I used to be a center right Republican who donated and who actively campaigned for the GOP online, but that was pre-tea party and the great RINO hunt. So the past two years they’ve sent me a veritable mountain of mailers begging funds, all of which have hit the shredder. Richard Viguerie: you can take your mailers along with your pup tent party elsewhere because you’ve lost me forever with the tea party’s narrow minded vision.

True to form & as I predicted right after the election many in the Tea Party are going to double down on their willfully insular march further into the nether fringes of the far right.

In a Washington news conference the day after the election, longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie argued that Romney had no core conservative principles, and flatly stated, “The battle to take over the Republican Party begins today.”

The Los Angeles Times’ Robin Abcarian writes that Viguerie called for the resignation of the entire GOP leadership for its “epic election failure of 2012.” He singled out RNC chair Reince Priebus, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And that wasn’t all:

“In any logical universe,” Viguerie said, “establishment Republican consultants such as Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and Romney campaign senior advisors Stuart Stevens and Neil Newhouse would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again and no one would give a dime to their ineffective ‘super PACs.’”

Also attending the news conference was Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. Like Viguerie, she wasn’t happy:

“What we got was a weak moderate candidate handpicked by the Beltway elites and country-club establishment wing of the Republican Party. The presidential loss is unequivocally on them,” she said.

Not everyone on the right buys that argument. According to Abcarian’s article, conservative columnist Michael Barone “told an audience at Hillsdale College’s center in Washington that the tea party, while bringing some talented politicians to the fore, also brought some ‘wackos and weirdos and witches.’” Barone singled out Todd Akin, the unsuccessful GOP Senate candidate in Missouri, and Richard Mourdock, who performed the same role in Indiana.

Read more

Also noteworthy from the same article:

Republicans so far have lost 13 overall seats to the Democrats 6 after you discount the Democrat vs Democrat contests, and in every contest where they are still counting or recounting the Democrat candidate holds the lead. California’s Bilbray and Lundgren look like they will lose. So the final numbers could be as bad as the GOP netting down 18 total seats to a Democrat loss of 6 for a net gain of 12 Democrat Senate and House seats this election.

Still uncalled. With Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) conceding defeat, there are five House races yet to be officially decided. Here are the latest totals as of Sunday:

Ariz. 02: Rep. Ron Barber (D) leads GOP challenger Martha McSally by 330 votes.

Ariz. 09: Kyrsten Sinema (D) leads Vernon Parker (R) by more than 4,700 votes in this new district.

Calif. 07: Rep. Dan Lungren (R) trails Democratic challenger Ami Bera by 1,779 votes.

Calif. 52: Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) trails Democratic challenger Scott Peters by 1,334 votes.

Fla. 18: Rep. Allen West (R) trails Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by 1,907 votes.

Incumbents defeated (thus far). In addition to Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), these congressional incumbents went down to defeat on Nov. 6:

Republicans (13): Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), David Rivera (Fla.), Joe Walsh (Ill.), Robert Dold (Ill.), Judy Biggert (Ill.), Bobby Schilling (Ill.), Roscoe Bartlett (Md.), Chip Cravaack (Minn.), Frank Guinta (N.H.), Charlie Bass (N.H.), Nan Hayworth (N.Y.), Ann Marie Buerkle (N.Y.), Quico Canseco (Texas).

Democrats (10): Pete Stark (Calif.)*, Howard Berman (Calif.)*, Joe Baca (Calif.)*, Laura Richardson (Calif.)*, Leonard Boswell (Iowa), Ben Chandler (Ky.), Kathy Hochul (N.Y.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Betty Sutton (Ohio), Mark Critz (Pa.).