The Puppet Masters

Good analysis from Steve Kornacki. 

[T]here’s another reason Romney may end up coasting, and why next year’s GOP congressional primary season might not be nearly as wild as that of 2010: The Tea Party has already won.

Its victory has mainly been a psychological one. The defeats of Sen. Robert Bennett and Reps. Mike Castle and Bob Inglis along with the GOP primary triumphs of Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Dan Maes and Rick Scott sent a clear signal to Republican elected officials and party leaders that their base was absolutely serious about ideological purity — and absolutely opposed to any kind of compromise with President Obama and other Democrats. If they didn’t show that they understood this message, and if they didn’t back it up with action, they could be next on the hit list. Basically, the Tea Party got in their heads.

And fear of arousing a Rush Limbaugh/Red State-fueled backlash among the party base — which is essentialy synonymous with the Tea Party — has clearly shaped the actions of the Republican establishment since last year’s uprising. John Boehner set the tone for the 112th Congress when he refused over and over in a “60 Minutes” interview last December to use the word “compromise.” Since then, Boehner has presided over one manufactured crisis after another, forced to continuously prove to Tea Party purists that he’s not about to sell them out in any kind of compromise with Obama. Even when the president offered the prospect of a “grand bargain” with significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security and only modest revenue hikes, Boehner felt compelled to walk away.

True in all respects and why people need to stop electing Republicans until they regain their sanity.