Tea Party

Republican senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell, a "tea party" movement favorite who has become a political pincushion for Democrats, found herself precariously perched on a new limb Tuesday when  she seemed unsure whether the Constitution guaranteed that church and state be kept separate. O’Donnell, who wrested the GOP nomination from Delaware’s Republican establishment, met her Democratic opponent Chris Coons in their third debate for the Senate seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden.

LAKE ARROWHEAD - A hiss rose from the front row as the Republican-turned-independent took a swing at his grand old party. Voters in Southern California's vast frontier of mountains and desert can break from the GOP's "tyranny of the minority" in the June 5 primary, congressional candidate Anthony Adams told the crowd. A hundred or so people, ranging from "tea party" adherents to gay-marriage defenders, had come to hear him and other hopefuls at a forum inside the Lake Arrowhead Resort.

Debra Medina isn't calling for Texas to secede from the union. She thinks the state should simply ignore federal laws that Texans can't abide. "You get [the Environmental Protection Agency] off the backs of Texas agriculture, energy and manufacturing, we won't have an economic crisis," the gubernatorial hopeful says. She doesn't advocate bloodshed, though Medina believes it may be inevitable "if we don't stand up and start to defend this free, great nation and get it back to . . . constitutional principles."

WASHINGTON -- If it sounds like the debates in Congress have devolved to that of teenagers, it's because they have. The level of discourse in the House and Senate has dropped a full grade level -- to the equivalent of a sophomore in high school, according to a new study. Call this the dumbing down of Congress in a partisan age. Or a shift to plain-spoken populism ignited by the new class of tea party Republicans. But what has become clear in the new research is that the soaring oratory that once filled the floors of the House and Senate with million-dollar diction and sophisticated syntax is making way for a more modest approach.

?The new class of Republican lawmakers who charged into office promising to shun the ways of Washington officially arrives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. ?But even as they publicly bash the capital's culture, many have quietly begun to embrace it. Several freshmen have hired lobbyists ? the ultimate Washington insiders ? to lead their congressional staffs. In the weeks leading up to Wednesday's swearing-in, dozens of the newcomers joined other lawmakers in turning to lobbyists for campaign cash.

Two dozen federal agents outfitted with side arms and bulletproof vests strode past a display of electric guitars signed by Joan Jett and Slash of Guns 'N' Roses and quickly seized control of the cavernous guitar factory. Some workers were caught sanding guitar bodies. Others held newly painted guitars between their bellies and cloth-covered wax wheels, gently swaying and pushing as they buffed the instrument in some kind of tuneless dance. Turn off your machines and go home, they were ordered.

Congress gave final approval Thursday to a temporary extension of parts of the Patriot Act, a step that merely postpones a burgeoning political debate over the controversial anti-terrorism law and its implications for civil liberties in the United States. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation, forming an unusual coalition with Republican leaders to prevent three key surveillance provisions favored by intelligence officials from expiring at the end of the month. But an equally unusual coalition opposes the extension.

Re "Alternative presidential bid falters," May 16 It always seemed quixotic to launch a grass-roots movement from the top. In the unlikely scenario that a candidate was elected president, what sort of clout would she or he have in a Congress that lacked even a single supporter? By contrast, consider the "tea party. " Whether or not you agree with its agenda, it is undeniable that the dozens of representatives it helped elect have made their presence felt. Americans Elect should endorse candidates already running for Congress - whether Democratic or Republican - who meet its criteria, and put up candidates of its own in districts where none do. H.A. Drake Santa Barbara ALSO: Letters: Eugenics in America's past Letters: The media and Mitt Romney Letters: California courts feel the cuts

The winning electoral coalition assembled by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s has been compared to a three-legged stool, the legs being social conservatives, fiscal conservatives and national security conservatives. As the 2012 Republican race takes shape, another leg has been added to the stool — the "tea party" movement. Last week, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced that he was setting up an exploratory committee (though it's hardly a secret what he'll discover), as did former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

One of the things journalism teaches you over and over again is that nothing ruins a good story quite like the facts. Consider, for example, this week's renewal of the chattering classes' infatuation with the "tea party" movement, timed to coincide with the deadline to file federal income tax returns. The group is conventionally portrayed as a burgeoning populist expression of discontent that sprouted spontaneously from the grass-roots and cuts in new ways across sectional, class and gender lines.

Re "Alternative presidential bid falters," May 16 It always seemed quixotic to launch a grass-roots movement from the top. In the unlikely scenario that a candidate was elected president, what sort of clout would she or he have in a Congress that lacked even a single supporter? By contrast, consider the "tea party. " Whether or not you agree with its agenda, it is undeniable that the dozens of representatives it helped elect have made their presence felt. Americans Elect should endorse candidates already running for Congress - whether Democratic or Republican - who meet its criteria, and put up candidates of its own in districts where none do. H.A. Drake Santa Barbara ALSO: Letters: Eugenics in America's past Letters: The media and Mitt Romney Letters: California courts feel the cuts

Re "Romney's media handicap," Opinion, March 15 Jonah Goldberg wants "the media" to be nicer to Mitt Romney, and yet he calls 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry "a pompous human toothache. " Surely this is the pot calling the kettle black. Romney is properly on the hot seat for his selective memory and his evasive semi-apologies. You might not remember the name of the kid who sat behind you in calculus, or the name of the teacher, but you really ought to remember the kid who you held down while cutting his hair.

WASHINGTON - Upstart state Sen. Deb Fischer triumphed in Nebraska's bitterly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, winning the right to face Democrat Bob Kerrey in November. The race had become a high-profile showdown among tea party leaders, who split their support among three candidates. The seat being vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson is considered the GOP's best opportunity for a Senate pickup this fall. Former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had endorsed Fischer last week, giving the little-known rancher from the Sandhills region a boost.

WASHINGTON -- An insurgency within an insurgency could be emerging in the GOP Senate primary in Nebraska, where a lesser-known upstart appears to be gaining on two other conservative candidates in yet another battle between tea party activists and the GOP establishment this election cycle. Deb Fischer, a state legislator endorsed by Sarah Palin, has surged heading into Tuesday's election, according to a recent survey , beyond establishment-backed Attorney General Jon Bruning and Dan Stenberg, the state treasurer.

That didn't take long. Fresh off tea party challenger Richard Mourdock's defeat of longtime Republican Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana's GOP primary, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Democrats' chances have improved in the general election match-up this fall. Mourdock, the state treasurer who is now the GOP nominee , is still favored to win the Senate seat in November. But three-term Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly now has a better chance against Mourdock than he ever did against the six-term elder statesman Lugar, according to Cook.

After more than 35 years in the Senate, Richard G. Lugarof Indiana was ousted Tuesday by a tea party challenger in a Republican primary that showed how hard it is for a veteran lawmaker known for his ability to compromise to win reelection in the current political environment. The 80-year-old senator, a leading voice for his party on foreign policy, was pummeled for weeks by Republican rival Richard Mourdock for his breaches with conservative orthodoxy. Among them: Lugar's support of citizenship for some illegal immigrants and his votes to confirm President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

  Donald Trump filled several roles Saturday: self promoter, crowd pleaser, economic analyst, and slashing critic of President Barack Obama. He didn’t do what many of the 2,500 to 3,000 people gathered to hear him at a tea party rally wanted, declare himself a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. But he drew cheers by dropping tantalizing hints. The crowd roared approval when he said he wasn’t quite ready to apply the signature line, “You’re fired,” from his reality TV show to Obama.

WASHINGTON -- First there was the "tea party" protester. Now meet the Tea-publican. Conservative activists who once protested the political establishment are now flooding the lowest level of the Republican Party apparatus hoping to take over the party they once scorned -- one precinct at a time. Across the country, tea party groups that had focused on planning rallies are educating members on how to run for GOP precinct representative positions. The representatives help elect county party leaders, who write the platform and, in some places, determine endorsements.

After more than 35 years in the United States Senate, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana was ousted Tuesday by a tea party challenger in a Republican primary that demonstrated the perils of compromise in an era of ideological purity and intransigence in Congress. The 80-year-old senator, a leading voice for his party on foreign policy, was pummeled for weeks by Republican rival Richard Mourdock for his breaches with conservative orthodoxy. Among them: Lugar's support of citizenship for some illegal immigrants and his votes to confirm President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Richard Mourdock has defeated longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary, according to an Associated Press projection, ending the career of one of the Senate's most pragmatic politicians and casting a cloud over GOP  efforts to win control of the chamber. Mourdock, who is currently serving as Indiana state treasurer, campaigned as a conservative alternative to Lugar. He became a darling of the tea party movement after he launched a legal challenge to the terms of the Obama administration's bailout of Chrysler.