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The Water Cooler Title: Senate GOP Leaders Look to Water Down Tea Party Ideology “You might as well know right now … that the Tea Party, no matter how successful it is at the polls in November, will certainly betray the party of liberty,” wrote Lew Rockwell, proprietor of LewRockwell.com, on September 22. In addition to identifying philosophical problems among Tea Party candidates, Rockwell explained that “once they take office … the serious problems begin. They are leaned on by their new colleagues, the party elites, related financial interests, the press, and the entire system of which they are now part. Are they going to make themselves enemies of that system, or are they going to work within the system in order to achieve reform, and not just for one term but more terms down the line? Doing a good job means being part of the structure; doing a bad job means being an enemy of the very system that they now serve.” He concludes that most will choose to join the establishment, saying, “It is for this reason that newly seated ‘revolutionary’ politicians will betray those who put them in power. It happens like clockwork, same as day turns to night.” Most of the GOP insiders feel that, when all the votes are tallied, the Senate Republican conference will generally look the same in the next Congress as it does now — just larger. The caucus will likely contain a small bloc of Tea Party-inspired conservatives, a small moderate bloc, and a large bloc of more traditional Republicans who typically align with leadership. The proportions don’t change ....The size simply gets bigger. With the new conservative senators making up such a small portion of the party’s representation in the Senate, they are unlikely to wield much influence. In fact, Strickland expects them to vote with the leadership most of the time because “their ultimate objectives will still be aligned with those of their caucus leaders.” Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, told Strickland, “The fact is that Republicans will continue to unite behind the common goals of reducing spending, slowing the growth of government and repealing and replacing the health spending bill.” The reader will note that this agenda is somewhat less than ambitious — it calls only for “slowing” government growth, not reversing it, and for “replacing” ObamaCare, probably with House Republicans’ “ObamaCare lite” proposal. The one bright spot in Strickland’s account is that if Republicans do take the Senate — a difficult but not impossible feat — “all bets are off.” With the party having the power to set the agenda, newcomers and their allies such as Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina (disparaged by GOP insiders who spoke with Strickland) may feel emboldened to push for significant reductions in government rather than accepting the crumbs the leadership throws to them. Republican control could, as Strickland avers, force McConnell to “[struggle] to hold the factions of his party together while trying to move major legislation,” but at least the party won’t be unified around offering watered-down versions of Democrats’ proposals. All in all, Strickland paints a rather depressing picture of the potential for real change in the Senate regardless of how many Tea Party candidates are seated in January. Chances are the situation in the House isn’t much different, especially given that the sheer number of representatives ensures that each one’s influence, and particularly that of newcomers, is greatly diminished. If this is what Tea Partiers get for all their hard work, they ought to throw the GOP overboard in 2012.
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#2. To: Brian S (#0)
I hope nobody is surprised about this.
It's a likely enough scenario, but this Strickland cat is counting his chickens before they hatch. If elected Rand Paul is likely to join forces with some other malcontents and become a real PITA for Mitch McConnel and friends. Any improvements will be incremental, IOW slow. That's how we got into this mess. I DO like the part about throwing the GOP under the bus in 2012. IMO the Tea Party should have done it this election cycle, but better late than never. If Tancredo wins in Colarado under the American Constitution Party banner, that could be an early indicator of things to come.
I completely agree. DeMint, Paul and maybe one or two others are going to be McConnell's worst nightmare. They are not going to go along to get along. "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." -- Trent Lott.
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