The Rebound Girl

Think of this situation like this... You have just gone through a break up after dating someone for eight years (Now, hold on... before you wonder why this is labeled politics instead of relationships, I'll explain. I'm definitely going somewhere with this...) You date someone for eight years and now, he/she tells you it's over. You are heartbroken... desperate! You start seeing someone who is really not your cup of tea and not up to your standards, just because he/she is giving you some attention. You don't want your friends to see you with this person, so you keep them a well-guarded secret. One day, while you're out with your friends, your well-guarted secret that you've been playing with under the cover of darkness makes themselves known! Your secret is out! What, pray tell, are you going to do now?

That little scenario is how the Republican Party has dealt with the Tea Party and the nut wing that is the extreme right... cast out of the White House, The Senate, and The House by a fickle and angry electorate... they played footsie with the extreme right wing and the Tea Party that grew from it. I've always suspected that the majority of Republicans found these extreme right wingers and the Tea Party crowd almost as repulsive as I find them... but yet, they were willing to play ball with them because they were generating the only enthusiastic voting base they could muster up.

Last night, a couple of Tea Bag backed candidates upset some moderate Republican incumbants, including one in my own backyard who bears an uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin. Surprise GOP Senate primary winner Christine O'Donnell called on fellow Republicans to rally around her Wednesday, but she can count out at least one... respected longtime Rep. Michael Castle, her opponent in the nasty primary fight. The tea party-backed Christine O'Donnell sounded upbeat as she made the rounds of morning talk shows to discuss her stunning upset of Castle, a former two-term governor who is the longest-serving congressman in state history and up until then, had never lost an election.

Mike Castle's spokeswoman Kate Dickens said Wednesday that the congressman will not support O'Donnell in her November race against Democratic county executive Chris Coons for the seat vacated by Joe Biden when he became Vice President. The primary contest was one of the ugliest in Delaware history, with O'Donnell supporters suggesting, among other things, that the 71 year old Castle would die in office if elected and that he was cheating on his wife with a man.

Mike Castle and the state GOP responded with ads criticizing O'Donnell, 41 years old, for lying about her education and record, leaving a trail of unpaid bills that included unsettled campaign debts, tax liens, a default on her mortgage, and using campaign finances for personal expenses. State Republican Party chairman Tom Ross denounced her as a "liar and a fraud who couldn't be elected dog catcher. "My, my, my... he sounds like he's been reading "Keith's Space".

Now see? This is exactly what I mean... The Republican Old Guard is having a problem with the new kids on the block... the grass roots organized Tea Party crowd. Just what is it that we are looking at here? How do you make sense of Christine O’Donnell's stunning defeat of Mike Castle in Delaware? Carl Paladino crushing Rick Lazio in New York’s GOP gubernatorial primary? And, Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne still running neck-and-neck in New Hampshire’s Senate GOP contest?

It’s simple: We’re witnessing a purge within the Republican Party. A longtime moderate like Mike Castle? Gone. A well-known fixture in New York politics like Rick Lazio (who agreed to be the party's sacrificial lamb to Hillary Clinton in 2000)? Adios. Ayotte supporting Sonia Sotomayor’s SCOTUS nomination? Problematic. This is no longer George W. Bush’s Republican Party or even Ronald Reagan’s (at least, not the Reagan who raised taxes and agreed to amnesty for illegal immigrants).

It’s a Republican Party that’s being led by wingnuts like Sarah Palin, James DeMint, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh. And, while Sarah Palin is the icing on the cake here, James DeMint is the real player... the unofficial head of the GOP Senate’s Tea Party caucus and the guy who truly bears the most watching.

Understand this though... the American people are fickle. I said that in a post last week. So, knowing that, know this... this purge or split isn’t out of the ordinary. It’s what political parties do after they lose, and what has happened within the GOP after 2006 and 2008 is that those who value ideological purity the most are beating those who value winning the most (incumbants and career politicians). As a matter of fact, the Democrats went through this same thing in the '70s.

So, now the girl... the one you were kicking it with in secret when you were down and out. The rebound girl has now come to your table where you were dining with your friends. They are looking at you and you are speechless. The cat is out of the bag! You either have to lie and say that she's not with you, that you've never seen her before, or you have to claim her and thus, let your freinds know what you're really about and who you really are. At any rate, it makes you look as nervous as a hooker at church choir rehearsal!

Somewhere, Barack Obama has got to be smiling just a little bit!