GOP Consultants Seek to Regain Control (From Tea Party, Conservatives)

Roll Call ^ | Wednesday, December 19, 2012 | Abby Livingston

[kristinn]

The internal battle for the direction of the Republican Party has enveloped Washington’s GOP consultant class, as pragmatic party strategists hired to win campaigns ponder how to reclaim control of the primary process from powerful conservative activist groups.

This developing conflict comes in the aftermath of consecutive election cycles that saw Republicans blow as many as five Senate races because the party nominated flawed candidates over those who were better suited to compete in the general election.

Some of these losing 2010 and 2012 nominees received crucial support from Washington-based tea party groups that made their primary campaigns viable. GOP consultants who found themselves on the losing end are considering the formation of outside groups of their own to counter these organizations and boost their favored candidates in the 2014 primaries.

“The bigger the office, the brighter the spotlight, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to elect a lousy candidate over a good candidate in any [general election] Senate race, regardless of ideology,” said a Republican strategist who is frustrated with the hold that conservative groups like the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and the Senate Conservatives Fund have had on the GOP primary process in recent elections.

Unlike these tea-party-affiliated groups, this Republican strategist and others who think similarly (prioritizing winning over ideological purity) argue that a Republican will always be more conservative than a Democrat and the party’s objective should be to control the White House and Congress so it can set the governing agenda and prevent Democrats from enacting laws like the Affordable Care Act.

In quiet postmortem sessions, these strategists are exploring ways to influence primaries and curb the power of the tea party groups.

[Jacquerie]

See, only Tea Party candidates can be “flawed.”

Moderate pubbies like Romney win . . .

[FlingWingFlyer]

The “GOP consultants” can guarantee the GOP that they’ll continue to lose these popularity contests every four years if they only listen to them. Can the conservative or TEA Party do that?! Heck no.

[Tony O]

Like the last campaign they won?

[skeeter]

Without names your article isn’t worth a damn.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Don’t forget Juan McCain.

[Lancey Howard]

Look how great the GOP did in California once the “moderate” GOP consultants took over the party establishment there. Maybe they can do the same thing across the entire nation!

[GenXteacher]

“pragmatic party strategists “
Translation: liars, thieves, opportunists, and commies.

“a Republican will always be more conservative than a Democrat “
Nope. The NE Republicans are scarcely more conservative than Britain’s Labour party.

[tennmountainman]

Unfortunately, it appears they are winning.
Most of the new conservative house members 2010 class will join
Bonehead and Cantor in voting for taxes tomorrow.
We keep sending them, and DC keeps turning them.

[cripplecreek]

Mark Levin's quote from a day or two after the election.

We conservatives, we do not accept bipartisanship in the pursuit of tyranny. Period. We will not negotiate the terms of our economic and political servitude. Period. We will not abandon our child to a dark and bleak future. We will not accept a fate that is alien to the legacy we inherited from every single future generation in this country. We will not accept social engineering by politicians and bureaucrats who treat us like lab rats, rather than self-sufficient human beings. There are those in this country who choose tyranny over liberty. They do not speak for us, 57 million of us who voted against this yesterday, and they do not get to dictate to us under our Constitution.

We are the alternative. We will resist. We're not going to surrender to this. We will not be passive, we will not be compliant in our demise. We're not good losers, you better believe we're sore losers! A good loser is a loser forever. Now I hear we're called 'purists.' Conservatives are called purists. The very people who keep nominating moderates, now call us purists the way the left calls us purists. Yeah, things like liberty, and property rights, individual sovereignty, and the Constitution, and capitalism. We're purists now. And we have to hear this crap from conservatives, or pseudo-conservatives, Republicans.

[Political Junkie Too]

The NE Republicans are scarcely more conservative than Britain’s Labour party.

It's hard to believe that Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee was once a Republican in the Senate.

-PJ

[TADSLOS]

Regain control of what, Boehner’s crying towel?

[elkfersupper]

I have a solution for these morons trying to keep their social club: go away voluntarily or get fired.

[Trueblackman]

0-3 since 2006 enough said right there!

[cripplecreek]

I have a solution for these morons trying to keep their social club: go away voluntarily or get fired.

Better yet, go work for the democrats.

[Migraine]

Someone needs to tell these nameless wonders the jig is up.

[Yashcheritsiy]

This developing conflict comes in the aftermath of consecutive election cycles that saw Republicans blow as many as five Senate races because the party nominated flawed candidates over those who were better suited to compete in the general election.

Are they talking about candidates like Berg in ND, Rehberg in MT, Scott Brown in MA, Connie Mack in FL, and Tommy Thompson in WI, you know, outsider Tea Party radicals who lost in elections that could have been won?

[Venturer]

We have had a bellyful of GOP consultant losers, Certainly they seek control, but it’s too late.

They have two choices, Bring the GOP together behind Conservatives and the Tea party or do what they have done in the last 2 losing campaigns, Split the party and lose.

Me? I am ready to move on. If nothing else I will go independent.

[Timber Rattler]

The GOP-E can go to hell and take its crooked consultants with it.

[Perkalong]

These consultants would rather have President Obama and the Democrats control Washington than have genuine conservatives in power.

It is time to SMASH the GOP and start a new political party.