FIXED IT FOR YOU, DANA

Chris McDaniel continues trying to reverse his loss to Thad Cochran in Mississippi, an effort Dana Milbank compares to a Japanese soldier's refusal to surrender for 29 years after the end of World War II:

Imperial Japan taught its soldiers that death was preferable to surrender. The tea party's code is similar: Stand firm, regardless of the odds of success or the consequences of failure.

Cute analogy -- but I think what Milbank says after that is a bit off:

I've argued before that the struggle between the Republican establishment and the tea party is no longer about ideology -- establishment figures have mostly co-opted tea party views -- but about temperament.

It has become the amiable vs. the angry, the civil vs. the uncivil, a conservatism of the head vs. a conservatism of the spleen. The division now is between those who would govern and those who would sooner burn the whole place to the ground -- and, in this struggle, McDaniel carries a torch.

Er, no. Here's how I see it: It's really the angry (the teabaggers) vs. the barely less angry; it's those who would burn the whole place to the ground ('baggers) vs. those who'd merely burn the barn, shoot the dog, blow out all four tires, tear up all the furniture, defecate in the sink, steal the jewelry, and break all the windows, but leave the house standing ... for now. "Those who would govern"? Seriously? "Those who would deign to allow government to exist, barely" would be more accurate.

Yes, the Chris McDaniels and Dave Brats are worse than those they'd replace -- but not by much. Let's remember the kind of people we're really dealing with.


(Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.)