TNR: Mitt Romney: The Campaign Within the Conservative Movement to Take Him Down

[pampango]

"...after talking to conservative activists over the past week, I’m by no means convinced that he is in the clear. For several conservative organizations, antagonism toward Romney runs so deep that they are actually gearing up to wage campaigns against him.

Probably the most prominent group targeting Romney is FreedomWorks, the Dick Armey-led conservative organization. The group has been increasingly vocal about its opposition to the former governor of Massachusetts. ...Now the group is threatening to unleash part of its $25 million treasure trove in an attempt to sink his candidacy. Brendan Steinhauser, the group’s director of federal and state campaigns, tells me the only way Romney might avoid this fate is to start by apologizing unequivocally for “RomneyCare” and make other outreach efforts to conservatives.

Working parallel to ... FreedomWorks is Alaskan Joe Miller, the Tea Party favorite who won his state’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010 before losing to Lisa Murkowski in the general election. Miller has taken it upon himself to launch a new “Stop Romney” campaign that’s hoping to raise and spend as much as $500,000 on television and radio ads attacking Romney as an unscrupulous opportunist—all of which will be funneled into his most critical early primary state. ...“We will never get behind Mitt Romney,” Miller declared in a statement. “On issues like gun rights, gay rights, abortion, immigration, and health care, Romney has flipped more than John Kerry flopped.”

But what of the possibility that these attacks could backfire and end up benefiting President Obama? FreedomWorks’ Steinhauser says this isn’t their top concern. “Could that hurt Romney’s chances in the general election ? Maybe,” Steinhauser concedes. “But I don’t think we want to get stuck with another disappointment as a Republican president. If the guy at the top of the ticket goes against the free market, goes against what we believe in, then we’re not really motivated by just getting a Republican in office.”

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/89992/mitt-romney-conservatives-freedomworks-campaign

Wish Armey, Miller and other repubs much success in stoking divisions within the party. The article doesn't say who they are promoting. Bachmann? Perry? Palin?

[Mist]

1. Steinhauser says "...I don't think we want to get stuck with ANOTHER disappointment

as a Republican president." "Another"? Gee, who could he mean...

Also, I wonder if this concerted attack on Romney is a cover for anti-Mormon feelings among the conservative base (though the issues Steinhauser,Miller, et al mention are certainly genuine conservative concerns).

[QuintanarooBoy]

2. Who wrote Joe Miller's quote?

He lacks the IQ to have done it himself.

[Dulcinea]

3. Let 'em eat their own.

None of these chumps will ever make it to the Oval Office anyway. Most of them are too nutty for their own party.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "Mittster ain't FASCIST enuf for us." - RepubliBaggers, Inc. (R)

[elocs]

5. Interesting Sinclair Lewis quote since he was not born until 1885. n/t

[SpiralHawk]

6. I think whoever put this image together committed TYPO

probably meant 1935

Despite the typo, the quote is no less apt.