'Trust us, we're professionals'

John Gizzi reports that a group of Republican consultants running the party's "independent expenditures unit" are selectively pulling the plug on conservative candidates. Michelle Malkin is furious. Yesterday, I said:

There is a reason that the Republican Party has lost nearly all its grassroots energy, and it has a lot to do with the profligacy and incompetence of the overpaid "professionals" who run these campaigns. . . .
Campaign professionals are living large, billing everything to the expense account and throwing fat consulting contracts at their buddies. They get paid whether the candidate wins or loses, so it's not like they actually care what happens.

Most grassroots conservatives I talk to aren't so cynically specific about what's wrong with the GOP, but there is a definite sense that there is a problem at the top levels in Washington.