The message from Karl Rove’s allies to rich donors is pretty simple: We need your cash to avoid repeating the problems that tanked our $300 million 2012 effort, and we can promise you anonymity.
The Conservative Victory Project, the new spin-off from Rove’s Crossroads groups, will consist of a super PAC that discloses its donations, and POLITICO has learned it will also include a tax-exempt group that allows it to shield donors.
In essence, this is the GOP establishment’s attempt to make candidates for Republican nominations prove themselves before blowing winnable elections like Todd Akin and Christine O’Donnell, and Rove’s allies hope the combination of cash and scrutiny does the trick. ...Politico
The Rove attack on elements within his own party may result in a guaranteed Democratic victory -- and/or series of Democratic victories. Charles Blow looks at what Karl Rove may accomplish with his effort to make tea partyers either toe his line or get out.
Democrats could be the ultimate beneficiaries of this tiff. Of the 33 Senate seats up for election in 2014, 20 are held by Democrats. Seven of those 20 are in states that President Obama lost in the last presidential election. Republicans would have to pick up only a handful of seats to take control of the chamber.
But some in the Tea Party are threatening that if their candidate is defeated in the primaries by a candidate backed by Rove’s group, they might still run the Tea Party candidate in the general election. That would virtually guarantee a Democratic victory.
Sal Russo, a Tea Party strategist, told Politico: “We discourage our people from supporting third-party candidates by saying ‘that’s a big mistake. We shouldn’t do that.’ ” He added: “But if the position [Rove’s allies] take is rule or ruin — well, two can play that game. And if we get pushed, we’re not going to be able to keep the lid on that.”
The skirmish speaks to a broader problem: a party that has lost its way and can’t rally around a unified, coherent vision of what it wants to be when it grows up.
The traditional Republican message doesn’t work. Rhetorically, the G.O.P. is the party of calamity. The sky is always falling. Everything is broken. Freedoms are eroding. Tomorrow is dimmer than today. ...Blow, NYT
After a while, though, that gets old. How long can a party survive when it depends on suppliers of bunker furnishings? With Glenn Beck as their most listened-to spokesman? After all, we're "founded" on the politics of compromise. A January Pew Research poll confirms our loyalty to that basic tenet of our Constitution.
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