Radical Columnist Sees Something Amiss

Fromma Harrod has a history of attacking the TEA party.  Her recent column though is getting some attention, more attention by democrats than republicans, but when you read what she says you will understand why.

When traditional Republicans tell their tea party wing that they have to negotiate with Democrats, the radicals’ frequent response is: No, they don’t. One side has to win. But before that fistfight at the edge of the falls can take place, one side has to win within the Republican Party. Civil wars are not pretty.

The tea party movement has become the dead bad-luck bird hanging around the GOP establishment’s neck. Its anger-fueled energy has forced moderate Republicans off ballots in places where moderates tend to win. It has burdened otherwise centrist Republicans with radical positions that don’t go well with a general electorate. The Grand Old Party is being taken over by an ideological fringe with unclear motives, a loose grasp on reality and little interest in actually governing.

The most recent victim is Ohio Republican Steven LaTourette, who says that he’s had it after 18 years in the House. The uncompromising partisanship drove him out. “Anybody that doesn’t understand that in a split government, you’ve got to find a common-ground way out of it, it’s not going to be your way or the highway, is nuts,” he said.

The right wing so badgered Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe that the Republican moderate — and shoo-in for re-election — has decided to leave the Senate. Now the party may lose her Senate seat to a Democrat. In Indiana, longtime Republican statesman Sen. Richard Lugar lost the primary to Richard Mourdock, a tea party favorite. That seat is now up in the air as Mourdock and Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly battle it out. Donnelly has turned his opponent’s tea party ties into a campaign issue.

One’s rooting for traditional Republicans to retake control of the asylum and restore a normal brand of politics. That would be very good for the country, a not-small consideration. The only side winning so far is the Democrats’. [Real Clear Politics]

That last line is a bit of wishful thinking.  TEA party republicans for the most part are still winning, even though some of the ones way out on the fringe might end up on the trash heap.

The most accurate line in her column however is this one: “The Grand Old Party is being taken over by an ideological fringe with unclear motives, a loose grasp on reality and little interest in actually governing.”  Can’t say I didn’t try to warn you.