Dana Milbank: The tea party is helping Democrats : Editorial

Dana Milbank: The tea party is helping Democrats : Editorial

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High among those putting Republican Senate control in jeopardy is Mourdock, who eviscerated Lugar, the longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by running to his right in the primary. Now realizing they are in danger of losing a seat that Lugar kept Republican for 36 years, Indiana Republicans used a super PAC to send out a direct-mail piece quoting favorable remarks Lugar made about Mourdock. But Lugar's Senate office let it be known that it did not authorize the mailing and that Lugar would not be campaigning for Mourdock.

While Mourdock still has a shot at the Senate, Missouri's Akin appears to be squandering an easy win for Republicans because of his remarks about rape. Akin beat the preferred candidate of the GOP establishment, businessman John Brunner, in the primary, but his candidacy floundered after he voiced his bizarre thoughts about rape.

In a situation even worse than Mourdock's, the party establishment abandoned Akin. "I'm convinced now they don't want Akin to win," Akin adviser Rick Tyler complained last week to the Daily Caller, a conservative website.

Of course they want him to win. But they know that in Missouri, as in Indiana, Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, the tea party has done serious damage to Republicans' hopes of being the majority.