We're halfway through the second round of the 2013 Daily Kos Republican March to Madness Tournament and with nearly 80,000 votes cast and half of the Insane 16 field set, we know this much: Republicans and conservatives have an incredibly deep field in this tournament. Here's where things stand now:
Click to enlarge
The only upset in yesterday's action was Glenn Beck edging out Bill O'Reilly. Other than that, all the higher-ranked seeds won, including each of the #1 seeds. Of the four top seeds, the most vulnerable is probably Marco Rubio, who faces off against a free shooting #4 seed Dick Cheney later this week in the Insane 16. Rick Santorum is probably the safest #1 seed, but that's largely a function of the fact that the Theocons region is weak, and that's probably something that can be blamed on the idiot selection committee.
Rush Limbaugh will face off against Glenn Beck and Ted Cruz will face off against Michele Bachmann. Those are going to be some tough matchups. Somebody's got to win, but really, in those contests there's really not going to be a loser.
Like yesterday, today's action gets underway at 11:30 AM PT. We'll be starting with the Right-Wing Media Region, including an epic battle between James O'Keefe and Sean Hannity, and a really unsavory matchup between Bill Kristol and Ann Coulter. Ugh. From there we'll move to the Theocons Region, followed by the Establishment Region which features the Wisconsin Civil War: Paul Ryan vs. Scott Walker. The action will close out with what may be the best matchup of the day: Louis Gohmert vs. Steve King in the Teabaggers Region. Sarah Palin and Rand Paul will also face off.
As usual, we'll announce the winners tomorrow and you'll have until about 5:30 AM PT to vote.