TRex addresses VodkaPundit's dissatisfaction with Iowan Republicans:
[excerpt]
"Get ready for the GOP of 2008, 'Theology! Chastity! Creepy!' The cross-eyed, toothless snake-handlers that you people rounded up to put your boy Dubya over the line back in 2000 and 2004 have spoken. And they don’t cotton much to the likes of you, college boy. They want a candidate who Reflects Their Values, which means, basically, a grown man who believes that Noah’s Ark ran aground high atop Mount Ararat and that Adam and Eve didn’t have belly-buttons.
. . . . .that’s your base. I don’t know what gave you the illusion that the Republican Party is ultimately made up of Ayn Rand-reading, college-educated, free market worshiping tax scofflaws, but here’s a news flash for you. This is the real face of the Republican Party."
a more temperate analysis from digby
[excerpt]
The Republican establishment obviously has no idea what to do about him. He's a creature of the monster they created when they empowered the "low information" rural evangelical base. I suspect they will try to get to the preachers and turn them against him, but they can't afford to go after him too hard or too obviously or they will suffer hugely in the down ticket races in the fall if the evangelicals stay home. And the alternative who seems to be emerging is John McCain, someone who is loathed by the same evangelicals. It's a problem.
What we are seeing is the three wings of the conservative movement fighting for supremacy: Romney from the money wing, McCain (or Rudy) from the hawk wing and Huck from the God wing. The first two are part of the political establishment and rely on it for guidance. Up until now, the God wing did too. But now they have one of their own and they really don't need the permission of the money boyz or the hawks to vote for him. And they sure don't care what the pointy headed TV gasbags think about it.
Huckabee won big last night with no money and no organization. Maybe he can't replicate it anywhere else. But I think he might. The religious right is the biggest single voting bloc in the GOP --- the people they cultivated and trained to vote en masse for the Republicans. They have a very specific agenda of social issues that they care about and understand very well. They are true believers.
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