Peter Beinart sees an advantage for Republicans in their recent intra-party squabbles:

But over the past week, the foundation has been laid for a GOP presidential candidate to run against the Washington GOP.

Beinart is making a fairly safe bet, since the out-party presidential candidates often run against Washington, “Washington insiders,” and the dubious dealings in the capital of some (most?) of their own party, and Republican candidates tend to do this most often. It makes little difference whether the candidate’s political career has been mostly outside Washington or not. Considering the appalling approval ratings for Congress, posing as an outsider becomes a necessity for any member with ambitions of higher office. The supposed “curse of the Senate” may not be what it once was. The likely Republican field in 2016 includes several current or former members of Congress, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the next Republican ticket were headed by one of them. It would be amusing Ryan or Rubio ran a campaign characterized by triangulating against their own colleagues, but who would believe it? The 2012 ticket was headed by an outsider candidate with the instincts of a partisan yes-man while his running mate was a partisan “team player” who pretended to be a bold reformer from the heartland. Next time around, the chances are good that one of the party’s rising stars in Congress will end up with the nomination, rendering the campaign’s anti-Washington rhetoric as incredible as it is inevitable.