The story we usually get from the mainstream media is that the ultra-right-wing teabaggers in the Republican Party have little respect for the congressional leaders of their party, who are in the "establishment" wing of the party. They go on to say that these teabaggers would like to replace those leaders with members of Congress who are further to the right.
That has some truth in it. Only about one third of the teabaggers in the GOP's base supports those congressional leaders -- with 32% supporting Speaker John Boehner, and 33% supporting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. But there is another part of the GOP's story that should worry those party leaders even more. The non-teabaggers in the party base, the so-called "establishment" Republicans, approve of those leaders even less than the teabaggers do -- with only 9% supporting Boehner, and only 16% supporting McConnell.
Why is this? Those non-teabaggers in the party either believe that Boehner and McConnell have led the party to the extreme right, or they are such weak leaders that they have allowed the extreme right to push them around and force them to give in. Either way, the "establishment" wing of the party seems to think new leadership is needed even more than the teabaggers do (and that is very probably why McConnell is having trouble with his re-election effort).
The chart above is from a new Gallup Poll taken between April 24th and 30th of a nationwide sample of 1,513 adults.
