Almost a year ago when the tea parties started up, I predicted that they wouldn't last very long. I incorrectly thought they'd go the way of most of Malkin's little zingers and ditties -- "I am James Woods" for example, or whatever the hell that one was.
I was very, very wrong.
The New York Times via Benen reports that the teabaggers are beginning to seriously mobilize and entrench themselves within the Republican Party machine (such that it is).
Across the country, they are signing up to be Republican precinct leaders, a position so low-level that it often remains vacant, but which comes with the ability to vote for the party executives who endorse candidates, approve platforms and decide where the party spends money.
A new group called the National Precinct Alliance says it has a coordinator in nearly every state to recruit Tea Party activists to fill the positions and has already swelled the number of like-minded members in Republican Party committees in Arizona and Nevada. Its mantra is this: take the precinct, take the state, take the party -- and force it to nominate conservatives rather than people they see as liberals in Republican clothing.
Benen reacts:
The consequences of the rise of nihilists are hard to predict, but the possibilities are chilling.
Debating the Republicans right now is an exercise in aggravation and backwards nonsense. Now imagine dealing with a Republican Party that's been infected from the bottom up by people who think Sarah Palin is very smart and that it's somehow possible for a mixed-race liberal man to be a Nazi. Chilling indeed.