As predicted, many of the more obtuse Republicans (okay, Tea Partiers) believe their Election Day losses are due to having a candidate who just wasn't conservative enough. Some of them blame Karl Rove; others blame Republican leadership. They blame candidates who said stupid things about rape, but not the mentality that made them think that way in the first place.

In other words, it's not them. It's not their policies, their politics or their message. It's just that it wasn't delivered properly! Just keep telling yourself that, guys:

Mitt Romney's loss to President Obama on Tuesday unleashed predictable angst and debate in a Republican Party that must now decide how to attract a more diverse electorate.

But for conservatives who identify with the tea party, one emotion seemed to dominate all others: a white-hot anger at the Republican establishment. Tea party supporters are angry at the GOP for embracing as its presidential nominee a "moderate" like Romney. For undermining "true conservative" candidates. And for "choosing to ignore" the conservative agenda.

Wednesday, the political direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie gathered a group of disenchanted conservatives for a news conference in Washington. Calling Romney's loss "the death rattle" of the GOP, Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said, "The battle to take over the Republican Party begins today."

He called upon the Republican leadership to resign for its part in the "epic election failure of 2012." That includes Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who has not announced whether he will run for the post again, House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

But he didn't stop there.

"In any logical universe," Viguerie said, "establishment Republican consultants such as Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and Romney campaign senior advisors Stuart Stevens and Neil Newhouse would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again and no one would give a dime to their ineffective 'super PACs.'"

Rove is a pioneer in the formation of the outside groups that raised more than $1 billion for the election. Gillespie, a Romney strategist, worked with Rove in the George W. Bush White House. Newhouse is the Romney pollster who famously said last summer, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers."

Viguerie's attack didn't sit well with many mainline Republicans, who blamed conservative "purists" and the tea party wing of the party for squandering the GOP's chance to regain control of the Senate.

Friday, for instance, conservative columnist Michael Barone told an audience at Hillsdale College's center in Washington that the tea party, while bringing some talented politicians to the fore, also brought some "wackos and weirdos and witches."

In a video of his comments, posted on the Daily Caller website, he singled out the GOP's losing Senate candidates in Missouri and Indiana — Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock — who he said committed "unforced errors" with their remarks against abortion cases of rape. "Don't nominate dogs, OK?," he said.

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I caught this clip of Ralph Reed waxing eloquent in Wisconsin at the Faith & Freedom Coalition pre-primary "warm up the crowd and get them frothing" before he introduced Rick Santorum this weekend, and I confess, I may have cut it off just a little bit early so that it might sound like he is excited about President Obama's inaugural in 2013.

I know it's a bit of a bait and switch but then I view his current operation as a bit of a bait and switch, too. Let's have a closer look at Ralph Reed's "business dealings."

After the Christian Coalition fell apart and Reed was exposed for using earnest Christian soldiers as pawns to screw some Native American tribes out of casino deals so other ones who just happened to be clients of Jack Abramoff's could get a decent deal, Ralph Reed tried to run for office and failed. You'd think at some point he might actually be held accountable by those pious conservatives out in the Midwest, but instead they laud him as some kind of prophet. Go figure.

And now I can't help but wonder if he's up to the same old tricks. In 2009, he started up his new operation with seed money of $500,000 from an unknown donor. That $500,000 was earmarked for "voter education" according to the initial tax filing. The name used on that tax filing was "Freedom and Values Alliance, Inc." While Reed was named as Chairman of the Board, he received no compensation in 2009.

I guess he just serves out of the goodness of his itty-bitty little heart. Then I had a look at the 2010 filing, which uses the same tax identification number, but now has a different name. For 2010, the name of the same organization with the same identification number was now the "Faith and Freedom Coalition, Inc" with a related entity, the "Freedom and Values Alliance, Inc."

Once again, Reed received no compensation from the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Inc., but the organization received over $5 million dollars in 2010 and of that, over $1 million went to the sister organization, Freedom and Values Alliance, Inc.

Are you following me so far? The organization in 2009 has one name and in 2010 it has another, with a newborn sister organization carrying its first name but with no federal disclosures. And a million dollars went to it.

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Richard Viguerie, the king of mail order conservatism from the Goldwater days wasn't impressed with the stable of GOP candidates last night. Via my inbox:

Manassas, VA -- Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, issued the following statement regarding the Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa:

"The Republican debate was missing the big ideas that were the hallmark of Ronald Reagan's successful campaigns and presidency.

"There are two things a candidate must do to win the Republican nomination for President.

"First, the candidate must convince Republican primary voters that he or she is a committed conservative. They don't have to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, but they do have to be convincing as the conservative standard bearer.

"Second, that person has to convince Republican primary voters that he or she can defeat Barack Obama.

"None of the eight on the stage tonight can, as yet, pass both tests."

I guess Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich didn't talk about raising taxes enough for Richard. And if the tea party wants to be more like Reagan they should probably run on the promise to raise the payroll tax to about $160,000 a year to offset the cost of living increases so Social Security will thrive for decades longer than it will now.

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