A GOP-Tea Party Merger

Some important news from Andy Barr:

The South Carolina Republican Party announced Monday that it’s uniting with tea party groups in the state to share resources, coordinate messaging and push the GOP in a more conservative direction.

The points of contact between the state party establishment and the grass-roots will be the Greenville County Republican Party — one of the most conservative wings of the state party — and the Upstate Coalition of Conservative Organizations, an umbrella structure of state tea party groups.

This is a state with an extremely conservative GOP — Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) are bona fide Tea Party icons — but a few members less beloved by Tea Partiers, like Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.), who would seem to benefit from this anyway. One other note: The disastrous scandal that’s ending Mark Sanford’s career — the kind of thing that sometimes trickles down to hurt the party in power — is having no real long-term effect. The party’s marched right on, to the right.