A Look At How The "Tea Party" Movement Is Fracturing The Republican Party

Great article over at DailyKos regarding the split in the Republican party over the "tea baggers." (Never mind the fact that the term "tea bagging" is not exactly user friendly, LOL). While the Democratic party stands to lose a lot in 2010 based on the dissatisfaction of liberals and progressives, who feel Obama, et al, have reneged on the promises made to them, which promises made said liberals and progressives not only donate millions and millions of dollars in small amount contributions, but generated a base that came out in fantastic numbers to overwhelmingly vote Democratic, the Republicans are facing their own insurgency.

What has been buried in the main stream media, is how the Republican party faces implosion over this new insurgency in their ranks. NY-23 is a prime example of just how bad the Tea Party movement within the Republican party is.

What made the betrayal of DeDe Scozzafava so extraordinary was the reaction of the "official" GOP to the events as they transpired. In short, the reaction was so scattershot that it bordered on the comical.

In one hand, the Republican party funded the Scozzafava candidacy with independent expenditures that may well have topped a million dollars. In the other hand was the steadily increasing number of Republican "regulars" eager to embrace the third-party insurgent conservative, Doug Hoffman. It culminated in the campaign's final week, when no less a Republican figure than national party chairman Michael Steele essentially abandoned his own nominee, saying that a Hoffman victory would be just fine by him, since Hoffman, too, was a registered Republican.

This is a microcosm of the problem confronting the GOP. They want to harness the potential political energy and power of the "tea party" movement. But they are very wary of ceding their party to that movement. Thus, the often absurd dance of the Republican Party, which in one breath embraces the teabaggers while in the next breath endeavoring hard to keep them at arms length.