The People vs THE PARTY

I only got started paying attention to politics a couple of years ago. Don’t get me wrong-I never missed a vote but I also left the nitty gritty of politics to others. Now that I’m a bit more involved I’ve started to notice that there is a whole lot of gritty going on:

[After Scott's victory] it was time for Republican leaders and insiders to come home to Scott. Scott wasn’t coming to them. Barbour learned that firsthand.

“He called to say congratulations on behalf of the RGA, and probably expected the same platitudes back. Instead, Haley got an earful from Rick,” said one source. “From what I understand, I’m glad I wasn’t Haley on the other end of the line. Haley tried to avoid the topic, like there was no problem. Rick wasn’t having that.”

Scott cut him off at one point, according to sources who remember the following exchange:

“Haley, you shouldn’t have gotten involved,” Scott said.

Barbour: “But….”

Scott: “Haley, you cost me more than $7 million -- $7 million.”

Barbour poured on the Southern charm and tried to steer the conversation to letting bygones be bygones. But sources said Scott wanted to make sure that the RGA felt his pain – after all, it helped underwrite ads calling Scott a “fraud.” Scott also wanted to make sure the RGA would support him and make good on its promise to spend $8 million in Florida.

“Haley, we want the $8 million,” Scott said at one point....

[A]s Barbour plans to run in Florida, a coterie of Republicans in the nation’s most important swing state are like the party’s namesake elephants – they don’t forget, even if they forgive

Until the Rubio/Crist race I was under the silly impression that candidates were chosen by, well, voters.  Naiveté can be a beautiful thing but once the blinders come off things just never look the same.

One thing voters learned in 2010 is that THE PARTY means to control the process and when someone (Angle, O'Donnell, and yes, Rick Scott) throws a monkey wrench in THE PARTY’s plans THE PARTY gets a might huffy. It leaves one to believe that THE PEOPLE fall way down on the THE PARTY’s list of priorities.