Eugene Robinson: Tea Stains on the GOP Too

[babylonsister]

Tea Stains on the GOP Too
Posted on May 20, 2010
By Eugene Robinson

snip//

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, perhaps the most powerful Republican in Washington and certainly the party’s kingpin in Kentucky, put his considerable clout behind Grayson. But Paul’s candidacy became a cause célèbre for the national tea party movement, and he whipped Grayson in Tuesday’s primary by 24 points.

The stunning result should telegraph two warnings to Republicans. The first is a reminder that while voters’ ardor toward the Democratic Party might have cooled, this has not led to a passionate embrace of the GOP. There’s a splash-back effect from unceasing attacks against the evil empire known as Washington: Voters notice that Republicans live there, too.

The second warning is that the tea party movement does not intend to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. Strategists who hoped to use the movement’s energy and passion as weapons against the Democrats in the fall should realize that many tea party types see the GOP as fundamentally no different.

What does any of this mean for November? The Democrats should still expect to lose seats in both houses. But this week, the GOP lost a special House election that it should have won—if conditions for the party are really as favorable as the leadership says, that is. And the tea party movement, after thwarting the Democrats’ best-laid plans in Massachusetts, did the same for Republicans in Kentucky.

The GOP shouldn’t measure the drapes in the Capitol just yet.

[mwb970]

1. Here's a link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/20/AR2010052003884.html

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks; didn't realize I left it out. nt

[Cha]

3. KR