Schmidt: We Need A 2016 Candidate Who Will Stand Up To Palin's 'Asininity' 

 RealClearPolitics

  

STEVE SCHMIDT, MCCAIN 2008 ADVISER: For the last couple of years, we've had this wing of the party running roughshod over the rest of the party, tossing out terms like RINO, saying we're going to purge the moderates out of the party, that, you know, it's all of the people that she's attacking in her statement. 

You finally see it with Ted Cruz, maybe he was the one that has gone a bridge too far. And as we come up against a potential default, potential government shutdown, wise people understand the political consequences for the Republican party. Maybe we'll start seeing our elected leaders stop being intimidated by this nonsense, have the nerve, have the guts to stand up and say enough is enough, this isn't what the Republican party's about. To fight to take conservatism's good name back from the freak show that's been running wild for four years and I have deep regret in my part, certainly, in initiating [it]. But it's time for Republicans to again embrace what made us successful in the past, which is a party that has solutions to the problems that face the country.