In an interview with CNN, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina declared that,
The Republican establishment is out!
DeMint has been a driving force behind finding and funding Tea Party candidates to contest incumbent Republicans in primaries and caucuses across the country, through his Senate Conservatives Fund.
Last night's victories in New York and Delaware seem to have lead him to overtly state his support of the Tea Party movement. In the interview he said that he hoped the Republican Party would endorse the Tea Party's agenda, while clearly implying that he would work outside the GOP to promote the conservative movement.
The GOP establishment is striking back. Karl Rove lambasted Christine O'Donnell as a nutty candidate. The Tea Party is fighting back by accusing Rove of working to undermine O'Donnell's campaign. They are asking FOX News to suspend Rove pending an investigation. Media Matters is all over the story:
Sources at the Christine O'Donnell victory party revealed to The Freedomist that in December of last year Karl Rove met with Tea Party leaders in Dover, Delaware trying to get them to cut a "deal" in which they would leave Mike Castle alone and NOT support O'Donnell.
The Freedomist has also learned that Rove was allegedly acting as an operative, although in what capacity it is not known, even as he is playing the role of a political analyst on Fox New in a fair and balanced way.
Another conservative blogger writes,
"Fox News should require Rove to answer to this charge... You can't be both a political player and an autonomous, disinterested analyst." -- Warner Todd Huston
Charles Krauthammer has also objected to the role played by DeMint and Palin in the Delaware Primary.
Krauthammer: The Palin endorsement, I think, is disruptive and capricious. Bill Buckley had a rule that he always supported the most conservative candidate who was electable, otherwise the vote is simply self-indulgence.
Beir: Now Jim DeMint, from South Carolina, also endorsed Christine O'Donnell.
Krauthammer: equally capricious and irresponsible. I'm not sexist on this. It's a big mistake. ...
This type of inter-party criticism and debate is most unusual for the Republican Party and it shows how the rigid control of the Bush years is starting to break down. The Republican establishment is trying to placate the situation. Mitt Romney has endorsed O'Donnell in her Senate bid. The NRSC, under John Cornyn, has expressed tepid support - they are sending $42,000 to O'Donnell's campaign. That is a tiny contribution. It's hard to know how to interpret whether it is an olive branch or an insult.
While denying any personal ambitions, DeMint is clearly a threat to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I can't imagine the Republicans maintaining the discipline that has marked this Congressional session. That is, unless DeMint can cow every Republican to toe the Tea Party line, or face well-funded primary battles. If so there may be some defections from the few moderate Republicans in Congress. Mike Castle's adamant refusal to endorse his primary opponent is quite telling in this regard.
However this plays out, it presents great opportunities for the Democrats, if they can pull together behind the Obama Tax Cut for the middle-class. This could break the log jam in the Senate that has frustrated us all for the past 19 months.
UPDATE: Rove is pushing back hard against his critics and O'Donnell. From TPM:
You guys really think Christine O'Donnell can win a general election with this much embarrassing baggage? Prove it.
"I believe the questions [about] why she had a problem for five years with paying her federal income taxes, why her house was foreclosed on and put up for sale, why it took 16 years to settle her college debt and get her diploma while she went around for years claiming she was a college graduate," Rove said. "I think a lot of voters in Delaware are going to want more than she is offering to them right now, and we'll see.
UPDATE 2: Here is the video of Rove slamming O'Donnell.
Ain't war hell?