Teabaggers Making Trouble For The GOP Again

Trouble in paradise

What a shame there was no teabagger running for RNC Chair yesterday! Apparently, though, they're all too busy running for everything else. Last year, implausible teabaggers O'Donnell, Buck and Angle cost the GOP Senate pickups in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada. And this year just the threat of a teabaggy primary has sent Kay Bailey Hutchison into a premature retirement, rather than face the same fate meted out by the extremists to mainstream conservative incumbents Bennett (UT), Murkowski (AK) and Castle (DE). Richard Lugar (R-IN), on the other hand, thinks he can kick any teabaggy ass that comes his way. Lugar, after weeks of negotiations with teabaggers demanding he change his mainstream approach on a wide variety of agenda items, says he's expecting a primary challenge in 2012.

"I anticipate that there will be a candidate or candidates running in the Republican primary against me," Lugar said on an episode of Bloomberg TV's Political Capital to air this weekend. "This is why we have taken a very early campaign stance of vigorous fundraising, vigorous campaigning, anticipating that that kind of a campaign might occur. It's not one that I welcome, but nevertheless, this is a democracy... People are free to express views that they want to," the Indiana Republican said. "But likewise, I'm free to as vigorously as possible point out the things that I think are very important for our country."

Lugar knows he has too much clout inside the Senate for King Teabagger, Jim DeMint to fuck around with his race. DeMint picks on girls but he wouldn't dare lift a finger against Lugar. In fact, yesterday when he came barreling into the Texas Republican primary against Establishment favorite, Lt. Gov. Dave Dewhurst-- and on behalf of extremist teatards Michael Williams and Ted Cruz-- Texas' other senator-- and purported NRSC Chair-- John Cornyn, who has pledged neutrality in the race, swatted him down.

"Is that guy from Texas?" Cornyn said, after asked about DeMint's involvement.

"I'm certainly not going to weigh in or try to steer anybody in any particular direction. That's what the primary campaign is for," Cornyn added. "I just don't think these kinds of endorsements have that big of an impact. People want to jealously guard their prerogative to cast their vote, especially people who are living in that state. They don't want to delegate that authority or responsibility to someone else."

And in Virginia, where Republicans are hoping to score against the kind of conservative, uninspiring Democrat who did do badly in November, the Tea Party just threw a spanner in the works of a GOP Establishment that has already decided on ex-Senator and good old boy George Allen. Jamie Radtke, chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation filed to run for the Republican nomination for Jim Webb's seat on December 23.

She had considered running for state Senate but switched to U.S. Senate after Virginia's first tea party convention, which drew an estimated 2,800 people to Richmond in October. She said she worries that her children will suffer from a ballooning national debt and criticized Congress for its recent deal on President Bush's tax cuts.

"I am the mother of three young children, and my first priority is both to protect them today and protect their future,'' she said in a statement. "I truly worry about what the next five years holds for our children and the nation, given this climate of reckless and immoral spending. Someone must step into the gap so that our children and America are not crushed in the coming years under the weight of insurmountable debt and debilitating taxes."

There are at least 3 other Virginia teabaggers looking to jump into the race. And why not-- the more the merrier. After all, how much damage can a crazed teabagger actually do? Oh, yeah... that guy in Maine... "Maine's governor told critics Friday to 'kiss my butt' over his decision not to attend the state NAACP's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations over the holiday weekend. Gov. Paul LePage declined the organization's invitations to a dinner in Portland on Sunday night and a breakfast in Orono on Monday because of prior commitments." I got this statement from Mary Erin Casale, Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party:

"Monday is a day for both the celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the tireless movement for equality and understanding that he helped foster. Through non-violent action, peaceful assembly and soaring rhetoric, Dr. King helped show all Americans a better way forward and reminded our nation that all are created equal.
 
"The Maine Democratic Party holds the principles and vision of Dr. King as an integral part of our core values. While we remain imperfect, we have come a long way since Dr. King's speech nearly a half century ago. On this day we certainly reflect on our progress, we also look forward to bettering ourselves and our nation and to upholding the values Dr. King spoke of when he addressed a nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The continued struggle for economic justice and equal opportunity for all. 
 
"We find it unfortunate that Governor LePage dismissed one of the oldest civil rights organizations, the NAACP, as a 'special interest group' in advance of this holiday. Equality is not a special interest and we hope he can find a way find a way to use more respectful language in the future."