Jim DeMint Bucks GOP Establishment, Endorses Rubio Over Crist In Florida Senate Contest

This made DeMint's head explode... on so many levels

When the GOP was hysterical that they would lose the open Florida Senate seat they pressured Governor Charlie Crist to run, popular despite being a regularly outed closet case. Crist agreed to do it if he was guaranteed that he would have all the Republican Establishment support. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the chair and vice chair of the NRSC, jumped at the deal. The NRSC endorsed Crist out of the box, despite the fact that Crist has been far more supportive of Obama's agenda than any Republican in the Senate and despite the fact that the other Republican in the race, Marco Rubio, is a knee-jerk obstructionist and lemming-like right-wing fanatic (not unlike Cornyn himself).

The two highest profile closet queens in the Senate, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hopped right on board, as did retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez and former Florida Senator Connie Mack. Cornyn came through with his personal endorsement, as he had promised he would, and then a slew of GOP insiders, led by John McCain (R-AZ) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) started signing on. The Florida Republican Party is on board but Michael Steele has been too savaged by the party's extremist wing to get into the fight so the RNC is staying neutral.

Rubio has been less successful in getting any big name Republicans to get behind him, although many secretly would rather see him in the Senate than the undependable and scandal-prone Crist. Rubio managed to rope in religious right lunatic Mike Huckabee, as expected, and Jeb Bush's jailbird son, Jebby, Jr, also gave him the thumbs up.

Then today Rubio had some great news. Congress' most extreme member, South Carolina lunatic fringe senator, Jim DeMint, declared for Rubio. DeMint also has a PAC which only endorses candidates with strictly neo-fascist policy agendas. Aside from Rubio the only other endorsees this year are Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Tom Coburn in Oklahoma.

[T]he fight over the Florida Senate race is a proxy battle over the future direction of the Republican Party. The battle pits conservatives pushing candidates who adhere strictly to conservative values even if they face a bigger risk of ultimately losing against more moderate candidates who may stray from the party’s bedrock principles but give the GOP better hope in the general election.

Meanwhile, the Republican Establishment has successfully pressured another right-wing extremist, Missouri's former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, to back off her threat to primary the Insider fave, crooked Congressman Roy Blunt. Steelman will probably run for the House seat Blunt is giving up. Or maybe not. Now Steelman, best know as the Show Me State's worst political opportunist, claims that Aaron Blake, the Hill reporter who interviewed her and announced she wouldn't primary Blunt, got it wrong.

"I don't think Mr. Blake understood what I was trying to say. I said I didn't want to be destructive and immediately he thought I was saying I didn't want to be in a primary because he assumed like all the insiders do, that all primaries are destructive. The Republican establishment thinks primaries are destructive. I don't believe primaries are destructive because they provide a healthy debate about ideas such as fiscal responsibility, ethanol mandates and government bailouts. However, the Republican establishment wants to hold on to power at all costs and a primary would force the establishment to admit they made mistakes and take responsibility. Anyone who challenges those ideas threatens their power and they view it as destructive to the party. I want to be constructive and build a bigger and better party based on good ideas. I mentioned 'other outsiders' who may want to run because I don't presume to be the only one who can carry that message. However, I do believe that the messenger in order to be credible cannot be a part of the Washington establishment who lead us into the minority."

After that obvious bitchslap at Blunt she signed off with the new Dave Matthews hit, Funny The Way It Is