Tea Party Crazies Line up to Challenge GOP Senators

Actions have consequences and we are again seeing the consequences of the GOP establishment's cynical opportunism that allowed the Christofascists and their equally insane Tea Party cousins to take over the grass roots and base of the GOP.  What am I talking about?  As Politico reports, primary challengers are lining up to take on sitting senators next year in eight of the 12 races involving incumbent GOP senators.   Make no mistake, I do not like the incumbents, but they look downright sane and rational compared to their knuckle dragging challengers, some of whom ought to be in a mental ward in my view.  The Christofascists and Tea Party will ultimately be the death of the GOP.  Here are additional excerpts from Politico:

GOP senators have aggressively tried to keep their conservative base at bay to ensure there’s virtually no space on their right for a primary foe to emerge.  That didn’t work so well.

Republican primary challengers are lining up to take on sitting senators next year in eight of the 12 races involving sitting GOP senators, gunning for party leaders like Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, veterans like Thad Cochran in Mississippi and Pat Roberts in Kansas and deal-makers like Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. Texas Sen. John Cornyn became the latest target this week, when a fiercely conservative congressman, Steve Stockman, suddenly announced plans to challenge the Senate’s second-ranking Republican in next March’s primary.

The intraparty battles are the latest iteration of the tea party-versus-establishment war that has rocked the Republican Party since the 2010 elections and thwarted their efforts to retake the majority. After watching two sitting senators — Dick Lugar of Indiana and Bob Bennett of Utah — lose to insurgent candidates in the last two cycles, tea party-backed candidates are looking to repeat their luck in 2014 and fundamentally reshape the Senate. The threat of a challenge alone has implications for policy-making in Washington — its enough to scare off attempts by many GOP senators to cut deals with Democrats and risk a revolt from the right.

While many of the GOP senators facing primary threats hold safe Republican seats, party veterans fear the endless internecine warfare will distract from the overall goal of returning to the Senate majority for the first time since 2006.

Graham, who has seen his poll numbers sag back home, called the primary battles a “fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party,” arguing that hardline conservatives are targeting “anyone who has ever worked with a Democrat on anything.”

“It is interesting that most of us are preparing for campaigns from Republicans instead of Democrats,” [Lamar] Alexander said Tuesday.

Tea-party foes are unapologetic about their tactics.  “There is a real hunger here in Kansas for new leadership — for true, conservative leadership,” said 42-year-old Milton Wolf, a physician who is challenging Roberts in a primary and who won the endorsement of the Senate Conservatives Fund on Tuesday. “

Vulnerable Democrats and open Democratic seats in South Dakota, West Virginia, Montana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alaska and Louisiana have given the GOP its best shot at retaking the majority for years to come.

But the party may be forced to divert precious resources to help shore up GOP senators in primaries, whether it’s dispatching senators to help raise cash for their colleagues or even spending money through the National Republican Senatorial Committee to protect incumbents. Even in states that lack a GOP incumbent, Republican primaries loom large . . . Democrats hope that the GOP nominees will emerge damaged by the time of the general election.

The growing number of primary battles reflects the lack of influence GOP leaders have over activists on the ground. GOP senators say it comes down to the fact that the conservative grass roots don’t listen to party leaders in Washington the way the Democratic base defers to the White House and its own leadership.

The GOP base has truly become inhabited by lunatics, religious zealots and extremists.  Now, even the party leadership cannot control the asylum inmates.