Beltway Republicans Respond to Bannon’s Return to Breitbart with a Collective Yawn (Goes to Yahoo News)

A few things I noted in this article:

The ousted senior White House adviser may be back guiding Breitbart’s right-wing reactionary bomb-throwing, but he’s likely to find himself in the same position that left-wing sites like Daily Kos and Huffington Post occupied when Barack Obama became president in 2009, several Republicans told Yahoo News.

“These kinds of oppositional websites are much more potent when the movement they represent is not in the White House,” said one Republican close to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “Kos became irrelevant and HuffPo basically transformed itself into a mainstream news site. The reality was that Obama had a bigger megaphone than those sites. And Trump as president has a bigger megaphone and a more loyal following than Breitbart.

“I haven’t heard any congressional Republican leaders express concern about Bannon going back to Breitbart. He’s a guy with a website. How much of a problem can a guy with a website actually be? He was much more of a problem when he had daily, hourly, access to the Oval Office,” the Ryan ally said.

I don’t think Daily Kos is irrelevant (that sounds like the charge levelled at our esteemed host here). Of course President Obama had “a bigger megaphone” than those sites: He was the President.

Bannon’s a guy with a Website. A Website backed by the Mercers and dedicated to the proposition that they despise mainstream Republicans. As for Breitbart’s loyal following, I’m willing to bet they are more loyal than a lot of Trump’s supporters. (I’ve seen some wavering here.) How much of a problem can a guy with a Website be? Fine, unnamed GOP person. Underestimating the enemy within is always a good strategy.

Democrats know Breitbart doesn’t much care for us, so we’re under no illusion Mr. Bannon would treat us fairly. But go ahead, GOP, ignore Mr. Bannon and his influence on your core voters. That should serve you us well.