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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is nobodys example of a tea party Republican. Just two months ago, in an interview with the New York Times, he said of the tea party candidates challenging establishment Republicans, We will crush them everywhere.

Thats exactly what McConnell did on Tuesday when he raced past tea party favorite Matt Bevin to win the Senate primary in Kentucky. But what was most striking in the aftermath was how quickly the tea party symbolized by the outside conservative groups that once were calling for the senators defeat rushed to embrace this embodiment of the Washington GOP establishment and call for party unity in the fall.

Tuesdays results a very good night for the GOP establishment were no big surprise. Establishment victories in the marquee races were predicted well in advance. But based on the instant and overnight reactions, Democrats should no longer assume that the Republican opposition will be fractured, demoralized and as consumed by fighting each other as on taking back the Senate.

Republicans now appear ready to mount a united effort this fall with candidates more prepared than some were in the past to wage tough and costly general-election campaigns and with a map that shows ample opportunities to win back the net of six Senate seats they need to turn the Democrats into the minority party in both houses of Congress.

McConnells victory came on a night when the tea party suffered other significant setbacks. In Georgia, neither of the two candidates who made the runoff in the Senate primary, businessman David Perdue and Rep. Jack Kingston, were tea party types. In Oregon, pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby beat a more conservative candidate to win the Senate primary. In Idaho, Rep. Mike Simpson easily beat back a tea party challenger.

All through the early part of this year, there has been one political narrative above all others: tea party vs. Republican establishment, or a Republican Party at war with itself. It is both a real and flawed concept, as the first rounds of primaries have demonstrated.

Real because there are important differences between hard-charging tea party conservatives who believe there is still too much business as usual even among Republicans in Washington and the more cautious establishment types. Flawed because the Republican Party of 2014 is still more united by its deep dislike of President Obama and his policies, and by the prospect of taking control of the Senate in the fall, than by those differences.

The early victories by establishment candidates this spring do not mean the tea party is a spent force. A week ago, tea party regulars were cheering the nomination of Ben Sasse as their candidate for Senate in Nebraska. Sasse has some serious establishment pedigrees, but he was the candidate with the endorsements of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

The primaries have yet to run their course, and so the final scorecard on tea party vs. establishment is incomplete. Most of the establishment candidates still facing tea party challengers are favored to prevail, though there is one important race where an incumbent faces a serious challenge. Thats in Mississippi, where Sen. Thad Cochran has been challenged by state Sen. Chris McDaniel in a race that has taken a weird turn in the past week.

The other reason the tea party isnt a spent force is the degree to which it has bent the GOP establishment in its direction. House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday: Theres not that big a difference between what you call the tea party and your average conservative. Were against Obamacare, we think taxes are too high, we think government is too big. I wouldnt continue to sing that same song.

Continued here:
Will the tea party rally behind GOP establishment?