U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is facing one of the biggest threats to any Republican incumbent today: potential primary opposition from the anti-tax Tea Party movement.

It’s the latest example of the challenges facing Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as he works to make the party more stable and competitive, while also preventing a civil war between the leadership and the anti-government spending activist base that has provided the energy and campaign foot soldiers for its candidates.

Thus far, a path to achieve both goals remains elusive. When an RNC committee charged by Priebus with recommending changes to strengthen the party was asked yesterday what it could do to help McConnell, the highest ranking Republican lawmaker in Washington, the answer was: not much