Now that the primary is over, a couple of stories about the problems in the Republican Party caught my eye.

The first story by the Associated Press had the headline, “Denny Rehberg hears primary’s tea party message” was pretty funny. You can read it HERE.

This line caught my attention: “…but political observers say the GOP primary should serve as a wake-up call for Denny Rehberg all the same.”

Silliness. Some of these political observers really amaze me with their predictions and analysis. I often wonder how many campaigns they have volunteered for or advised, or if they have ever run for office.

Rehberg took 75% of the vote and did little campaigning. The “constitutional” candidate (French) took 19% of the vote. The “moderate” candidate (Otjen) received 6%.

It appears by this vote the Republicans want someone in the middle of the conservative scale and Rehberg fills that slot nicely for them.

This mirrors the results from the 2006 Republican U.S. Senate primary in which Senator Conrad Burns received 72% of the vote in a four-way race.

Rehberg should keep doing what he’s doing. He really does not need to worry about the Tea Party folks. They will soon fall to the back burner just as the Christian Coalition folks did in the mid 1990s.

Speaking of the Tea Party, another story that caught my attention was in the Billings Gazette with the headline, “Tea Partiers divided over strategy.” You can read it HERE.

Supposedly some of the Tea Party faithful may find it hard to back moderate candidates by not voting for them or not voting at all.

This seems like the kid on the playground who takes his toys and goes home because he was not allowed to win all the time.

I would think if you were really a conservative and you agreed with a Republican candidate 75% of the time and the Democrat 25% of the time, you would vote for the Republican. But then again, we’re probably talking about people like the kid on the playground who is mad for not winning.

The Republican Party does have internal turmoil not only in Montana but across the nation. They have a few months to get their game on because there may not be a better chance than in 2010.