Here’s a GOP analogy for you. Right now, Mitch McConnell is looking a lot like Wayne Newton. Jim DeMint is looking a whole lot like Justin Bieber. You get my drift? Let me explain.
You see, Wayne Newton is still popular with his fans but he’s got limited appeal. He plays Vegas and that’s about it. McConnell is sort of the same way. He’s got his fans, he fights Obama’s policies but he feels very 1973. Wayne Newton has been doing the same act for decades.
Jim DeMint on the other hand is the hot new thing just like Justin Bieber. He's freelancing on his own by endorsing candidates with his Senate Conservative PAC fund. DeMint probably can’t sing or dance like Bieber but he sure is making McConnell squirm. DeMint is the new act in town. DeMint’s Tea Party message is playing to sold out shows across the country.
Admittedly, the Wayne Newton crowd and the Justin Bieber crowd are two totally different audiences but the point here is that the Newton era is coming to a close. The Bieber era is just beginning. Just like within the GOP, a new day seems on the horizon.
Democrats think this DeMint/McConnell split of the party will be detrimental to the GOP. That depends. The challenge for DeMint, Rand Paul, Sarah Palin, etc is to be able to sell the Tea Party platform in a coherent, non threatening, logical way. Rand Paul did that in Kentucky but that was the GOP primary. He talked about how term limits, a balanced budget by law and reading the bills that Congress passes have universal appeal. That may be true but now he’s going to sell that common sense message more broadly. In the meantime, McConnell and other GOP old guard establishment types may have to face the music and realize that the party is starting to sing a different tune.
Full disclosure: my 7 year old daughter is a HUGE Justin Bieber fan. And she probably thinks Wayne Newton is a new type of "Fig Newton"