You should read this whole piece by @TimAlberta. One thing it makes clear: It's not just that "the fringe" no longer exists. It's that what was recently seen as the fringe is now the majority of, at least, the House Republican Conference. politico.com/news/magazine/… 
But Washington is full of incentives — from wanting to be seen as evenhanded, to wanting to book House Republicans on shows, to wanting to maintain good sourcing, to wanting House Rs to vote for your bills or meet with your lobbyists — to face that fact clearly.
.@NormOrnstein and Thomas Mann have talked about the consequences that followed their book, the way the media boxed them in as partisans, rather than, as was the case, experts whose reputations should've been burnished for taking professional risk to voice their true conclusions.
Alberta is known for his GOP sourcing, but as he writes here, the very fact of reporting what that sourcing reveals has put that sourcing in danger.
One thing I've been thinking about since Wednesday: Senate Republicans get way more coverage than House Republicans, because right now, Senate Republicans have actual power. But that's causing people to miss how deranged the House Rs have become.
Senate Rs have nutty members of course, like Cruz and Hawley. But in the House, Cruz and Hawley are unremarkable, and probably towards the middle of the Conference, where in the Senate, they seem like outliers.
But today's House is tomorrow's Senate.
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