Tea party's steam could run out in November elections

[babylonsister]

Tea party's steam could run out in November elections

By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — The tea party movement's grassroots conservatives rocked the political world this year by upsetting mainstream Republicans in several nominating contests, but they remain an uncertain force in November.

The movement has yet to be tested in a general election, when a much broader electorate votes.

"Tea party supporters will turn out, and in some states, their presence will be felt. But in purple and blue states (those that lean Democratic or are split politically), they may cost Republicans seats they should have," said Jennifer Duffy, political analyst for the Cook Political Report, an independent political research firm.

The tea party gained political stature this year when candidates supported by the loosely defined movement upset Republican establishment choices in Alaska, Nevada, Kentucky, Utah, Colorado, and Delaware. They also forced Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to leave the Republican Party and seek election to the Senate as an independent.

However, the tea party now faces a focused opposition that it lacked in GOP-only contests: Democrats are pushing hard to persuade voters that the tea party is extreme. Democrats cite how tea party activists disrupted lawmakers' town halls in summer 2009 and remind voters that tea party leaders today call for privatizing popular programs, including Social Security.

In November, Duffy said that a brewing backlash against the tea party could wound the GOP Senate candidates in Nevada and Delaware — two states where Republicans are banking on picking up Democratic-held seats, and crucial to their hopes for gaining control of the Senate.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/01/101478/tea-partys-steam-could-run-out.html

[jaxx]

1. The idea of the fringe running this country is going to move voters

to the left. Rational people don't go along with the radical ideals of the teabaggers...or the pubs for that matter.

[B Calm]

5. I know for a fact it's moving me! I have to hold my nose and vote for a Blue Dog

congressman running for the senate, but the alternative scares the shit out of me!!

[jaxx]

6. The blue dogs are one more number needed to keep the majority.

For that, they are worth the vote. And most of them vote with us a larger percentage of the time. I think we'll see more cooperation after this election, it's scared the pants off the Dem reps...which is a rotten shame. The idea of the repukes running the committees now is unconscionable.

[Mister Ed]

7. "The idea of the repukes running the committees now is unconscionable."

That's it in a nutshell. If they gain even a slim majority in congress, then they set the congressional agenda. Right now, I wouldn't even have to hold my nose to vote for a Blue Dog.

[malaise]

2. The steam leaves the teapot

as soon as the kettle is removed from the stove :evilgrin:

[geckosfeet]

3. Corporate backed the religious right groups morphed into tea baggers, and they will

have to morph into something else after the hypocrisy, lies and duplicitous rhetoric is exposed to the light day by an election cycle or two.

However, corporate wholesale buying groups now have the ability purchase politicians with legally laundered money so that their efforts will be forever concealed. It will be interesting to see how this influences the face of their 'grassroots' organizing.

[Democat]

4. "pushing hard to persuade voters"?

Or exposing the truth?

[Jade Fox]

8. Without the Koch money the Tea Party would have....

burned out long ago, with no realistic agenda, and heads full of fantasy crap they got from the likes of Glenn Beck.

The Tea Party is mostly a media event.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. and it won't be a moment too soon IMHO

:eyes:

That the Tea Party ever had any "steam" to begin with is amazing in and of itself IMHO. :eyes:

[tanyev]

10. Leaving behind a mess of cold, wet, flaccid teabags.