Michelle Malkin encourages Republicans: 'Hold your own party accountable

Speaking to the Lane County Republicans at their Lincoln Day Dinner in Oregon this weekend, conservative author and commentator Michelle Malkin wasn't interested in toeing the party line. Instead, she encouraged those in attendance to work together in holding the GOP accountable and fighting back against establishment-types who draw the party away from its conservative base.

Malkin took specific issue with Republican strategist Karl Rove's fundraising efforts and his "incumbency protection racket."

WATCH:

h/t Byron York

This certainly isn't the first time Malkin has criticized Rove.  In a column published earlier this month, she accused Robe of waging a "war on grass-roots conservatives" and tea partiers.  "Who needs Obama and his Team Chicago to destroy the Tea Party when you've got Rove and his big government band of elites?" Malkin wrote.

Rove and his Tea Party-bashing minions will point to the losses of Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, and others as justification to tighten his grip on the party in the role of Chief Decider. But those are all very disparate cases. It is ridiculous, for example, to continue smearing and lumping Mourdock (a bona fide, grass-roots candidate and fantastic State Treasurer whose sin was to honestly state his views on life) with establishment incumbent Republican Akin (whose indefensible Magical Uterus Meme idiocy cost the GOP a winnable Senate seat).

Rove is a master of distraction. And that’s what this Tea Party attack is all about.