Jonah Goldberg has some thoughtful things to say about the primary including this:

You can't play out the "what ifs" with any certainty, but it seems pretty obvious to me that if the tea parties hadn't been around, doing what they do, the GOP, the conservative movement and the country would be in far worse shape today. It's hardly as if the folks in the White House or over at the DNC are suddenly sleeping a whole lot better because they might hang on to the Vice President's former senate seat, while probably losing the president's, Harry Reid's, Russ Feingold's and maybe even Barbara Boxer's. And, even if this costs the GOP a senate majority, most political observers know that winning back the senate matters less than destroying the filibuster-proof majority. And the GOP will do that with room to spare (thanks to the tea parties).

When you have an organic grassroots uprising, it's sort of silly to expect that it will make every decision with surgical skill and perfect foresight. Indeed, the attempt to play mincing games of compromise threatens to cool the very passions that have gotten us this far. In this Rush, I think, is basically right.

Would I still prefer it if the tea parties had found a stronger candidate? Of course. Do I think it's better to have a moderate Republican than a liberal Democrat in that seat? Yes (tea partiers certainly understood this with the Scott Brown election).

But I'd rather see the tea parties go too far here and there while shooting for the moon than see them go not far enough everywhere. And I'm glad the message coming out of Delaware to everyone in the tea parties' way, Republican and Democrat alike, is: Watch out.

O'Donnell's certainly not the best for candidate we could envision, and it may cost the Republicans a critical seat in the Senate but then if she wins her colleagues will include such folks as Al Franken and if Castle won visions of Jim Jeffords would be flashing before my eyes.

Clarice Feldman