TAP got into this a great deal during the debate over American Taliban last year, but Steven L. Taylor's post on the subject is another reminder of the limits of extreme rhetoric, even for Republicans:
Of course, it is worth noting that the “‘Second Amendment remedies' crap” didn't work in 2010, either (at least in terms of the Nevada Senate race). Indeed, if Sharron Angle has been a tinge less fringe, or if the NV GOP had nominated a slightly more mainstream nominee, then Harry Reid would be at home tending his garden rather than bearing the title “Senate Majority Leader.”
Angle was arguably the most forthright of the Tea Party candidates last cycle in terms of rhetorically justifying violence in the abstract, and she ended up handily losing a Senate race a less extreme candidate likely would have won. I wouldn't argue that she was sunk by the "Second Amendment remedies" statement (her flagrant race-baiting is a more likely culprit) but it certainly didn't save her.
