Senate Republicans plan to play bigger role in GOP primaries
The Senate GOP this week chose Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) to coordinate their 2014 campaigns, with an assist from Texas Sen.-elect Ted Cruz, who has close ties to the tea party.
The two conservative lawmakers, with help on fundraising from Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), are tasked with reaching out to tea party and other activists. They hope to avoid the nomination of candidates such as Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, who GOP leaders believe cost them a Senate seat with controversial comments about rape.
“You have to fix the problem and get better candidates,” said a Senate GOP aide. “We need a clear discussion at the beginning on who are conservatives that can win and who are bad candidates.…You have to collaborate with conservatives on the front end.”…
“It’s music to my ears if they really believe that,” said Matt Canter, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “From what I know about the tea party, or the extreme of the Republican base, what makes them go crazy is the notion of the Washington establishment telling them who their nominee should be.”
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
I don’t care if it’s the “establishment” so long as the establishment’s candidate — and the establishment itself — defeats Democrats and deprives them of power.
Punchenko on November 17, 2012 at 3:10 PM
psssst….hey dumbass….thats the whole problem with the GOP as a party. We don’t need “candidates who can win”…you see, anyone can win, re: 2012 elections. How about letting US FIND OUR OWN REPRESENTATIVES, who represent what we want, what we believe, and will work to achieve that.
Bob Dole is a decent, honest man. But all he ever did was compromise. We no longer want compromise. We want constitutional, limited government.
BobMbx on November 17, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter here we come?
Yuck. And someone needs to smack John Cornyn over the head while they’re at it.
Stoic Patriot on November 17, 2012 at 3:18 PM
As a TEA Party supporter I’m not so much against the establishment as I am the cowardly, feckless, unprincipled, useless, go-along to get long, sellouts that make up a majority of the establishment. Men and women who don’t want to serve to actually make a difference but rather love the power, attention, perks, and ego boost they get out of serving.
If Ted Cruz, Jim DeMint and other conservatives are considered establishment by the Dems, so what. I welcome their help. But I would reject the interference of McConnell, Graham, Lugar, and other deadwood.
Now, how do we make sure our guys don’t have the deadwood behind them pushing their agenda?
Charlemagne on November 17, 2012 at 3:19 PM
Donk has a point.
Lest Smart Reasonable Republicans get to carried away with their “we need to tell the people who is not a reasonable candidate” thesis, it needs to be repeated in bolded capital letters that 1) they did that this time 2) the Republican nominated Mitt Romney.
Let me say that again:
The Republicans nominated Mitt Romney.
If you’re one of those people who think that real reason Romney didn’t win is that he had to fight for the nomination until *faints* the end of March, you need to seek professional help, or switch parties and harangue them for a change.
HitNRun on November 17, 2012 at 3:22 PM
I hope these guys understand that when Todd Akins don’t exist the left will invent them.
While I agree Akin should have stepped aside, he’s not the overarching problem. Purging the Todd Akins from the party won’t automatically infuse voters with critical thinking skills.
We’re wringing our hands over a guy in our party who said something controversial about rape meanwhile the biggest rockstars in the opposition party have been credibly accused of rape, leaving women to drown, etc.
The main problem is the culture. Poor parenting, biased media, lefty indoctrination camps aka public schools all contribute. We have reached the tipping point where this thing is going to take a generation to solve, not an election cycle. Gird your loins.
Kataklysmic on November 17, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Heh! We’ve all just been begging for this, haven’t we?. More GOP establishment input into our decisions.
a capella on November 17, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Agreed.
I was one of the loudest voices after 2008 calling for the grassroots to have more power in the selection process.
After the debacle of the 2010 primaries, it’s clear the grassroots was given too much power.
KingGold on November 17, 2012 at 3:25 PM
First, of all, Tood Akin wasn’t a Tea Party candidate. Mourdock was, but he was also a widely-respected state senator.
Instead of dumping on the Tea Party, maybe the establishment RINOs should fix their own crappy candidate problem as well as the fact that the DSCc completely outclassed the NRSC in terms of campaign mechanics at ever turn. Rick Berg’s flaccid mess of a campaign wasn’t the Tea Party’s fault. Neither was: Rehberg, Allen, Wilson, Thompson, Brown, Mack, Smith, or Mandel. Neither was the utter failure to make even a half-assed effort in New York, Minnesota, or Washington.
Robert_Paulson on November 17, 2012 at 3:29 PM
Let us not forget that several of the brightest stars in the Senate GOP were backed by the Tea Party against the Establishment: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, Rand Paul.
Robert_Paulson on November 17, 2012 at 3:38 PM
LOL– So here’s a group that wants to make sure that they don’t get an Akin and yet the Dems and the media are still labeling them as extreme right wing.
Yeah Repubs keep up the circular firing squad.. And go ahead and capitualate on abortion, gay marriage, and immigration-and when it makes ZERO difference on the media and the Dems labeling you sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic(because that is in the Dem playbook) don’t cry that the socons lost ya votes.. mmkay.
melle1228 on November 17, 2012 at 3:39 PM
+1,000
BINGO! Republicans still have won the information war on whether or not they were instrumental in passing the Civil Rights. Do we really think if we capitulated EVERYTHING to the left except fiscal that suddenly we are going to be defined as loving, tolerant moderates.. Bahhhaaaawaaah
melle1228 on November 17, 2012 at 3:42 PM
Agreed. Until the GOP finds a way of framing its message instead of letting the left/media frame it, there will always be one or two GOP candidates who will be the victim of the media meme.
For every Akin, there is an Allen. For every Mourdock, there is a Brown. And how the hell did Baldwin beat Thompson when the Wisconsin legislature went Republican and Walker just won his recall election?
The GOP and the media go out of their way to blame the election on Akin Mourdock and the Tea Party, but conveniently forget the GOPe backed candidates who failed.
NoNails on November 17, 2012 at 3:46 PM
This ^
Dems have some really extreme positions as well. Obama voted against giving a born baby medical treatment and yet no one is changing them. Why? Because they control the narrative on their candidates.
melle1228 on November 17, 2012 at 3:54 PM
And two of those “brightest starts” have come out in favor of blanket amnesty for millions of illegals (Rubio and Paul). IIRC, Rubio distanced himself from the TP after he won.
I’m hoping Cruz won’t disappoint. He came to alot our tea party senatorial forums and has said he’ll come speak at some meetings.
TxAnn56 on November 17, 2012 at 4:08 PM
brightest
startsstarsTxAnn56 on November 17, 2012 at 4:10 PM
The citizens of each state, not Washington DC, should decide who their representatives in Washington DC will be.
FloatingRock on November 17, 2012 at 4:14 PM
The GOP will betray you
True_King on November 17, 2012 at 4:17 PM
The Tea Party backs some really good candidates, but other times they go down in flames because they simply are not ready for the big stage. I hate — hate! — Richard Lugar, but in hindsight it would have been better to keep him and his adult diaper in that Indiana Senate seat. Just sayin’.
Punchenko on November 17, 2012 at 4:31 PM
Hey D!ckwads …
You didn’t lose because of bad candidates.
Unless of course – you’re now admitting that Willard was a bad candidate!
HondaV65 on November 17, 2012 at 4:45 PM
Perhaps you’re right about the diaper. Lugar was a petulant little crybaby who didn’t campaign for Mourdock after the primary was over. Imagine how it might have turned out if Lugar had accepted the will of the voters and took Mourdock under his wing to show him how and what to do to win in Indiana. After all, he did it for decades without actually living there.
The more I think about it, the more I think that it will be much easier to beat a Demonrat than it would have been to beat an established Republican in these swing states so maybe losing some of these seats isn’t such a bad thing.
Odysseus on November 17, 2012 at 5:54 PM