There Is A Brutal Civil War In The GOP, And It Looks Like Karl Rove Will Be The First Casualty

Business Insider ^ | |Nov. 10, 2012 | Grace Wyler

[Kevmo]

Grassroots Republican operatives and Movement conservatives are quickly turning against the GOP Establishment in the wake of the party's expensive defeat this election cycle.

Republicans we spoke to this week voiced a near-universal disgust with the national Republican Party leaders and Washington political class, who are seen as having put their personal financial interest above winning the election.

As this internecine struggle gathers steam, the first target appears to be Karl Rove, the former Bush campaign mastermind who has dictated much of the GOP's strategy over the past decade.

In the wake of the party's 2012 losses, however, Rove and his well-funded American Crossroads super PAC have become a symbol of misguided Establishment strategy, party cronyism, and Beltway bloat. .... The party's perceived betrayal of Akin confirmed what many grassroots conservative activists had long suspected: That the Republican Establishment was willing to throw the base under the bus to serve the interests of deep-pocketed donors. .... In a post leading the conservative site RedState this weekend, the Romney campaign is accused of being a "con job," in which consultants spun "false data as truth in order to paint a rosy picture of a successful campaign as a form of job security." .... And among Republicans, there is a sense that the Establishment is getting what it deserves. In an email to Business Insider, one GOP strategist summed it up:

"A party who won't paint in bold colors, who puts out flawed messengers, who doesn't focus on fundamentals, who pisses off the young and the libertarian, well, that party just got what was coming to it."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/karl-rove-gop-money-civil-war-republicans-2012-11#ixzz2C3muQ2J7

[C. Edmund Wright]

Actually, both are true on Santorum. The Mitt team created the Santorum monster to beat Newt - and then be damned, if they didn’t have to then kill that monster. So yes, both are true, just one happened in Dec, Jan Feb and the next stage happened in March and April. Or something like that. Having said that, the Santorum thing was never going anywhere because he is really a pro life liberal. Awful awful record on unions, taxes, etc. But that’s another story.

But don’t fret the division. There is only one option to division: it’s called the Politburo. I don’t think we want that. What has to happen is the remnant of the Reagan revolution, now the Rush, Levin, Tea Party, Palin, revolution, has to regain control of the GOP from the Bush Rove Wing. This will not happen with a kumbaya come together moment. There will be a civil war in the GOP. But don’t fear it. It is necessary. Fear only the wrong guys winning it.

And it’s not about the social issues versus the other issues so much, though that’s a part of it. It’s more about how hard, or how soft, we are going to fight. We fought soft this time. Like we did in 08. And lost. And people say it was just fraud.

Maybe it was, but if so, that’s a result of us going soft on voter ID and early voting and stuff like that. Again, that’s the fault of the estabs.....

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I think the "establishment" is being overblown but I really don't care about that--I want to win election. So where do we go from here?

I'm in Iowa and the parade is already beginning. There will not be even one candidate who is acceptable to everyone so if we're going to unite in our desire to defeat a far worse Democrat, we must hang together.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Your heart is in the right place, but you have a huge blindspot. Fighting the establishment is exactly what is needed to achieve your goals - to beat liberals in elections. Until you open your mind to that, you will never even comprehend what it is that is standing in the way of what your heart yearns for.

So, whether you like it or not, where we go from here is where Reagan went in 76 - and where Newt went in 93 - and where the masses went in 2009 - which is to take over the party and form a winning message and a winning team. Thus, we won in 80, 94 and 2010 - smashing victories fought over the objections of the establishment.

Meanwhile, the estabs got their way in 92, 96, 98, 96, 98 and 2012 - and we got trounced. In 00 and 04, there was sort of a nuanced hybrid.