How Many House Seats Will The Republican Civil War Cost The GOP In 2014?

I know just where to go for some Inside-the-Beltway convention wisdom and yesterday I found out that momentum has swung away from House Democrats and towards House Republicans-- they're tied at 39-39%-- because Obama's image has suffered due to the amateurish roll-out of the Affordable Care Act website. The GOP-directed media frenzy over the website worked. And now it's time to get back to reality. Luckily, Pope Francis doesn't have to face a teabagger in a GOP primary. If he did, Palin thinks first Jesus-oriented Pope in our lifetimes is someone she could beat. After all, nothing threatens religionist conservatives more than Jesus' message. But Palin and her ilk will be plenty busy without primarying Pope Francis. BuzzFeed reported yesterday that one of the crackpot Tea Party groups plans to primary 87 Republicans.

And Boehner is #1 on the list! Now, to be fair, this sounds more like a typical right-wing scam to get the low-info true believers to cough up some dough so that the scammers can line their own pockets. But… they do have a website. Last year the Tea Party Leadership Fund PAC raised $1,171,143. They contributed $39,500, mostly in small increments, to 35 House candidates and $12,500 to 5 Senate candidates ($2,500 each). Two of their Senate candidates won, Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Dean Heller (R-NV), both of whom are now hated by the Tea Party. Of their 35 House candidates, 11 won and 24 lost. So that came to $52,000 of the $1,171,143. Then they spent another $154,172 on Independent Expenditures-- $127,200 against Obama, $15,000 for Allen West and $11,972 for Jeff Landry (R-LA). So, most of the money they raised was not used for political purposes, typical of right-wing scam artists who see these PACs as get-rich-quick opportunities and the small amount that was spent on politics was almost entirely wasted.

This year they've already vacuumed up over $1.3 million. So far they wasted $25,783 on an Independent Expenditure on behalf of Paul McKinely, the Republican who ran against Robin Kelly in the IL-02 special election. McKinely took 22% of the vote. And these are their direct contributions so far this year:

But now they have 87 Republicans to primary (not counting Pope Francis. Let's see, what put the bee in their bonnets. Oh, yeah… these 87 "traitors," as they call them, voted for the deal to reopen the government and keep the U.S. from defaulting. How dare they!

“From our perspective, we see this as a signature vote. You can’t be a conservative and vote to raise the debt ceiling,” [teasurer Dan] Backer said. “I recognize there are some places where voters may actually think that was the right vote. And there may be places where you have an incumbent who wins with 90% of the vote every time and there’s not a credible challenger. I recognize that, but we’re certainly going to do our best.”

Backer says the group has honed in on a few specific members to start: Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, New York Rep. Peter King, North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger, Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany, and most importantly, Backer said, House Speaker John Boehner in Ohio.

“Our goal is to keep going one after another after another as our resources allow. To get our feet wet, we’re starting out with a few, but nobody is going to get a pass,” he said.

Among the already endangered and vulnerable Republicans on their death list is this bakers dozen, who actually do need to worry about a costly primary that splits the party and makes them spend money they need in the general:

• Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Buck McKeon (R-CA)
• David Valadao (R-CA)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)
• Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY)
• John Kline (R-MN)
• Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
• Erik Paulsen (R-MN)
• Dave Reichert (R-WA)
• Pat Meehan (R-PA)
• Darrell Issa (R-CA)
• Joe Heck (R-NV)
• Mike Coffman (R-CO)

That's 13 seats, the teabaggers could give the Democrats. I'd add Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in there as well vbut Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steve Israel are still determined to protect her seat against any Democrat, despite this: