I Love a Family Squabble!

No, I don’t mean a normal family squabble. Most families don’t communicate with each other enough to squabble. What I mean here is the squabble going on within the Republican Party.

The election of President Barack Obama has created a firestorm of protest among the right in this country and they have used the now too familiar strategies of fear and even hatred to galvanize people who heretofore hated our system of government so much they simply stayed home.

Pundits would have you believe that the sudden appearance of the so-called tea party movement on the political scene is attributed to a rising tide of voter anger. It is instead, an awakening or in some cases a reawakening of a right wing mentality that led to a 400% increase in death threats to the President of United States immediately following the swearing in of President Obama. The reality of a Black American presidency was simply too much for Americans who hate so much they have grown to hate their own kind for not being radical enough. The sad reality to all this is they have the audacity to claim they are not racist, that instead they just hate Obama. Of course the picket signs they carry which utilize racist caricatures of our President don’t mean their racist. They just are trying to make a point.

As the primary season for the much ballyhooed November 2010 election begins in earnest this coming week, establishment Republican candidates are the ones who find themselves in a fight because they have failed to be conservative enough. The upcoming Republican primary season could finally provide a real test of the strength and viability of the tea party.

Florida’s Governor, Charlie Crist, made the decision last week to bolt from the Republican Party as a candidate for the U.S. Senate and instead make his run for office as an Independent. In doing so, Crist manages to avoid a primary fight with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, the fair haired boy of tea party activists who have targeted Crist and other mainstream Republicans for being too moderate in their politics. Those crazies you saw last summer who showed up at town hall meetings armed to the teeth and accusing Jewish legislators like Barney Frank of being “fascists” because they supported healthcare reform have now turned their madness on their own kind for not being conservative enough.

In a political environment where all 435 House seats and 36 Senate seats are up for grabs, Democrats are hoping that recent signs that the American economy is gaining strength and improving along with the Republican infighting that has broken out primarily due to the tea party and its allies will help them to save their lead in both Houses. Even someone who carries a sign at a tea party rally that displays a caricature of President Obama as the devil knows that the more the economy and employment improves, the harder it is for the Rush Limbaugh’s of the world to spread their message of hate and discord.

An early contest will be on Tuesday in Indiana where tea party favorite Marlin Stutzman is challenging former Senator Dan Coats for the Republican nomination for retiring Senate Democrat Evan Bayh’s seat.

Today, Republican Senator Bob Bennett faces a pack of conservative challengers at the state party convention and polls today indicate he may not survive. Senator Bennett, who has always been viewed as a conservative Republican has been viciously attacked by the extreme right wing of his state party for voting in favor of the so-called Wall Street bailout.

On May 18th, Kentucky will host a showdown between Republican mainstream favorite Trey Grayson and Rand Paul, a physician and son of guess who….libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul. He has been supported by tea party groups and none other than former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. More on her in just a bit.

Winning in either state would be a huge victory for the tea partiers which to date has already lost in a special House election in New York and eight Republican primary challenges to Republican House incumbents in the great state of Texas.

One of the most telling Republican primary campaigns will end in Arizona on August 24th when President Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign Senator John McCain faces the vitriolic and extremely conservative former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth throughout the campaign has managed to push McCain further and further to the right most notably on the draconian immigration law recently passed by the Arizona state legislature and signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican who faces her own challengers from the right. Senator McCain, once a moderate on immigration and who was initially opposed to the law, ultimately threw his support to the law in the face of increasing right wing furor over his moderate stance.

And now, the coup-de-grace: It appears that the Sarah Palin endorsement of California Republican candidate for Governor Carly Fiorina has infuriated California tea party activists as well as the movement in general.

Apparently, ex-Governor Sarah Palin has outraged some of her fans with an endorsement of former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina in the GOP’s U.S. Senate primary in California. Palin endorsed Fiorina on her Facebook page stating that her experience running a major corporation is sorely lacking in Washington. Fiorina, a former adviser for the McCain-Palin 2008 ticket got the endorsement over former congressman Tom Campbell who is leading in most polls and Chuck DeVore, a favorite of tea party activists who posted en masse on Palin’s Facebook page pleas for Palin to recount her endorsement of Fiorina and instead endorse their guy Devore, even though he lags behind a distant third to both Fiorina and Campbell.

True to form, Palin later posted an addendum to her endorsement stating that “some reaction right out of the chute calls for more information.” Oops……..

Dawn Wildman whose San Diego based Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition has about 2,000 members said she has been fielding calls and emails from tea partiers who feel betrayed by Palin’s endorsement.

“My first thought when I heard about the endorsement was, wow, I guess she doesn’t plan to run in 2012” Wildman said. She went on to say that “I think most of us see Palin as a company girl now, meaning the GOP. For her to endorse Fiorina wasn’t terribly shocking. I think what is more interesting is that Palin tries to suggest she aligns herself with the tea party movement but is clearly out of touch with what the tea party movement is saying in California.”

You gotta love it……….