The partisan hack agrees with the GOP shill agreeing with THAT WOMAN…

…third parties are a dead end.

…she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.

“Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” [former Governor Sarah] Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.”

Ace (the aforementioned, and self-described, GOP shill*), cut right to the chase when responding to both this, and the fairly obvious point that a functional third party = Democratic victory:

I’m not interested in “sending messages” when those messages come with the other, all-caps message: BARACK OBAMA AND HIS MOST STALWART LIBERAL ALLIES WIN, IN BLOW-OUTS, FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION.

I’m not interested in a message like that, either.  Mind you, I’m not as worried about this as either Ace or Allahpundit is.  Third parties are often threatened, but are rarely a problem on the federal level.  Indeed, if the Democrats are really relying on and spending resources on the plan of encouraging a national third-party in time for November then it’s official: Congress will flip in the next election.  Both Houses.  You don’t make desperation plays like that unless you’re, well, desperate.

Besides, the RNC had a rush of oxygen to the brain.  I guess that we must have tried everything else, first**.

Moe Lane

*I’m the partisan hack, in case that wasn’t obvious.

**I didn’t say that I was a blindly partisan hack.

Crossposted to RedState.