Too much? Even for mainstream Republicans?Conventional wisdom is that congressional teabaggers are in such safely gerrymandered districts that they have little to worry about from their overwhelmingly white, angry, low-info constituents.
John Cornyn must have felt ambushed when mild-mannered centrist, Bob Schieffer threw him onto the grill when he appeared on Face the Nation Sunday. Schieffer just pounded him on the Republicans' whole blackmail and terrorism approach to governance.
First of all, derailing Obamacare is NOT the only thing Republican Teabaggers care about. Ted Cruz, in fact, has an entire vision for America's future that Maureen Dowd set out to explain in Sunday's NY Times. It may be a little dystopian but the low taxes crowd will love it nonetheless.
The battle to break the racist, neo-Confederate dominance of Congress is more likely to be won north of Gettysburg than south of it. Ari Berman, author of Herding Donkeys:
A number of Republican congressmembers have referred to their own colleagues as terrorists, not just privately, but for attribution. Devin Nunes famously called the teabaggers driving the GOP crazy train as "lemmings with suicide vests... They have to be more than just a lemming. Because jumping to your death is not enough," he said.
A few days ago, when Blue America set up an ActBlue page for endangered progressive incumbents in the House, we only found two worthy of endorsing, at least so far. One is our old friend, Carol Shea-Porter, a principled grassroots activist in New Hampshire's swing district. NH-01 has a PVI of R+1 and Shea-Porter has stuck to her guns and voted in accord with her promises to New Hampshire voters when she ran for election.
Don't assume from this picture of Sean Patrick Maloney's lovely family that he isn't a conservativeFriday Michaelangelo Signorile picked up on the theme we've been discussing here at DWT about the disappointments inherent in identity politics.
