A friend emailed me a link to this post about Republican senators keeping Lisa Murkowski in her position of seniority despite the fact that she was roundly rejected by Alaska Republicans in the primary election.

My friend was so infuriated that he sent Joe Miller $100 on the spot (he also says he wished he'd helped fund "It's Not Your Seat, Lisa"), and he wondered why the GOP would be deliberately courting a rift with the Tea Party movement. He asked,

What is wrong with these people?!

Are they that oblivious to voter mood?

Why would they do such a thing? Could there be any rational explanation?

My worry is that some of these entrenched Republicans so fear doing what has to be done that they'd rather be placed in a permanent minority position, so they won't actually have to do it. Better (so they think) to let the Democrats stay in and get the blame for not doing what has to be done.

The fact is that spending is so out of control that it's surreal. Worst of all, this is happening just as the country is on the verge of a huge entitlement showdown of catastrophic proportions when the baby boom generation retires and the giant bad check all comes due. I suspect that everyone in power knows this dirty secret, but no one in power really wants to deal with it. It's seen as a political third rail. Assuming that there are strategic thinkers within the entrenched GOP elite, they might be weighing the consequences of the coming catastrophe in a supremely Machiavellian manner.* If the GOP allies itself with what is seen as the economic scorched earth position of the tea Party movement, and that position were to actually gain political ascendancy, then what? Might they think the country will be plunged into chaos and they don't want their precious GOP to take the blame? If they are thinking along such lines, it might explains their seemingly insane thinking.

However, it's pure speculation on my part and it assumes that there's something resembling rational (if mistaken) thinking going on. OTOH, they might just be so stuck in their old boys club that they've merely become blind to reality.

How much difference is there between being blind to reality and refusing to face reality?

* In other words, they all know the shit's gonna hit the fan, and they're all trying to position themselves to make sure that someone else gets the blame when it does.