WSJ: GOP Massaging Tea Party to Keep Unelectable Candidates Home

[mystery-ak]

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=565631


Newsmax
WSJ: GOP Massaging Tea Party to Keep Unelectable Candidates Home
Tuesday, April 15, 2014 07:55 AM

By: Melissa Clyne

A quiet campaign has been underway by traditional Republicans to assuage the tea party as part of the GOP’s bid to reclaim the Senate in the midterm elections, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The crusade has been mostly successful, according to the newspaper. One exception is Mississippi, where tea party state Sen. Chris McDaniel has momentum in his Republican primary campaign against U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, Breitbart reported.

In addition to filling conventional candidates’ campaign coffers, party leaders have also resorted to "diplomacy" with members of the tea party, according to the Journal.

"We did that by going to the tea party groups and saying, 'We want to win,'" Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the newspaper. "I think we did it a little smarter this time."

In past elections, the tea party’s decision to run unelectable candidates, such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Todd Akin in Missouri, negatively affected the party, the Journal reports.

The diplomatic effort – convincing tea party groups and their supporters that a traditional conservative is better than a Democrat – appears to be paying off in places such as North Carolina, where state House Speaker Thom Tillis "has a clear financial advantage" over more marginal challengers in the bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, according to the Journal.

In Colorado, the mainstream GOP convinced tea party candidate Ken Buck to forgo challenging Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, and instead run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Cory Gardner, "clearing the way for Mr. Gardner to seek the Senate nomination," the Journal said.

Gardner, according to the Journal, has more mainstream appeal. His campaign raised $1.4 million in the first quarter.

The GOP goal is a net gain of six Senate seats to retake control of the chamber.

[Relic]

The Tea Party is not extreme, nor is it radicalized. The Tea Party is what the Republican party used to be.

We are headed to a European socialist state, (if we aren't there already). The GOPe desperately desires to be European style conservatives. That is, they support big government, and simply promise to manage it more efficiently.

[Oceander]

There is no such thing as the "Tea Party" - there are simply various groups of individuals who identify themselves as tea partiers and who tend to have similar, but not identical, views on certain things.

It's good to see that some cooler tea partier heads are prevailing in some races.

[Fishrrman]

Oceander writes above:
[[ There is no such thing as the "Tea Party" - there are simply various groups of individuals who identify themselves as tea partiers and who tend to have similar, but not identical, views on certain things. ]]

Hmmm, leemmeeeseee here....

How does that sayin' go?
Where there's smoke..... ????

For something of which there "is no such thing", there sure seems to be one of the greatest political efforts of recent memory to stomp out a "nonexistant" fire !!!

[Oceander]

Oceander writes above:
[[ There is no such thing as the "Tea Party" - there are simply various groups of individuals who identify themselves as tea partiers and who tend to have similar, but not identical, views on certain things. ]]

Hmmm, leemmeeeseee here....

How does that sayin' go?
Where there's smoke..... ????

For something of which there "is no such thing", there sure seems to be one of the greatest political efforts of recent memory to stomp out a "nonexistant" fire !!!

Please point me to the Tea Party as such; the actual organization, with a membership and officers, and whatnot.  The GOP exists as a party, the DNC exists as a party, there is no party called the Tea Party.  There are instead - as I pointed out - groups of individuals who feel a common bond, and these groups, as groups, feel similarly, even though (a) none of them feels precisely the same as any other on exactly the same subjects, and (b) none of the groups has any say-so or authority over the others.

[Fishrrman]

Oceander writes:
[[ Please point me to the Tea Party as such; the actual organization, with a membership and officers, and whatnot.  The GOP exists as a party, the DNC exists as a party, there is no party called the Tea Party. ]]

You may be absolutely right.

As I mentioned above, perhaps there's nuthin' there but smoke.

But it sure seems to be blowin' in a lot of folks' eyes right now.

Especially those of the GOP-e ...

[Formerly Once-Ler]

The Tea Party is not extreme, nor is it radicalized. The Tea Party is what the Republican party used to be.

Really?  When?
When Nixon was President?  When Dole was Senate leader?  When Dubya passed prescription drugs?  Under Reagan when he amnestied 3 million illegals and the deficits and debt soared to record levels?

please enlighten me.

[Relic]

Really?  When?
When Nixon was President?  When Dole was Senate leader?  When Dubya passed prescription drugs?  Under Reagan when he amnestied 3 million illegals and the deficits and debt soared to record levels?

please enlighten me.

Ok, you got me. The Tea Party isn't radical, nor extreme, I stand by that. But... it's not what the Republican party was. The Republicans were never that interested in small government.