McConnell is screwed. DeMint owns the Senate GOP.

[BurtWorm]

He never saw it coming. He just got hit by a train. (PS: Senate Dems are only marginally luckier than McConnell.)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/demint-tea-and-kookies.html

DeMint Tea Party

by digby

As I write this, the results are still up in the air, but this piece by Adele Stan is something to contemplate as we watch the returns come in:

The Republicans may not win the Senate, but the Tea Party could take it hostage, thanks to millions of unaccountable dollars, post-Citizens United.

Of the eight seats that Democrats are given more than a 60-percent chance of losing by Nate Silver of Five Thirty-Eight, four will go to Tea Party-branded candidates if Silver's predictions hold up. But the story doesn't end there.

In another four open seats currently held by establishment Republicans, Tea Party candidates running on the Republican line are likely to win. Taken together -- the seats added to the GOP margin by Tea Party candidates, and the Tea Party candidates likely to be seated in open races that don't affect the current ratio of Dems to Repubs -- these candidates, if they win, represent a shift in power away from McConnell and toward Sen. Jim DeMint, who bankrolled many of these Tea Party candidacies through his Senate Conservatives Fund PAC, and endorsed them all.

It's theoretically possible that the presence of this radical faction will drive a few of the sane Republicans to work across the aisle, but I doubt it. That's a dynamic that only works in the Democratic Party. The tea party has the backing of the whole noise machine and they will be driving the crazy bus into 2012. They won't even allow any members to disagree publicly with Rush Limbaugh. I doubt very seriously that any Republicans who plan to have a career past the next election will cross them.

They are going to be very interesting to watch. And by the way, they will also be joined by quite a few of the so-called grown-ups. That's where the action is.

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[aquart]

2. I hope they make each other's lives a constant misery.

Just like they're planning to do to us.

[BurtWorm]

3. They will. Democrats need to be aware of the split in the GOP, so they can wedge it open.

It's not going to get better for the GOP old schoolers. They've fucked themselves.

[mfcorey1]

4. If you watched McConnell at the press conference, it is apparent that there is something

demented about this man. He is about more than the people's agenda. He acts like he is ready for a good ole klan meeting. I am just saying the way he came off. On MSNBC they characterize it as a pitbull. I need to go further than that. I would run screaming if I encountered him in the dark

[BurtWorm]

6. Believe me, it's an act. For Republican Senate eyes only.

He's totally full of shit.

[Wednesdays]

5. Well, it's the Southern Strategy at work again

But, the way it's going, that may be all the Repugs will be able to claim--the South (generally, what used to be the Confederate States of America, and a couple of other "slave states" like Kentucky--even then, they're starting to lose that lock in North Carolina, etc.)

Hmm, DeMint might not be so bad...for our side. ;)
"On October 1, 2010, DeMint, in comments that echoed what he had said in 2004, told a rally of his supporters that openly homosexual and unmarried sexually active people should not be teachers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_DeMint

I don't think that good 'ol bigotry is going to play too well outside his mouth-breather base.