The Republican establishment is fighting back and ramping up their efforts to crush grassroots rebellion. A group (unintentionally one has to presume) mockingly called the Conservative Victory Project seeks to give the establishment more control over who gets selected to run for U.S. Senate as Republican. It is backed by Karl Rove so you can be sure it is neither conservative nor liberty-minded.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has sneered at the new group and is not convinced by its motives.
"The Conservative Defeat Project is yet another example of the Republican establishment's hostility toward its conservative base," said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. "Rather than listening to the grassroots and working to advance their principles, the establishment has chosen to declare war on its party's most loyal supporters. If they keep this up, the Republican Party will remain in the wilderness for decades to come."
It might surprise some but no one outside of the Beltway on the right considers Rove conservative in any way. He is an establishment operative who exists to perpetuate the Republican/right establishment at all costs with whomever they deem worthy. To him it is about whether a candidate will do what he or she is told and nothing to do with principles or popular will. He is neither right wing or left wing, he is of the establishment wing.
According to the New York Times the Republican establishment is doing this in their efforts to win back the Senate in 2014.
The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party's efforts to win control of the Senate.
The troublesome masses aren't doing what they are told so they need to be crushed and candidates imposed on activists across the country. Of course, there are those that would say those who pay the huge campaign bills get to call the shots. This claim from the group will get conservative activists in a bit of a lather.
"We don't view ourselves as being in the incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative candidate who can win."
As Rick Moran's over at the American Thinker will no doubt be echoed by many on the right as they read the news of this new group.
"I can see what the whales want to accomplish but they are only muddying the waters. Let the primary process go forward and make no decisions about who to support until the dust settles."
One has to wonder how the group plans to prevent primary challenges and unsuitable candidates from getting involved in U.S. Senate races. Can we see public relations campaigns against those deemed unelectable and unworthy? Or will the efforts to undermines these undesirables be more insidious? Surely they do not understand how angry activists get when out of staters are seen meddling in who is chosen as the candidate for office.
Even pollster Rasmussen has been critical of the heavy handed nature of the group's plans under the subtle entitled piece Republican Establishment Declares War on GOP Voters.
That makes sense to those whose sole goal is winning a majority in Congress rather than changing the course of government policy. Seen from the outside, though, it sounds like the professional politicians are saying that the only way to win is to pick more candidates like the insiders. Hearing that message, the reaction of many Republican and conservative voters is, 'Why bother?'
So it seems that the establishment has decided to centralize the power with themselves to pick Republican Senate candidates. This might just steer even more conservative and liberty activists towards campaign to repeal the 17th amendment and give the job of selecting a Senator back to the state legislatures.