Top Democrat: Tea Party swallowed GOP

DES MOINES - It's not often that the Democratic Party top national strategist comes to Iowa to lament an election loss of a prominent conservative Republican leader.

But that happened Friday when Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz warned that the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican who is the second most-powerful U.S. House leader, could be a harbinger of deeper political extremism, gridlock and obstructionism.

'Tuesday's election results confirmed what we already knew, the Tea Party has swallowed the GOP,” she told a news conference outside of the convention hall where Iowa Republicans will hold their state convention on Saturday.

'When Eric Cantor isn't conservative enough to win a Republican primary, it's clear just how far right the GOP has become,” Wasserman Schultz added. 'It's not very good for the country because it means that progress is going to be even harder and I think Republicans will double down on their obstructionism.”

Cantor's loss to Tea Party rival Dave Brat, an economics professor at Randolph Macon College, sent a clear message to other Republicans with primary challenges that they may face the same fate if they 'stray from the radical Tea Party agenda.”

Wasserman Schultz said Iowa Republicans already have fallen in line by nominating Red Oak state Sen. Joni Ernst as the party's 2014 candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat. Ernst won the endorsement of 'Tea Party favorite” Sarah Palin and financial backing from donors who 'embrace radical Tea Party ideology,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Ernst's camp responded to Wasserman Schultz even before her public event, calling her and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley of Waterloo - Ernst's opponent in the Nov. 4 election - opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline and leading proponents of Obamacare and the false promise that Americans would be able to keep their existing insurance.

'There is no better spokesman for Beltway Bruce Braley than Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC chair,” Ernst campaign spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said in a statement. 'We hope she enjoys Iowa just as much as we enjoy her reminding Iowans just how out of touch Braley is with Iowa values.”

Wasserman Schultz said the contrast between Republicans and Democrats is going to be very clear in the fall campaign, and Iowans will get a taste of that Saturday when 2016 GOP presidential prospects U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania address delegates at the Republican Party of Iowa's state convention.

'Some of the most radical and out-of-touch members of the Republican Party who have their eyes set on the White House will be in that convention hall tomorrow to hoist Joni Ernst on their far-right wing shoulders,” she said.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan said his party's candidates will be running on a shared vision to expand the middle class by offering opportunity for all, increasing educational opportunities for young Iowans and providing the retirement security and protection older Iowans deserve.

Wasserman Schultz said Democrats will use digital and technological voter-identification capabilities to 'micro-target” Democrats and independents who can make the difference in a swing election.

Democrats will hold their state convention at the same Des Moines venue next Saturday.

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