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But now they are beginning to see that the Tea Party is not going away. We have a solid group in the House and a beachhead with a few in the Senate. The old guard would ignore them, but we will run primary candidates against them and some of them will lose.

Bingo. And that was what was so important about what Cruz did, and why it was successful (in terms of the bigger battle). It is much harder in the Senate, by its nature, to rid a party of useless chaff. The elections are statewide (thus requiring the use of the media), and only occur every 6 years, enabling incumbents to reposition themselves as necessary. But what Cruz did was force them into a box that they cannot get out of. By exposing the parliamentary tricks, in a public, dramatic way, he has forced the old guard to own at least part of this trainwreck.

I have no doubt that several of this old guard will now get primaried, thanks to Cruz. Will we be able to repeal Obamacare? Probably not, although the extreme public pressure they are feeling makes it more likely than it was. My biggest concern now is the quality of candidates that will run against the GOPe senators. We have had some good, but also some atrocious, and we really need sharp, aggressive candidates that know how to fend off the inevitable caricatures that the media will broadcast.