There must be SOME advantage the GOP hopes to gain from waging a war on women. What are they hiding?

[Atman]

24. The REAL Republicans are trying to kill off the lunatic fringe.

This is the only way they can kill their Frankenstein's monster that is The Tea Party. If the radical right crazy tea baggers win this one, it will serve to strengthen and embolden them, and make them even harder to get rid of. The GOP didn't really want them to stick around, they were just an AstroTurf ruse to help them win back the House. Now the GOP is done with them, but some people took the ruse seriously and refuse to go away.

Conversely, while they claim to hate Rmoney, the fact is, he is a moderate. Even better for the GOP, he is a moderate who can be easily bought. The ONLY thing Rmoney cares about is more money, so he can likely be counted on to do their bidding if elected. Now, he likely won't get elected, but that's not the GOP's larger concern. They're trying to regain some semblance of moderation after years of inmates running the asylum.

If Rmoney simply wins the nomination, they can begin to clean house and claim "See, we're not that bad! We can be moderate," while telling the super-right extremist tea baggers that the voters have spoken, and America wants moderation, not extremism.

I guarantee we'll be seeing the "sane" branch of the GOP running in 2016 -- Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, etc. They'll still push the same benefit/entitlement slashing, tax-cuts-for-rich agenda, but the guys pushing it will seem reasonable, unlike the lunatics who lost 2012. Remember, the GOP, unlike Democrats, tends to play the long game. America likes to change parties after a president has had his two terms. The GOP is simply expecting they've probably already got 2016, just because of history. But the need to discredit these lunatic extremists just to be extra-safe.