GOP Civil War: Establishment vs Tea Party

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 15, 2010

Add Rush Limbaugh to the list of prominent conservatives tearing into Karl Rove's hide today. As Rove continued his tour slamming freshly minted Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell over the considerable number of skeletons in her closet, Rush was almost literally beside himself with frustration at the idea that anyone -- much less The Architect -- would dare violate the 11th Commandment so brazenly.

O'Donnell's nomination has created deep divisions between the Republican Party and right-wing activists. Last night, Rove bashedO'Donnell -- and her chances of being elected -- and insisted that she's said a lot of "nutty things." He was attacked by some right-wingers for those comments. O'Donnell whacked him back in a televised interview this morning. And then Rove responded to O'Donnell and his right-wing critics, daring them to 'prove me wrong'. Then Palin slammed Rove. Now it's Limbaugh's turn.

"If 51 seats was really the objective -- if getting the majority is really that important, then let's go balls to the wall for Christine O'Donnell!" Limbaugh screamed on his radio show today after playing a clip of Rove's already infamousanti-O'Donnell interview on Hannity last night.

"Why not fight for it?" Limbaugh asked. "Why not fight for it? Castle's OK as the 51st vote but this woman isn't?"

Rush seemed in danger of having an aneurysm at the idea that Rove would do something as heretical as point out that O'Donnell has more than a few very serious character flaws and -- as the polls show -- is a serious underdog against her Democratic opponent in November, in a race that Republicans had once thought was theirs for the taking.

"Everyone I know that saw this was just--they were perplexed and said, 'What's going on? Why is he so mad at a Republican?'" Rush said of Rove. "Where was this anger directed at a Democrat ever?"

Limbaugh then freaked out over all the horrible character flaws about Democrats -- the late Ted Kennedy and President Obama were mentioned -- that Rove has supposedly never pointed out in an interview.

"Our Vice President Joe Biden is a known plagiarist," Rush said. "We're going to talk about Christine O'Donnell's baggage? Where is this criticism of Democrats? Where has it been?"