You can tell the grey lady is feeling pessimistic this morning, the two lead headlines being about substantial tea party influence on our future and a glimpse at John Boehner's childhood home. Got the picture?
Times reporter Kate Zernicke, who has written rather favorably about that cozy American grass-roots tea party movement, reports that the movement's success appears to be hurting Republicans.
... The states with the highest concentration of Tea Party candidates are South Carolina, Massachusetts and Arizona. In South Carolina, this reflects the energy of the movement; in Massachusetts, where almost none of the candidates are expected to win, it reflects a historically weak Republican farm team. ...
... Polls suggest that in the Senate, the hurt may outweigh the help. The four seats that are leaning or solidly Republican and feature Tea Party candidates were in Republican hands to begin with. Ms. O’Donnell’s surprise upset of the establishment candidate in Delaware dashed Republican hopes for a seat that even Democrats had expected to lose. The Tea Party candidate in Nevada, Sharron Angle, has improved the odds that Senator Harry Reid, the leader of Democratic majority, hangs onto his seat. And having Rand Paul as their nominee has made the fight in Kentucky tougher than Republicans anticipated. ...
... In the House, Tea Party candidates are allowing Democrats to poll well in a few districts where demographics and voting history suggest that Republicans should win — the district that includes Tucson, the one north and west of Pittsburgh, and one in suburban Chicago. ...
Bottom line? Republicans are getting their noses rubbed in it.
That's not to say Democrats aren't getting hurt, too. After all, there's the pending Wisconsin tragedy. And next term we'll have the pleasure of watching Congress wingers subject each piece of legislation to the tea party's notion of what the Constitution means.
... In a questionnaire for a Tea Party group, Steve Stivers, running for Congress in Ohio, said that only four departments — Defense, Justice, State and Treasury — perform “constitutional roles,” meaning “you could eliminate the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy and others to return to a constitutionally pure government.”
One of the real pleasures of the past weeks was watching how well the outside world -- specifically the people and government of Chile and their international supporters -- continues to function when the chips are down. The whole spectacle showed the people of Chile to be far beyond Americans in our current capabilities as a nation. We're in for at least two more years of watching America testing the crumbling, slippery edges of a high cliff -- day after day -- while very possibly experiencing the leadership of John Boehner in the House.
Mr. Boehner’s hometown seems virtually untouched by the decades that have passed since he lugged kegs of beer around his father’s bar, tossed a Friday night football and frightened a driving instructor by burning rubber in a GTO.
