[Please don’t forget the FUNDRAISER. I’m really in a hole right now. All help appreciated.]

I didn’t watch last night’s GOP debate, but the reviews say Rick Perry is toast, and the baggers are standing by their man — Herman Cain.

Among voters who are likely to vote in a Republican primary Cain and Romney have been tied at the top for about a month, closely followed by “Not Sure.” The most recent polls I’ve seen don’t show any change, although they don’t cover the last two or three days. Here’s the most recent Gallup poll results, taken a couple of days ago:

Mitt Romney 22%
Herman Cain 22%
Unsure 20%
Newt Gingrich 13%
Rick Perry 11%
Ron Paul 6%
Michele Bachmann 3%
Rick Santorum 2%
Jon Huntsman 1%

Again, it’s possible there’s been some movement away from Cain over the past couple of days, but you wouldn’t know that from reading rightie bloggers or noting the audience reaction at the debates. And I’m calling Newt the “line of viability.” Candidates ahead of Newt in the polls have a shot at the nomination; below Newt, they don’t.

But then, what is the GOP establishment these days? The party is no longer being directed by its elected officials, but by a self-appointed shadow committee made up of people who are mostly interested in using the party to make themselves wealthier and more powerful. They left “movement conservatism” a long time ago; it’s all about their own wallets now. Kay wrote,

It wasn’t the Tea Party that pushed the anti-union agenda in Ohio. It was moneyed interests that are absolutely central to the national GOP, and it was state legislators who did not arrive in any “Tea Party” wave, but are (supposedly) mainstream Republicans. Governor Kasich was in the US House from 1993 to 2001. He’s about as plugged in and mainstream as a Republican can be. This was his law. Further, each and every GOP candidate for President endorsed Kasich’s law. The Tea Party actually pushed the ridiculous constitutional amendment on health care. The union-busting law wasn’t their issue.

However, the baggers can be counted on to support union-busting, because they’ve been trained to do so.

And then there are the media mouthpieces, like Bobo and Rush, who more or less say what the Powers That Be expect them to say. Rush may be a little out of control sometimes, but you know that if he ever went completely off the reservation his microphone would be unplugged.

There has been talk that the Tea Party will destroy the GOP, but I think that’s backwards. The baggers are the symptom, not the disease. The GOP has been taken over by people who are utterly disinterested in governing and only want to influence policy to serve their own interests. In a sense, the Republican Party as an actual political party is already gone.