Rush...Caddell Bombshell: GOP Establishment Wants the IRS to Go After the Tea Party

[Gazoo]

Where do you get that I discredit the TEA Party's efforts?

They are unorthodox and maybe even unrefined but at least they're trying.

They are discredited in general and made to be worthless when Pat Caddell claims the GOP themselves want them further scrutinized by the scariest government alphabet there is, the IRS.. I can't go there and hope primary infighting does not render this true in any way. The old saying divide and conquer. During primaries all parties have infighting but this is too much and too early.

[Carling]

They are discredited in general and made to be worthless when Pat Caddell claims the GOP themselves want them further scrutinized by the scariest government alphabet there is, the IRS.. I can't go there and hope primary infighting does not render this true in any way. The old saying divide and conquer. During primaries all parties have infighting but this is too much and too early.

In Caddell's world, the GOP was so nervous about the Tea Party that they started allowing the IRS to target Tea Party groups in 2010.  This absolves Obama of blame, of course, and keeps boards like this frothing at the mouth toward each other. 

[truth_seeker]

The old saying divide and conquer. During primaries all parties have infighting but this is too much and too early.

On this point, I agree with you fully.

It is repeated, over and over, that the GOP "leadership" is weak and ineffective.

And the Tea Party movement is leaderless, by design they say. The leaders, if any, are not officeholders. DeMint, Mat Kibbe, Mary Beth, etc.

Somebody ought to lead, dial it back, lest the undecideds, the independents, the swing voters, see the whole lot of them as a spectacle.

[aligncare]

"Some" people remain obsessed with the two candidates who lost and called themselves Tea Party yet are oh so anxious to ignore all the Karl Rove candidates who did miserably.

In 2013, Tea party superpacs outperformed GOP superpacs in fund raising by a wide margin.

So one has to believe that the GOP is ineffective – per Luis' line of reasoning. It seems flyover folks are noticing they're not getting the representation they were promised and are putting their money where their principles are.

Now, turning to Democrats. It is not your grandfather's Democrat Party anymore, not by a longshot. It's been taken over by rabid uncompromising ideologues who are dragging the country kicking and screaming down a socialist path.

As for the GOPe (hope that doesn't upset some folks) they're kind of squishy and easy to roll. They've been complicit in growing government.

So, it seems only natural that against a radical, hell-bent socialist party that a strong, hell-bent, right wing party would necessarily coalesce to counter it. Thus, the rise of the tea party.

And so, to answer Luis' question. The tea party is a bigger threat to the weak-kneed, linguine-spined, roll-over-play-dead, entrenched and corrupted Republican Party.

High five, Tea Party.

[aligncare]

One more thing. Someone up thread posed a question about Pat Caddell and Democrats.

Every time Pat Caddell is on with Mark Simone, the best radio interviewer in radio history, he criticizes Democrats and the Democrat Party as well as Republicans. Caddell's not a troll with some hidden nefarious objective. I believe he loves his country. That's what it sounds like to me.

[olde north church]

Then in 2012, 8 GOP establishment-picked and financed candidates won primaries against TEA Party candidates, and lost every single one of those elections to Democrats. Two out of the three TEA Party candidates that ran won their races.

The TEA Party is a bigger threat to the GOP than they are to Democrats. They suck donations and support away from establishment GOP candidates, and run against incumbents.

The TEA Party is trying to pull off a hostile takeover of the GOP, and because of it, they are a greater danger to the GOP establishment structure, than they are to the Democrats.

So it doesn't seem very far-fetched to believe that the GOP establishment would use any and all available muscle to muzzle the TEA Party.

What's that old saying about if you want to kill the king you better do it in the daylight and better damn well succeed?  Perhaps it's time to put the "Establishment" on notice once and for all, we are coming and bringing Hell with us, to steal a phrase.

[Rapunzel]

One more thing. Someone up thread posed a question about Pat Caddell and Democrats.

Every time Pat Caddell is on with Mark Simone, the best radio interviewer in radio history, he criticizes Democrats and the Democrat Party as well as Republicans. Caddell's not a troll with some hidden nefarious objective. I believe he loves his country. That's what it sounds like to me.

I like him, Aligncare.  When did it become forboden to criticize your government unless they represent the "other" party?  This is why both parties are taking their voters for granted and giving them the middle finger all but every two/six years...  otherwise they are in bed with Wall and K.

[Gazoo]

I like him, Aligncare.  When did it become forboden to criticize your government unless they represent the "other" party?  This is why both parties are taking their voters for granted and giving them the middle finger all but every two/six years...  otherwise they are in bed with Wall and K.

Being bipartisan does not equate his statement of the GOP wanting the IRS to target conservatives as being true. It is his opinion, he has a right to express but it was not presented as anything factual.

[aligncare]

I like him, Aligncare.  When did it become forboden to criticize your government unless they represent the "other" party?  This is why both parties are taking their voters for granted and giving them the middle finger all but every two/six years...  otherwise they are in bed with Wall and K.

Excellent point. A good way of looking at it.

[Oceander]

This "place" is made up of a wide variety of posters with differing views on a number of issues, who (almost) always post respectfully and thoughtfully.

Your second statement is nothing short of ludicrous.

[katzenjammer]

One more thing. Someone up thread posed a question about Pat Caddell and Democrats.

Every time Pat Caddell is on with Mark Simone, the best radio interviewer in radio history, he criticizes Democrats and the Democrat Party as well as Republicans. Caddell's not a troll with some hidden nefarious objective. I believe he loves his country. That's what it sounds like to me.

Agree wholeheartedly, he is one of the last few of a dying breed: patriotic Americans that chose to be a part of the Democrat Party long ago, when it was much different (at least in toto) than what we see today.

[katzenjammer]

Being bipartisan does not equate his statement of the GOP wanting the IRS to target conservatives as being true. It is his opinion, he has a right to express but it was not presented as anything factual.

This is a bit of a fine point, but if you listen to what he said, he didn't imply that the GOPe "wanted" this administration to use the IRS for these purposes, but rather now that it has clearly happened, they (at least the leadership) aren't falling all over themselves rushing to actually bring the level of hearings (and hopefully appropriate punishment, which IMO should include jail time for several) to the point that there will actually be consequences.  And I agree with Caddell and Schoen that the GOPe is certainly not at all "upset" that this targeting has hurt Tea Party (and pro-Israel) groups.