Mariahxxx
Official Checked Star Member
Well well. First it was McCain choosing Palin as his VP running mate and then the tea party began to infiltrate and divide the party even more. Now with the failed strategies and the ass whipping that Romney took that for some reason republicans were certain was going to be a landslide victory, the party was already seeing all time low numbers even before the shutdown disaster. Now polls show the GOP nominee trailing in a Virginia governor's race that history says a Republican should win.
2016 hopeful and rising star of the party Marco Rubio pissed off a lot of GOPers with his cramming of an immigration bill through the senate. Mitch McConnell may very well lose his once set in stone seat to either a tea party challenger or a very well-regarded democrat challenger.
Even people within the party are dumbstruck about the collapse of the party's popularity with the American people. Strategists are fumbling for new ideas to focus on to try an steer this away from what's become of the right wing. "If we don't find common ground and stand on the same side of the line, we're going to have a very ugly and rough couple of years," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who directed political affairs in President George W. Bush's White House.
To John Ullyot, a former Senate aide to moderate Republicans, "the big takeaway from this last battle was the true separation of the pro-business, establishment Republicans, and what they see as the rebels who are driving the party over the cliff."
Many GOP donors, Ullyot said, "are starting to hold off on any contributions for the time being, until the party figures out how to deal with these upstart Republicans."
Peter A. Wish, a veteran GOP fundraiser from Sarasota, Fla., said the activists he talks with are "pretty much divided" over the fallout from the debt and shutdown debates. Some support Cruz's hard-line stand "regardless of the consequences," Wish said. But another faction, he said, "is totally fed up" with an ideological group "picking fights it can't win."
Tea party groups aren't waiting.
For a third straight election, they hope to oust Republican incumbents they view as too willing to work with Democrats. Those targets could include 35-year veteran Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, whose resume includes managing the 1998 effort to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Many Republican consultants say the party's internal struggles will continue until a leader emerges as the 2016 presidential nominee. Fagen, however, says she worries that the nominee could be nearly perfect, "but it's not good enough for the ideologues, and they run a third-party candidate."
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2016 hopeful and rising star of the party Marco Rubio pissed off a lot of GOPers with his cramming of an immigration bill through the senate. Mitch McConnell may very well lose his once set in stone seat to either a tea party challenger or a very well-regarded democrat challenger.
Even people within the party are dumbstruck about the collapse of the party's popularity with the American people. Strategists are fumbling for new ideas to focus on to try an steer this away from what's become of the right wing. "If we don't find common ground and stand on the same side of the line, we're going to have a very ugly and rough couple of years," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who directed political affairs in President George W. Bush's White House.
To John Ullyot, a former Senate aide to moderate Republicans, "the big takeaway from this last battle was the true separation of the pro-business, establishment Republicans, and what they see as the rebels who are driving the party over the cliff."
Many GOP donors, Ullyot said, "are starting to hold off on any contributions for the time being, until the party figures out how to deal with these upstart Republicans."
Peter A. Wish, a veteran GOP fundraiser from Sarasota, Fla., said the activists he talks with are "pretty much divided" over the fallout from the debt and shutdown debates. Some support Cruz's hard-line stand "regardless of the consequences," Wish said. But another faction, he said, "is totally fed up" with an ideological group "picking fights it can't win."
Tea party groups aren't waiting.
For a third straight election, they hope to oust Republican incumbents they view as too willing to work with Democrats. Those targets could include 35-year veteran Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, whose resume includes managing the 1998 effort to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Many Republican consultants say the party's internal struggles will continue until a leader emerges as the 2016 presidential nominee. Fagen, however, says she worries that the nominee could be nearly perfect, "but it's not good enough for the ideologues, and they run a third-party candidate."
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