More Tea Pot Death Rattles: "Tea Party Groups Suffer Another Huge Defeat; Are They Toast?"

[Fred Sanders]

Last edited Tue Feb 4, 2014, 10:02 PM - Edit history (2)

"The trio of defeats: The October bill to re-open the shuttered government and avert a catastrophic debt default (with no strings attached), the December budget agreement to raise spending and mitigate automatic sequester cuts and now the farm bill to renew agriculture subsidies and food stamps.

Tea party groups such as the Club For Growth and Heritage Action fought these initiatives every step of the way and threatened to use their scorecards to downgrade lawmakers who voted for them. In October, they lost the battle when Speaker John Boehner put a clean bill on the floor to fund the government and avert default (although most Republicans voted against it). But the budget and farm bill agreements each passed with the support of 70 percent of House Republicans, a more troubling sign for the tea party groups.

In the case of the farm bill, the groups wanted much deeper cuts to food stamps than bipartisan negotiators settled on. Michael Needham, the CEO of Heritage Action, lamented on Wednesday that their effort was thwarted by an "unholy alliance" to combine farm policy and food stamps and maintain the status quo.

So, how did things go wrong for them?"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/tea-party-groups-defeat-farm-bill

[yeoman6987]

1. I hope they are done

However, a lot of their districts are very gerrymandered so I can't see how it will be the end of the Tea Party and Republican Majority. The states need to be redrawn and the next time is 2020 but maybe they can do it early. I did hear states from time to time do redistrict early. Democratic Governors should definitely try this especially in blue states.

[elfin]

2. Maybe Boner finally got fed up

With them running HIS House and is using leverage of some sort to muzzle them.

Maybe he sobered up a bit and got a grip on his powers.

[AlinPA]

3. i can't agree. He could have called for votes to end the shutdown. He actually led the teabaggers.

His quote on Jay Leno show about the shutdown:
“When I looked up, I saw my colleagues going this way. And you learn that a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk,” he said. “So I said, ‘You want to fight this fight? I'll go fight the fight with you.’

[CTyankee]

4. yesterday's Tea Partier is now today facing some pretty tough economic times...

those gummint programs are lookin' pretty good...

[Sunlei]

5. The board of directors of those 2 mentioned groups are full of old time-pre tea party Rs....

Bet they don't 'work' for free, wonder what their pay checks look like.