"Imperial Japan taught its soldiers that death was preferable to surrender. The tea party’s code is similar..."

"Stand firm, regardless of the odds of success or the consequences of failure. I’ve argued before that the struggle between the Republican establishment and the tea party is no longer about ideology — establishment figures have mostly co-opted tea party views — but about temperament."

Dana Milbank compares Chris McDaniel (the tea party candidate who lost a GOP primary to Senator Cochran) to Hiroo Onoda, the last of the WWII holdouts, who kept up his fight until 1974.

"Tea party leader Mark Mayfield suicide: A sign of politics 'beyond the pale'?"

Headline at the Christian Science Monitor.

I'd say what we had here was one man with terrible judgment.

Mr. Mayfield was charged on May 22 with conspiring with three other men to take a photo of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife, Rose, who is in a nursing home. The photo was used briefly as part of an anti-Cochran ad. Mayfield didn’t take the photo, but allegedly used knowledge of the facility to help a blogger gain access.

That's an awful thing to do and so is killing yourself. You don't get to deflect the blame for what you did onto other people by wreaking a death penalty on yourself. Death is an unfair sentence for this crime, and just because you've made yourself the victim of this unfair sentence doesn't make the criminal case the authorities brought against you unfair. And too bad if Cochran supporters took political advantage of the criminal charges. What did you expect? Stay alive and face the consequences.

"It Looks Like African-Americans Really Did Help Thad Cochran Win."

Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight works the numbers.

It’s clear that Cochran’s vote increases were correlated to the percentage of African-Americans who live in each county. The 10 counties where the incumbent senator improved most were those where blacks make up 69 percent or more of the population.

"Tuesday night was bad for Democrats, good for the GOP establishment and great for incumbents of both parties."

A quick summary of what just happened. 

ADDED: "There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats." 

"Challenged by Tea Party, Veteran Mississippi Senator Decides to Run for Seventh Term."

A NYT headline about Thad Cochran, a 76-year-old Republican who's been in the Senate since 1978.

Who's more senior than Cochran? Here's a list of the current Senators in order of seniority. Cochran is 4th on the list.

I'm not impressed by this kind of stature, this excessive holding on to one's position of power, even into old age. The headline hints that the Tea Party challenges are disrespectful or disruptive.

The article has a ludicrous correction: "An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly the age of Senator Thad Cochran, as well as the number of the term he is seeking. He will be 76 on Saturday; he is not 76." His birthday is tomorrow, and we're not supposed to say he's 76? He is not 76. Correction! Good lord. Did the demand for a correction come from his office? What a nice showing of inane vanity and out-of-touchness. Grow up. You're 76.

Mr. Cochran, who has raised less than $1 million for his re-election, had been thought to be leaning toward retirement. But Mississippi Republicans said they believed [a challenge from Chris McDaniel, 41, a state senator aligned with the Tea Party] and pleas from powerful figures across the state that Mr. Cochran seek another term prompted the senator to mount what will probably be his final campaign....

So maybe it's not Cochran after all but "powerful figures" who are pushing him, using him, but for what? Is this a way to weaken the Tea Party?