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The Republican establishment went into last week’s off-year elections believing that the tea party insurrectionists who have ripped apart the GOP in recent years would suffer enough damage to force them into some kind of retreat. But no one thinks that happened.

The expectation now is that the long-running internal battle for the soul of the party will continue deep into next year and beyond, possibly harming prospects at the polls in 2014 and 2016.

Those results convinced some establishment Republicans that they need to confront the GOP’s conservative base more aggressively, both as a way to protect the candidacies of mainstream conservatives and to deflect damaging policy proposals that have limited appeal beyond far-right conservatives from advancing in Washington.

The simmering feud between the tea party and the GOP establishment reached a boil last month when the Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed the primary opponent of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That move unleashed a new level of vitriol from establishment figures at those outside groups, and some worry that the infighting will hurt Republicans in upcoming elections.

Hatch all but endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination after Christie’s landslide reelection Tuesday in a Democratic-leaning state. Hatch lamented that the GOP might be “too stupid” and push Christie away because the governor does not embrace tea party tactics.

On the campaign front, a senior GOP adviser declared that Senate Republicans intend to wade into the 2014 primary contests to help the best candidate emerge.

“There’s no rules,” said Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “I treat every state differently. The path to getting a general-election candidate who can win is the only thing we care about.”

In recent years, the NRSC has stayed out of most primaries only to watch Republican chances in the general election evaporate as contentious primaries produced what they regard as less-than-desirable candidates. This time, Collins said, his group is in the “wins business” and will try to knock out some candidates if it means long-term victory.

Perhaps more important, some establishment-backed conservative groups are wading into House GOP primaries even when there is no chance that the seat would flip to Democrats. That’s what occurred in Alabama’s 1st Congressional District when Jo Bonner (R), a longtime friend of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), retired mid-term and a special election was set up this fall.

The GOP nomination fight came down to Tuesday’s matchup of former state senator Bradley Byrne against Dean Young. Byrne’s roots were solidly conservative but with a business background. Young hails from the pulpit wing, criticizing same-sex marriage, suggesting that Obama was born in Kenya and vowing never to support Boehner as speaker.

The prospect of a Young win worried GOP leaders. He would have added to a contingent of several dozen House Republicans from safe districts that forced leadership’s hand into the shutdown, never fearful of the fallout on their own standing at home. This time, rather than sitting back, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Ending Spending, a group funded by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, poured almost $300,000 into the race in support of Byrne.

“When somebody runs a campaign still saying that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, that ought to be the first clue — probably the only clue you need — that we probably ought to support the other guy,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a 12-year House veteran who won his Senate seat after a contested primary last year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/narrow-tea-party-losses-are-wak
e-up-call-for-republicans/2013/11/09/9b26b124-47c3-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story_1.html

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