Optically, this helps keep the Tea Bag Crazy stink off the GOP, which they need to do in order to retain the big institutional funders who have no desire to see a bunch of insane amateurs gumming up the well-oiled gears of the Industocracy.

At the same time, I’m not quite convinced it’s a risk-free play for them, since the nutty, crunchy core of the Tea Bag movement is deeply paranoid of being co-opted by the GOP, and sees Breitbart, Beck, Hannity and even—gasp—McCain-supporting, Perry-endorsing, silent-on-Scott-Brown Sarah Palin as unreliable sell-outs or freelancers.

It’s a tricky calculus. The Tea Party threatens the GOP more than the Dems (with vote splitting third-party candidates like Jon Ashjian in the Nevada US Senate race), so the Pubbies need to control or absorb as much of the non-toxic elements of the TP movement as they can. Also, they don’t need a loose-cannon like Wasilla Rose setting an impossible agenda for them from her Facebook page. But how many Birthers and Paultards and Palinites can they afford to piss off? Unlike the “God” voters, I’m not sure those folks see the GOP as their “default” party anymore, or are nearly as inclined to accept an off-camera wink and a private act of contrition as a substitute for public and vocal displays of Nutso Solidarity.

Maybe GOP candidates will have to schlep out to Orange County to pay similar homage to Orly Taitz prior to future elections. Stranger things have happened.

Well, they already have to bow and scrape to Limbaugh so it’s not inconceivable.  I agree the move has some risk to it.  The Teabaggers want to cling to their birther fantasies.  I think the best we can hope for is some primary contests between the two factions that will shred them up going into the generals.

Imagine you’ve got a room that contains 10,000 shrieking, poo flinging monkeys. Three of the monkeys try to chase away a few of the with the smelliest shit.

You’ve still got a room no sane person would enter on a bet.

Imagine you’ve got a room that contains 10,000 shrieking, poo flinging monkeys. Three of the monkeys try to chase away a few of the with the smelliest shit.

You’ve still got a room no sane person would enter on a bet.

HTP - Spot on and my vote for comment of the day!

I also agree completely with what Marindenver said.

It is just simple cause/effect logic that the knuckle-dragging, paranoid, divisive politics bred into their followers by the GOP and folks like Karl Rove were a short term strategy at best and are destined to result in their crazed creations crapping all over and consuming each other in the end.

To be fair, truthers have never really been welcome in the larger right, especially not amongst the warmongers and neo-cons, for obvious reasons. Quashing the birthers seems a lot more cynical, but I’d imagine the disdain for trutherism is genuine.

The rightwing fundie bulletin board where I lurk just told their commenters that Libertarians and Paulites will only be welcome on their own threads, banning them from the other political threads because they consider themselves to be “conservative Republicans”.

It seemed odd to me because Paultards have dominated the political commentary there since ‘08.