To be in power a party has to be able to cobble a coalition together. The GOP is in the middle of a faction fight and the Tea Baggers and Conservatives are winning. The can't ride to power based solely on that political block; they need moderates. We're starting to see alarm in the GOP camp as evidenced by a Dana Milbank article The tea party makes trouble with a capital T.
If the GOP heads into the election running Tea Bagger candidates, using Tea Bagger rhetoric, they aren't going anywhere.
