D.C. ESTABLISHMENT DEFEATED BY ... UM, THE OTHER D.C. ESTABLISHMENT

Here's a ridiculous passage from the New York Times story about Rand Paul's primary victory in Kentucky:

Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Senate Conservative Fund, an organization that has been supporting conservative candidates in Republican primaries, hailed the result as a defeat of the Washington political establishment.

"The Washington establishment threw everything they had at him and yet he prevailed," Mr. DeMint said.

Um, excuse me -- "the Washington establishment"? What city do you work in, Senator DeMint?

So Rand Paul wasn't the candidate of one subset of D.C. establishment hacks -- but he was the candidate of another set of establishment hacks, who are no less part of the establishment than Mitch McConnell just because they have indie cred. Of course, the whole damn tea party movement relies on Fox News and lobbyists for nourishment.

Republican primary voters thought Paul was more rad than Grayson, but for all the talk about whether Grayson voters will be too embittered to vote for Paul in the fall, or whether the overall electorate will regard Paul as too extreme, it looks as if there's barely any difference in the general-election polls between Paul and Grayson. Grayson has been doing a few points better than Paul, but really, voters clearly know they're just two flavors of GOP. So please, let's not make too much of this.