A Rove-Stupid Merry Christmas: Signs We Are Now Beating the Establishment

On the heels of the disastrous and obscene Omnibus Spending Orgy rubber stamped by the Obama Republicans in Congress last week – there is actually hope that we have turned the corner against the Republican Establishment wing of the Washington Cartel.

It reminds me of the old adage about going bankrupt – first it happens slowly and then suddenly. That seems to describe the fall of the GOP establishment. The reality they face today is totally different from the one in 2014 – let alone 2012, 2010, and 2008. And yet, without some of the efforts in those cycles, we might not be rounding these corners now.

Consider: Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Ben Carson – all enemies of the establishment – are getting almost two thirds of the support from Republican voters.

Meanwhile, the cabal of Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chris Christie combine for only about a sixth of the voters’ support. And of course, Graham limped off the stage this week with less than 1 percent support. Remember, this is just a year after getting 60 percent-plus of the vote for the Senate. He’s not even making it to the S.C. Primary now.

It’s so bad out there that the establishment will probably now throw in with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as their champion. To be sure, with his Gang of Eight dalliance and some other situations, it’s easy now to simply lump Rubio in as typical establishment. That’s not totally accurate, however.

Remember, Rubio burst onto the scene by destroying one of the establishment’s all-time favorites – Charlie Crist – who was a sitting governor at the time. This was considered a stunning development, and one wonders if, say, a man named Ted Cruz would have tried the same audacious thing in Texas without Rubio’s success. This demonstrates that politics are a continuum of events, not a series of un-related stories in a 24/7 news cycle universe.

After a frustrating season fighting the establishment in the 2014 primaries – all except for Rep. Dave Brat’s (R-VA) take-down of Eric Cantor – things are likely to be different this time. It appears that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is indeed in trouble this go round in Arizona – trailing Kelli Ward by 9 points in recent polls. Six years ago, J.D. Hayworth laid the groundwork for this. He forced McCain to spend $20 million plus – on a primary – in a small media state! It was more money than McCain had spent in all primary and general elections for Senate combined! It showed that McCain could be beaten under the right circumstances.

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