The Tea Party’s Rebel Yell!

The Tea Party’s Rebel Yell!

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TPM has a story up about how the Tea Party looks at what happened yesterday.
For a certain block of House conservatives, the ones who drove Speaker John Boehner toward a government shutdown and near-default against his will, the lesson of the last few weeks isn't that they overreached. Not that they made unachievable demands, put their leadership in an impossible position, damaged their party's position with the public and left a deep uncertainty about whether the GOP conference can recover and legislate. No, what they're taking away from the 2013 crisis is: They didn't go far enough.
Erick Erickson Predicts GOP Split, 3rd Party Coming

Erick Erickson Predicts GOP Split, 3rd Party Coming

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Via TPM:
Incensed that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) are reportedly abandoning the effort to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act, RedState.com editor Erick Erickson predicted Thursday that Republican leadership is providing fertile ground for the rise of a "real third party movement" that will split the GOP.
I'm torn on the idea of the Republican Party splitting in two - mainly because the Tea Party has already taken over, and deep down Republicans (95% of them) actually agree with the Tea Party agenda.  Jason wrote a post the other day, in which he said, "I don’t use “Tea Party” any more because the fact is the Republican Party is staffed and run by members of what was once called the Tea Party." Jason's correct.  Go ahead and try to put today's Republican politicians into column A (RINOs) and column B (Tea Partiers).  You won't end up with a balanced list.  Column A is pretty empty.

How To Remove A Tea Partier

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Like a good Tea Partier, Wagner voted against every single appropriation of money put forward by the legislature, including a bill that arrived on Governor Brian Schweitzer’s desk last April which contained grant money for local communities (including Wagner’s district), for things like sewer upgrades, fire department repairs, and the like. Schweitzer–who is known to enjoy mixing it up with right-wingers–saw an angle. He noticed that Wagner had voted against the bill. So, Schweitzer used his “line item veto” power and selectively crossed out the funds that would have gone to Wagner’s district. Schweitzer did this to several legislators who voted against the grant billl. Schweitzer said that it was logical to assume that if Wagner and others voted against the bill, then their constituents must not have expressed much interest in getting the money.

Tea Party Teabagging the GOP

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When a group is founded solely on the hatred towards one man and the media stops reporting on the group's idiotic rantings, it turns out that the Tea Party is actually beginning to harm the Republican Party.