Republicans Receive Boost in Senate Primaries
Before you celebrate you need to understand that the Tea Party still has huge influence over the GOP. To collect these wins all of these “establishment” candidates had to become Tea Party proxies; they had to stake out positions that were the same as their opponents to preclude loss of financing, backers, and attacks by the Tea Party’s massive noise machine - which was wrested from GOP control back in 2006 during the great RINO hunt. The Tea Party really doesn’t have to kick out the incumbents if they force the incumbents to sign up for their agenda to win.
So don’t expect tone in Washington to change for the better if the establishment candidates win, because if they gain the majority political knife-fighting will only get worse. Think in terms of all the craptastic Tea Party grandstand bills that didn’t make it through the past six years, and think of the good chances that they will once the newly remolded establishment is in power.
Republicans’ hopes of taking back the Senate received a big boost in primary elections Tuesday, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) easily winning and other candidates favored by the party establishment beating back tea party challengers.
After years of intraparty turmoil that cost Republicans key races, voters this year are coalescing around the GOP’s strongest candidates ahead of November’s general election, when control of the Senate during President Obama’s final two years in office will be up for grabs.
On Tuesday, the most consequential day of voting so far this year, Democrats were left disappointed. GOP Senate candidates prone to making controversial statements lost to better-financed, more disciplined rivals with the potential to capitalize on Obama’s unpopularity and the troubles with his signature health-care law.
