Recommended reading: "Some tea party congressmen find signs of political backlash at home." That I consider good news. May some center-right Republican challenge my congressman Scott Garrett, one of the farthest-right members of Congress, who retains his seat because of the gerrymandering that combines wealthier parts of Bergen County with more rural areas in northwest New Jersey (Lou Dobbs country, one might say), thus creating a conservative 5th district while leaving nearby areas of Jersey dominated by liberal Democrats. We need competitive elections, both between parties and within parties. It so happens one longtime Republican has already expressed an interest in challenging Garrett.
UPDATE 3:40 PM: Also see E.J. Dionne's "Shutdown: the tea party's last stand" and Jennifer Rubin's "Republicans are fighting back against the tea party." Soon, I'm thinking, I'll be able to go into hipster mode and brag that I was anti-Tea Party before that was cool. For an alternative view, see Tim Carney's "Tea Party loosens K Street's stranglehold on the GOP." To which I say: (1) Whatever such benefit the Tea Party brought has long since been outweighed by its obstinacy and inanity; and (2) Actually, the Tea Party reinforced some bad manifestations of GOP-industry coziness, such as climate science denialism.
