Politico has a piece on the rise of what they’re calling “conservatives,” but what I would call the “far right” — the surging tea party-spawned candidates who are going to make life miserable for the Republican Party (not that they don’t deserve it), and guarantee the reelection of Barack Obama with their extreme rhetoric and agenda: Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates.

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.

Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.

But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.