by Maisie Allison
Dave Weigel explains why it is "increasingly likely that no incumbent Republican will lose a primary to a Tea Partier in 2012":
It's hard winning elections. It's even harder because the Republican "establishment," insofar as such a thing still exists, consists of fairly smart people who know what happened last time. When Bob Bennett's slayer, Mike Lee, arrived in the Senate, [Orrin] Hatch started copying his homework and showing up at every Lee presser. He kept up his outreach to Utah's Tea Party leaders, like classic car dealer David Kirkham. He used his powerful position as ranking member of the finance committee to add credibility to Tea Party arguments about the debt, like the idea that the administration was fibbing about the impact of passing the Aug. 2 deadline without raising the debt limit.
(Photo: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) listen during a Tea Party Town Hall meeting at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The town hall meeting was held by the Tea Party Express and Tea Party HD to address issues Tea Party members were concerned over. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Dish 