GOP Empire’s Plan to Crush Tea Party Rebels

Elspeth Reeve Oct 12, 2011

The Republican establishment is no longer terrified of the Tea Party, The New York Times‘ Matt Bai reports. It’s now figured out how to absorb them like a slow-moving but powerful star that’s swelling into a red giant. How to take these political hooligans over? There are a couple steps.
Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Bai talked to Fred Malek, a longtime Republican fundraiser who now raises money for the Republican Governors Association. He has photos of himself with various presidents on his wall.

Malek belongs to the Alfalfa Club, whose 200 or so members, the old-line political and business aristocracy in both parties, expect the president to attend their annual dinner, and he occasionally gives exclusive parties at his home overlooking the Potomac River in McLean, Va. — including one in 2009 that brought together Sarah Palin and the party’s Washington elite.

“You think I’m an establishment Republican?” Malek asked me.

When I said that I did, he let forth a lyrical string of expletives that, sadly, are not printable here. “My dad drove a beer truck delivering beer to taverns in Cicero and Chicago, Ill.,” he said. “I’m the first one in my family to go to college. No, I don’t consider myself part of the establishment.”

Bai adds, “George Will recently said there is no such thing as the Republican establishment.” George Will wears a bow tie. He wears a bow tie so much he’s on Wikipedia’s “List of bow tie wearers.” He started wearing bow ties as an anti-hippie statement in the 1960s and now, when he doesn’t wear one, people ask him where his bow tie is. You can’t get away with wearing a bow tie if you’re not part of the Republican establishment.

Step 2: Disarm them with praise. Republican lobbyist Scott Reed tells Bai that the Tea Party’s influence is “waning,” because Republican leaders have embraced the Tea Partying members of Congress, instead of calling them “those people.”