From the "The more things change…" file.

Back in '04, a lot of Democratic precinct workers and other long time rank and file activists were shaking their heads at the call by a budding insurgency (we called 'em "Deaniacs" back in the day) to "take our party back!" Back from who, wondered the doorbellers and phonebankers who'd been waiting patiently - sometimes for decades - for their relief. Where've ya' been? E.J. Dionne says it’s the Republican's turn...

Ross notes that the state Republican convention endorsed Castle. These are not some shadowy party bosses, but, as he put it, “the grass-roots delegates who knock on the doors and pass out the literature and pound the pavements.”

Of course, some of the Dean insurgency was an illusion. Their differences with the Party, as both sides figured out in a fairly short time, were more about tactics and posture than ideology or positions. Dean's folks found out that most of the folks at those meetings hated the war, loved unions and supported civil rights and liberties with the same fervor as the insurgents. The Party regulars adopted the new tactics and technologies the newcomers brought with them. Governor Dean soon became Chairman Dean, winning the top job at the DNC with broad support from those same Party regulars and their national representatives.

The Republicans will, I suspect, find the outcome of their current insurgency will be far less rewarding. Turned out that the Deaniacs weren't maniacs, but some of the Tea Partiers are, apparently, mad as hatters.

What can the Republicans expect? There's a pretty big clue in Goldy's remembrance of Ellen Craswell.

As for me, Tea Party or mainstream, insurgent or establishment, I still say...