A GOP CIVIL WAR?:  Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune argues that there is a “civil war” among the GOP “moderates” and their more conservative Tea Party cohorts.  Page is right that there are two factions in the GOP, but it’s not between “moderate” and “conservatives.”  It’s between the old-school GOP elites and the newer generation of Republicans — many of whom are Tea Partiers, but certainly not all — who are more adamant than their predecessors about sticking to conservative principles and eschewing political compromises that abandon those principles.

This newer generation — exemplified by Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz — is more libertarian in persuasion and hence, more concerned about preserving the Constitution, balancing budgets and reducing the size of government than they are about social issues such as gay marriage, abortion, etc.