Will the Tea Party compromise?
Tea Partiers may be more amenable to an agreement on tax revenues now that the electorate has signaled it doesn鈥檛 especially like what the Tea Party has been up to, Reich writes.
Tea Partiers may be more amenable to an agreement on tax revenues now that the electorate has signaled it doesn鈥檛 especially like what the Tea Party has been up to, Reich writes.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a mandate in yesterday鈥檚 results,鈥� said House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a mandate to find a way for us to work together.鈥� Republicans, he said, were willing to accept 鈥渘ew revenue under the right conditions,鈥� to get a bipartisan agreement over the budget.
We鈥檝e heard this before. The Speaker came close to agreeing to an increase in tax revenues in his talks with the President in the summer of 2011, but relented when Tea Partiers in the House made a ruckus.
But Tea Partiers may be more amenable to an agreement now that the electorate has signaled it doesn鈥檛 especially like what the Tea Party has been up to.聽
Consider Indiana, where the Tea Party had pushed out veteran GOP Senator Richard Lugar in favor of Richard (rape is 鈥渟omething God intended鈥�) Mourdock. Mourdouk was soundly defeated Tuesday by Rep. Joe Donnelly.
In Missouri, the Tea Party was responsible for Todd (some rapes are 鈥渓egitimate鈥�) Akin winning the Republican Senate nomination 鈥� which gave Sen. Claire McCaskill a landslide victory.
And in Montana, Tea Party nominee Denny Rehberg was no match for Senator Jon Tester.
Of the sixty incumbent members of the House鈥檚 Tea Party Caucus, 47 were reelected, while 6 lost big, two ended up in races far too close for comfort, and one is still hanging by a thread (the rest either retired or sought higher office). Overall, those are bad odds for House incumbents.
As of Thursday morning, Tea Party icon Florida鈥檚 Rep. Allen West 鈥� who made a name for himself calling several of his Democratic colleagues communists 鈥� was still trailing his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy by more than the 0.5 percent margin that would trigger an automatic recount. Nonetheless, West is charging 鈥渄isturbing irregularities鈥� in the balloting process, and his lawyers have asked that ballots and voting equipment be impounded in St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties in expectation of a recount.
Another Tea Party icon, Minnesota鈥檚 Rep. Michele Bachmann, beat challenger Jim Graves by just over 3,000 votes out of nearly 350,000 votes cast 鈥� even though she outspent Graves by more than 12-to-one. Not a good omen for Bachmann in 2014.
Tuesday wasn鈥檛 exactly a repudiation of the Tea Party, and the public鈥檚 rejection of Tea Party extremism on social issues doesn鈥檛 automatically translate into rejection of its doctrinaire economics. But the election may have been enough of a slap in the face to cause Tea Partiers to rethink their overall strategy of intransigence. And to give Boehner and whatever moderate voices are left in the GOP some leverage over the crazies in their midst.