How long before the Tea party crowd wakes up in bed with

[randr]

a Boehner they don't recognize?
Will progressives find any common ground with dis-enfranchised tea partier's and form a third party?
What would that common ground be?

[OHdem10]

1. Might be Left-Right Coalition to end these wars.

[leveymg]

2. A 3rd Party might be the worst of both, or it could be a genuinely libertarian/green/anti-war group

I could live merrily with the latter, and might even join it, but would have to fight to the death (hyperbole) with the former, which by any other name would be a fascist anti-immigrant party of universal haters of all elites and foreigners. Yes, there is some of that on the Left, too.

[phleshdef]

3. No true progressive will find common ground with a movement that is the epitome of regression.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Agree. nt

[HopeHoops]

4. Damn - great Halloween costume idea I missed - a giant orange penis.

It would be so obvious!

[pampango]

5. "What would that common ground be?"- Opposition to WTO/"free trade" and corporate bailouts, perhaps.

It would be tougher to deal with teabagger racism, nativism, anti-intellectualism and their preference for a government that does little (and presumably costs little) for the poor, working and middle classes.

It would be difficult, but maybe not impossible, to form a third party from groups that share some common ground but differ on some very fundamental issues. It might make more sense to tacitly use them in pursuit of goals which we share (trade/bailouts) in the short run, while we try to ostracize and weaken them in the long run.

I think it is a safe bet that Boehner and other repub leaders will try to co-opt any teabaggers who do get elected by pointing out where their campaign funds came from and will come from when it is time for reelection. It will be interesting to see the teabagger base's reaction when its politicians go "republican" on them. :)

on edit:

Found a new story from CNN about the tension between teabaggers and repubs on trade.

Trade and Tea Party: Not exactly a happy couple

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/01/news/trade_tea_party.fortune/

It's unclear how an expected influx of Tea Party-affiliated Republicans will shake out on the issue next year. Leaders of some of the groups that have helped organize the movement -- Americans for Prosperity, for example -- are free-trade boosters.

But the Tea Party's grassroots members are more hostile to trade agreements than the broader population. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 61% of those who identified themselves as supporters of the movement believe the deals have hurt the U.S., while 53% of all respondents held the same view.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and former Congressional Budget Office director who advised Sen. John McCain during his presidential run, calls the issue a "wild card." Research from his consulting firm finds that Republican voters are more likely than Democratic voters to support new tariffs on Chinese imports to offset U.S. losses due to an undervalued Yuan. He says it's no longer taken for granted that Republicans embrace open trade and open international market, at the least at the voter level.

Lobbyists for big business are gearing up to make their case to scores of freshly minted lawmakers. "Campaigning is one thing and actually being a member of Congress is another," Wenk says. "But we're going to do aggressive outreach to them across the board. We're not taking anything for granted. These folks are going to have to hear from the business community and their constituents about why trade is important."