The New York Times has a story about the challenges to [mc_name name=’Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B000589′ ]. It again makes the point that Republican Leaders intend to push hard against conservatives once Boehner’s spot as Speaker is secure.

But there is more to it.

The Times brings back up the Scalise issue. It adds extra liberal hyperbole that even I, as someone who questioned Scalise, think is inappropriate. But there is one point worth paying attention to.

It was the supposedly racist tea party conservatives who cried foul over [mc_name name=’Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’S001176′ ] speaking to the David Duke affiliated group.

These are the same tea party conservatives who backed [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] and [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ] against the white guys who Scalise’s defenders supported.

These are the same tea party conservatives who backed Nikki Haley and Allen West and the list goes on and on against the white guys who Scalise’s defenders supported.

Time and time again, the old white establishment backs old white men and attacks tea party conservatives as bigots. Even now, the spin from the establishment is that Scalise’s outreach to white supremacists is useful because he has to reach out to tea party types.

That is not media spin. That is the Republican leadership’s spin.

Yet, it is the tea party guys — those supposed racists — who have time and time again objected to the establishment’s ties to groups like Duke’s and who have stood against the establishment in defense of non-white men running for office.