Are the wheels coming off the Republican bandwagon?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Or was that double bump from running over Perry and Newt after they were shoved overboard?

As the push back from the "anyone but Romney" wing of the party continues the powers (and tools) within the GOP are taking sides and no one is exempt.

Crazy things are going on like Limbaugh calling out Newt and Perry for using, "the language of leftists." Leftist? Those two?

Gov. Rick Perry's new line of attack against Mitt Romney that Romney is a "vulture capitalist" who used to pick apart businesses and leave with huge profits is not sitting well with his usual allies on the right.

Perry's case against Romney and a similar one made by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich have come under attack from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others who say such criticisms don't belong in a Republican primary.

The pushback against Perry indicates just how poorly his presidential campaign is going. Perry had hoped by now to be heading toward a one-on-one slugfest with the former Massachusetts governor in South Carolina. Instead, he is one of several Republicans hoping to stop a Romney nomination that seems increasingly inevitable. And as that sense of inevitability around Romney builds, key voices on the right are coming to his defense.

"All this talk about sucking the blood out of companies and leaving corpses, limiting how much somebody can make in profits?" Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday. "This is the language of leftists. (Filmmakers) Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, they popularized this. This is the way Fidel Castro thinks, or says he thinks."
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/rick-perry/perrys-attacks-on-romney-dont-play-well-with-2096931.html

In an act of defiance Newt's publicly threatening to sue over Romney's "attack ad" if it airs.

Newt Gingrich's campaign is threatening to sue South Carolina and Florida television stations that air an ad by a pro-Romney super-PAC claiming Gingrich was "fined" $300,000 for ethics violations during the 1990s.

Gingrich campaign attorney Stefan Passantino called the commercial "a defamatory communication which exposes this station to potential civil liability" in a letter sent to television stations, NBC Politics reports.

Passantino goes on to demand that stations refuse and cease airing the advertisements.

"Newt Gingrich has put Mitt Romney’s SuperPAC on notice that the free ride they have enjoyed to misstate Newt’s record are over," Passantino told NBC. "Discussing true facts concerning one’s record are fine, using SuperPAC funds to mislead voters will no longer be tolerated.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/203829-gingrich-campaign-tells-tv-stations-not-to-air-pro-romney-attack-ads

Just to keep things spicy, and not to be left out of the spotlight, Ron Paul's supporters are out for Dana Bash's removal from further campaign coverage for a slip of her tongue.

Following the heated exchange between Ron Paul and CNN's Dana Bash on Monday, the pro-Paul Revolution PAC is now calling for Bash's removal from the network for a comment she made that gives the impression of anti-Paul bias:

“I’m sure you talk to Republicans who are worried as well, just like I am, that Ron Paul will continue on long into the spring and summer," Bash said. "He could really hurt whomever the Republican nominee is because, still, nobody thinks, even if he does well here in New Hampshire, that he will ultimately be the nominee.”

The "just like I am" could, arguably, be a belated reference to the fact that she, too, is talking to Republicans who are worried. The second part — "he could really hurt whomever the Republican nominee is" — is somewhat harder to explain.

After multiple Bash incidents, the PAC is out for blood: “In America, voters rely on the media to provide objective reporting,” Revolution PAC Chairman Gary Franchi said in a comment for the Super PAC's site. “Editorializing like this obviously influences public perception and has no place in a hard newscast.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/01/propaul-super-pac-out-for-cnns-dana-bash-110492.html

It's kind of sad how the previously most meida-hyped branch of the GOP, the Tea Party, has been shoved out of eyesight. Wasn't this supposed to be their year to pick a candidate for president?

[kurt_cagle]

1. Yup

Republican PTB have come to the realization that the Tea Party is 1) doing more damage to the Establishing GOP in Congress than to the Democrats, and 2) are far more likely to vote for Ron Paul than Romney. As the TP makes up about 30% of the Republican "base" (the Religious Right's support is for Santorum, who has neither organization nor is terribly well enamored by the establishment, and this makes up another 30%) the reality is sinking in that the establishment candidate is not sweeping the field and will be barely electable come November.

[Little Star]

2. Seems to be! It's a beautiful thing to watch! n/t

[MjolnirTime]

3. Bash and her Toadie Husband, John King, are both lapdogs for the GOP