The question in Texas isn't whether a Republican will succeed Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the U.S. Senate but what kind of Republican. It's beginning to look like "extreme" tea party conservative Ted Cruz might knock off long-term membr of the Texas GOP establishment David Dewhurst in the primary. If that sounds awfully familiar, it should:
Cruz's recent success is drawing comparisons to Indiana, where state Treasurer Richard Mourdock defeated incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary. But in Texas, the nation's second-most populous state, a win by a tea party-backed candidate would likely resonate even more.
So we were the model, and if Cruz pulls oft the same kind of win in Texas, we'll know it's very much a working model. There are a lot of us out where who don't give a rip if the Senate turns Republican unless it contains a critical mass of principled, no-compromise conservatives who will be serious about turning the red tide in Washington.
