New Republican Group Sparks Worries About Party's Future

I don't see how this is a bad thing. It just means that there will be a shadow RNC.

I wonder where the Cheney tag-team stands in this mess? Liz has been awful quiet lately, and we hear nothing at all from the Dark One.

Doesn't really sound like a shadow RNC to me. Sounds just more like another Republican faction-- an outside group for Bush Neocons, to add to the outside groups that the business conservatives and the religious right already have. The Republicans' big coalition is breaking down into its constituent components and this sounds like just another one of those components.

If we have a bunch of factional mini-RNCs, each with their own priorities and vision of what the Republican party should be, plus an actual RNC that's basically disfunctional, then we'll be going in to this election with all these groups potentially working at cross purposes and nobody pushing for The Republicans in a partisan sense except Fox News. (Which... well, actually might be all they need to win.)

And here I thought Republican politicians were responsible for the demise of The Republican Party.

Good thing there are so many well intentioned Christians in the Republican Party. At least nobody has to worry about money going unaccounted for. You can be sure that nobody would divert money into their own pocket, because that would be wrong. Good thing they have a trustworthy fellow like that Mr. Rove. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He'll make sure everything is on the up and up. Their troubles are over. That was easy.

A covert shadow organization with big money donors is just what the GOP wants. That way Rove and his cohorts can engage in Rove style dirty politics under wraps and shield the RNC. Even if Steele were not a diaster, Rove would likely want to form such as group. It is his standard MO, but now Steele's mishaps provide him with an excellent fund raising tool.

It's actually called "Un-American Crossburners." Steele won't budge, so they have to start up their Jim Crow-style country club all over again.

To me, its an indication of what I have been telling people. The democratic party should split into 3 parties, the reps into 2 or 3, and then they would be intellectually honest. But the American system symply does not do third parties. Its 2 parties or nothing. SO you get these huge awkward umbrella groups of people that privately hate one another. Right now the real democratic opposition to the Democratic party is the Democratic party.

If the Republicans are splintering it can only be a good thing in the long run as its the only way the moderates will regain control. They will have to lose an election hard to do it though.

when the republican party starts fighting itself, i can only hope that there will be a schism between the fringe hard right'ers and the much more palatable moderate Meghan McCain style republicans...

that way we can actually get back to governing the country in a bi-partisan manner while the fringers howl in the wilderness

The way I see it, Republicans, or I should say those self identified who are of the hopefuls of the Tea Party persuasion are the closest party we have to Duct Tape politicians. They will be the demise of the GOP. They know how to put patches on things with band-aids and duct tape, but never actually fix things. It's because they only see the symptoms of the problem, and have no clue how to do an actual and meaningful legislative repair job. But then each and every career politician carries duct tape. And now it'll be free courtesy of the unlimited donation warehouse of duct tape owned by the corporations.

Crap...Karl Rove cast in 2012 US elections playing the role of Newt Gingrich in the 1994 live-action historical remake, "Lethal Contract on America: Part Deux."

Steele, as much of a jackass as he is, is also a figure with underestimated unscrupulousness and street-smarts that no one should attempt to corner. Methinks that if he goes down, he'll drag more enemies down with him than most currently suspect. One can only hope.

BTW, the TPM-selected image is, as pointed out, indeed astute, but it is also a reminder of the disgraceful predicament faced by one of nature's most glorious creatures in this Twenty-First Century, that of a dwindling habitat due to humans vs being exploited for petty entertainment, once again, by humans. We really can do better.

Conservatives spend millions for political power, but not one red cent for job creation. Meanwhile, the *pachydermata* patrol the streets of Washington.

Politics is always a struggle for power, and those struggles have always gone on inside each party in addition to the more visible struggles BETWEEN the parties.

The article seems to try to paint a sympathetic picture of Steele. He has caught a lot of flak and there are two sides to every story. However, Steele's problems result mostly from his own arrogance and the fact that he is clearly trying to use this position as a launching point for his own personal ambitions. That certainly is not unprecedented, but in his case, his ambitions are not warranted. People correctly see him as a fake -- an empty suit -- a little guy with a big mouth. His problem, as a friend of mine used to say about characters like this, is "he has an abundance of lack."

That is why he is in trouble. If Steele were raising lots of money and providing strong leadership behind the scenes, there wouldn't be any other groups trying to eat his lunch.

Having said that, $30M isn't a lot of money, if that is Rove's target. That is enough money to maintain a slush fund to conduct dirty tricks, which is Rove's modus operandi. But it isn't nearly enough money to support campaigns across the country the way a healthy RNC would do.

This will be just another key on the Wurlitzer. The GOP is remarkably decentralized that way -- they have think tanks, newspapers, a TV network, generals up the wazoo, talk radio, "concerned citizen" groups, militias, corporate leaders, religious entities, an entire fictional grassroots party. This is how they do business -- 3 card montie, always moving the shells. It all started with the Plumbers group -- Nixon's own personal espionage force.

Oy vey..

Jewish support for the Jug Eared idiot is down 36%

http://www.mclaughlinonline.com/6?article=28

"They should be..uh..they should be thankin' meh"