GOP to base: 'Drop dead'

No money for conservative candidates:

The Family Research Council's (FRC) political arm ripped Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) Thursday for withdrawing ad spending on behalf of two endangered Republican candidates.
FRC President Tony Perkins said in a letter to Cole, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), that the committee "is abandoning social conservative candidates" by pulling ads from the re-election races of Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Tom Cole is the chairman, but he's not making the decisions, which are made by the professional staff. This is a synopsis of the basic problem with the national GOP -- the hired help at headquarters is running the party. The hired help aren't red-state stalwarts, and have nothing in common with the ordinary rank-and-file of the party. This cultural gap between the party elite and the rank-and-file has existed for years and has only grown worse during the Bush years.