JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The revenge of the Republican establishment is a sight to behold. From one corner to another, those who have tangled with Newt Gingrich, who feel aggrieved toward Newt Gingrich or who fear Newt Gingrich have amassed to stop him. They know how much harder it will be to do so if the former House speaker wins Florida on Tuesday.Read the rest here.
The quintessential example of establishment angst came Thursday from Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Hours before Thursday’s GOP debate, he released a letter — circulated by Mitt Romney’s campaign — attacking Gingrich and pleading with Republican voters not to make him the party’s nominee. There is much rich history behind that letter.
I have no dog in this fight. Both Romney and Gingrich are just slightly different examples of the Republican Party's own version of right wing statism. That said I find the battle enormously amusing. The establishment people are right of course. Gingrich can not win in the general election. His supporters are the same people who nominated Christine O'Donnell in Delaware back in 2010 throwing away a Senate seat that was a lock. They are violating the late Bill Buckley's very astute rule of politics... "You don't nominate the most conservative candidate. You nominate the most conservative candidate who can win."
Except neither of them are very conservative. Santorum would be the most conservative, which is exactly why he is being ignored by the majority of the media (for the same reasons as the libertarian Ron Paul).
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