Republicans are trying to harness/infiltrate the teabagger movement. They want those who are certain to turn out to vote in November to vote for Republicans, and not third party candidates.
That's going to be hard if Republicans are forced to go on the record of what they think about teabaggers. Republians who move too far to the right can't pick up votes in the center, and voters in the center don't want to be associated with racists and homophobes.
What matters here is just getting the media to ask the questions (see below).
There's something useful for Democrats and progressives to use against Republicans no matter what the answer is.
Of course, the media have tried to portray teabaggers as "patriotic" dissenters. Teabaggers need to be shown in an accurate light in the media: racists & homophobes.
I've seen Dems (individuals and party committees) call this stuff out before, but haven't gotten any traction in the media. The media saw the hate speech today, and quite frankly, it'd be major media fail if they aren't going to ask Republicans if they stand with racists & homophobes or not.
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