It is a model that has been good for Rush and Fox, but bad for the GOP. Republicans are now caught in a complicated electoral dynamic. What their base, incited by conservative media, is demanding, the country is rejecting

Britain has not yet quit the European Union, but it has already left politics-as-usual far behind.

Social conservatism only works for those who have something to lose, those who have an investment in status quo.

The House’s most hard-edged conservatives are anxious to derail Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker, but they’re outnumbered and it’s unclear if they can rally behind an alternative. That leaves the Californian the heavy favorite when Republicans choose their candidate to replace John Boehner on Thursday.

Picking up a slightly dated copy of USA Today last week made me wonder if I’d been away from Eastern Washington so long a seismic shift in the body politic had occurred in my absence. Spokane Valley, it said, was the No. 1 city for “centrists.” What the what? Spokane Valley, which has no Democrats running for the Legislature and usually an all-Republican City Council, is centrist?

DENVER — It’s not all hippies backing November’s marijuana legalization votes in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Appealing to Western individualism and a mistrust of federal government, activists have lined up some prominent conservatives, from one-time presidential hopefuls Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul to Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

The battle between the conservative Reagan Republicans and the uberconservative United Conservatives of North Idaho for control of the Kootenai County Republican Party won’t end soon. Huckleberries hears that the Republican Central Committee is split 31 to 31 between the factions after the precinct committeeman elections Tuesday, with six others having ties to both sides and two vacancies.

WASHINGTON – Freshman Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, dissatisfied with news coverage dominated by the top members of the House of Representatives, has put together a group of tea party-backed freshmen who are trying to influence how bloggers and traditional media are covering Congress. Labrador, a Republican, has organized a group called Conversations with Conservatives that features firebrands of the House freshman class. They often aren’t happy with how the media portray them, and they’re trying to shape coverage by offering easy access to the press to ask them about anything.