spending at sequester levels. But I think what was accomplished was bigger. What was accomplished was that the conservative base communicated how serious it really is about reducing the size of government. The usual game in which the Democrats try to grab for as much as they can get, and Republicans fight back by giving them only half of it—and the result is that government still keeps growing,...

During an interview for “This Week,” former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush encouraged Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz – who told ABC News that he would do “anything” to stop Obamacare – to come up with an alternative and show some restraint if his aim was to repeal the president’s signature healthcare law. “I think the best way to repeal Obamacare is to have an alternative; we never hear the alternative…we could do this in a much lower cost with improved quality based on our principles, free market principles…and two, show how Obamacare, flawed to its core, doesn’t work,” Bush...

On his radio show recently, Glenn Beck urged his listeners to “defund the GOP.” Sarah Palin has threatened to leave the Republican Party; Rush Limbaugh calls it “irrelevant.” The Senate Conservatives Fund has targeted mainly incumbent Republican senators for defeat. Erick Erickson, one of the right’s most prominent commentators, wonders if what's coming is “a real third party movement that will fully divide the Republican Party.” Conservatives have declared war on the GOP. Tired of feeling taken for granted by a party that alternately panders to them and sells them down the river, in their view, Tea Partiers and others...