Some of the more establishment GOP tried to shut Pandora's box when Trump started crushing it in the primaries. They pathetically mouthed some words before voting for disastrous health care bills while hiding from public town halls. They're currently flopping around like beached fish over Charlottesville. And now they're desperate to hold off former Christianist oath breaking judge Roy Moore who is running for Jeff Sessions's Senate sea in Alabama. This
IS the Republican Party and many, many, MANY establishment Republicans made it that way through support of (or at least ignoring of) the crazies when it benefited them.
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The groups backing appointed Sen. Luther Strange successfully carpet-bombed Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) into third place in the primary with millions of dollars of ads highlighting the congressman’s previous criticism of President Trump. But they face a much more daunting challenge in figuring out how to handle Moore, a well-known figure who’s beloved on the hard right for his virulently social conservative views and who is unlikely to see his base abandon him.
Moore took first place in Tuesday’s GOP primary for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate with 39 percent of the vote, with Strange getting the second runoff spot with 33 percent after receiving huge financial support from groups aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
And while Moore has plenty of detractors in-state who see him as a fringe rabble-rouser, even Strange’s allies admit the race is an uphill battle — one where heavy attacks from Washington-based outside groups risk backfiring on their candidate in a state where voters detest being told what to do.
“Luther’s liabilities are how he got there and that the McConnell Washington crowd have been so heavy-handed in supporting him,” said one Alabama Republican strategist who supports Strange in the race.
“We’re a state full of folks who like to fight, who are defiant, we don’t like following rules, and that’s why Roy Moore is popular,” said David Azbell, a longtime Alabama GOP strategist. “A lot of folks think he can shoot off a lot of fireworks in D.C. while not doing a lot of harm.”
Sounds to me like establishment Republicans are getting "Trumped".
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“I really don’t want Mitch McConnell and Robert Bentley telling me who my senator is going to be,” he said.
Moore is already looking to jiu jitsu McConnell’s backing, blasting the “silk-stockinged Washington elitists” supporting Strange.
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“Roy Moore has the intensity,” said GOP strategist Jon Coley, a Strange supporter. “Roy will turn his people out. Luther’s got to turn his people out and find a bunch more.”
Alabama, where voting for one unstable idiot as President just isn't enough.