Bypassing the poohbahs
by digby
Rush says that the GOP DC establishment are a bunch of pansies: they “don’t like conflict, don’t like criticism of Obama, don’t like confrontation” Go to any right wing web site and you’ll read the same thing. The Republicans in Washington are cooperating far too much with the Democrats and they need to be brought to heel. I’m fairly sure they believe this.
I’ll be curious to see if Newtie uses this line to make a pitch as the anti-establishment candidate. Limbaugh loves him. And after all the naysaying among the GOP Bigwings this week, I think he has a case.
Ed Kilgore laid out the reasoning:
[T]hose pundits willing to entertain “anything’s possible” scenarios to thwart a Gingrich nomination might want to be more open to the possibility of the establishment simply losing, which is not unprecedented. Indeed, it happened in 1964, when the power of the rank-and-file to elect delegates in primaries was extremely limited, and very nearly happened again in 1976, when Ronald Reagan came within an eyelash of denying renomination to a sitting president. In both cases, a very large number of Republican voters showed themselves to be more interested in defeating the Republican establishment than in defeating Democrats.
Of course, I am not, repeat not, by any means arguing that Gingrich is anything like a shoo-in for the nomination at this point. The exposure of his many heresies against conservative orthodoxy, stressed so avidly by his opponents in the first Iowa debate, may still sink in among voters. Late and highly coordinated endorsements from right-wing opinion-leaders like Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats and Steve King could lift another candidate like Perry, Bachmann, or Santorum just enough to wreck Gingrich’s momentum in Iowa. Or Ron Paul could win the caucuses, making New Hampshire the real starting point.
But if Newt loses, it won’t be because of some mystical power of the GOP establishment to deny the nomination to a weak general-election candidate. Conservative activists have a different view of the risks and opportunities of 2012 than either establishment pooh-bahs or the pundits. What looks to some like a winnable-or-losable general election looks to ideologues like the best chance in decades to replay 1964 and repeal the Great Society and the New Deal. In this context, it’s no surprise that the old revolutionary Gingrich looks like a better prospect than Romney to take on that challenge—and if it fails, well, it’s just a small step backwards on the conservative movement’s long march to ultimate victory.
Tonight’s debate should be interesting. I still believe that Newt never really wanted to win this — he was just using the process to grift a little bit in the Palin mold.But he’s a real politician and it may be real to him now. If he talks past the GOP poohbahs tonight and reaches out to the base, then we’ll know he’s serious. It’s clear he’s not going to win the Village endorsement.
If you have a little extra, we’d be grateful for a donation to our Hullabaloo holiday fundraiser:
Thank you!
