"Struggling to Resolve the Conflict between Its Pragmatic Establishment Wing and Its Ideological-Suicidal Wing"

"McInturff put his finger on the problem: House Republicans are invested in their own re-election and not in the long-term viability of their party. Those who put the lowest priority on presidential politics are those most worried about a primary challenge from the right, and it is this cohort that forms the backbone of the Tea Party faction in the House—the cohort most wedded to nativism, intolerance and hostility to the poor. These are the members nudging the Republican Party over the cliff."

Thomas B. Edsall at The New York Times diagnoses problems for the Republican Party.