In April of 2009, FOX News and the Republican Party both fed the flames of a new political movement. At the time, I warned:
Like a mad scientist’s creation run amok, the beast that Dick Armey and his corporate sponsors will unleash won’t accomplish their end — a return to political power — but will instead hasten their political irrelevance.
Faux Noise seems determined to lead this new crusade. Roger Ailes recruited Glenn Beck to anchor a strategy to transform the cable channel into a mainstream organ of right-wing counterculture. Beck has been reading straight from militia manuals in a code that speaks to his tinfoil-hatted target audience.
What Ailes and Beck don’t understand is that you cannot tame this monster. All attempts to rein it in will only result in their being eaten by the beast they’ve released. The Teabagger Fail will give way to the Teabag Terror.
That summer — predictably — the Teabag Terror appeared at town hall meetings where the most surprised and least-ready were the Republicans. Here’s the one that caught the most attention as Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) took a birther question to sustained applause:
Today, the victim in the video is running for Senate — and defending himself from Christine O’Donnell, a tea party candidate who opposes masturbation:
The Delaware Republican, who is challenging Rep. Mike Castle in the state’s Senate primary and has earned the financial backing of a portion of the Tea Party movement, made an appearance in the MTV series “Sex In The 90s.” Entitled “The Safest Sex Of All,” the episode was ostensibly geared towards understanding the importance of abstinence. But O’Donnell’s guidance went a bit further. Masturbation, she argued, is not a moral substitute for sex. “The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can’t masturbate without lust.”
The GOP is determined to pick up Joe Biden’s seat and doesn’t want O’Donnell ruining their chances, so they’ve unleashed a bucketload of oppo research such as the above quote. They’re also pounding her openly in the press (from AP via HuffPo):
WASHINGTON — Delaware Republicans call Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell a liar who “could not be elected dog catcher” in a fierce attack that underscores GOP fears of the tea party-backed candidate knocking off top recruit Rep. Mike Castle and winning the nomination.
Stunned by tea partier Joe Miller’s upset of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republicans are taking no chances in Delaware, which holds its primary Sept. 14.
Mind you, polls say about half the party is like O’Donnell and about half is like Castle. These two halves of the party cannot easily coexist, which is why primary losers are not endorsing their opponents in the general election. That kind of disunity is only getting more common, and it will definitely affect the party as a whole in November.
I reassert: this is a golden year for progressives if they just stop screeching about a president who’s not even on the ballot.
