Polls

Poll: Public Opinion Turning Against Occupy Wall Street

Eric Kleefeld | November 16, 2011, 11:02AM

A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds public opinion souring pretty quickly on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The poll asked: "Do you support or oppose the goals of the
Occupy Wall Street movement?" The result was only 33% support, to 45% opposed.

In the previous poll from a month ago, when the protests were fairly new and public opinion had not yet had the chance to set in, the result was a very close 35% support, to 36% opposed.

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Atlas Shrugged

'Atlas Shrugged' Producers Replace 'Embarrassing' DVD Covers That Say Movie Is About 'Self-Sacrifice'

Jillian Rayfield | November 11, 2011, 5:36PM

The producers of the film version of "Atlas Shrugged: Part One" apologized for an "embarrassing" error on the DVD cover that described the theme of their adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel as one of "self-sacrifice." As disciples of Rand, one of libertarianism's heroes, are supposed to know, Atlas Shrugged is actually all about "rational self-interest."

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Tea Party

White House: Tea Party Is Wagging The GOP Dog

Susan Crabtree | October 12, 2011, 4:57PM

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday trained his fire on the Tea Party, blaming "one element" of the Republican party for Standard and Poor's mid-August downgrade of U.S. credit worthiness.

In response to a a question about why support for President Obama is slipping among Latino voters, Carney readily acknowledged that approval ratings for both Obama and Congress have fallen sharply this year as Americans have grown increasingly disgusted by the brinksmanship between the two parties, which was on vivid display during the mid-summer debt crisis.

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Chuck Schumer

Schumer Brands GOP Agenda 'Tea Party Economics'

Brian Beutler | October 12, 2011, 3:37PM

Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Democrats' efforts to pass jobs legislation before the end of the year don't just rest on President Obama's bully pulpit and the hope that Republicans will demonstrate good will. They're actively trying to dismantle what's left of public support for the Republican economic agenda.

In a memo to party members and the media, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- the Dems' top strategist in the Senate -- argues that the GOP is intentionally blocking all measures that could improve the economy for political gain.

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Occupy Wall Street

Conservatives To Occupy Wall Street Protesters: Get A Job

Jillian Rayfield | October 12, 2011, 10:16AM

Conservatives love saying that Occupy Wall Street has no coherent idea of what it wants. But it is pretty clear that though demonstrators may disagree on the details, the protests are driven by a bad economy, growing income inequality and the fact that a lot of people can't get jobs.

So how have Republicans, tea partiers and Fox News hosts responded? By telling demonstrators to stop complaining and get a job...

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Occupy Wall Street

Biden Attacks Big Banks, Compares Rise Of Occupy Wall Street To Rise Of Tea Party

Brian Beutler | October 6, 2011, 11:51AM

Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Joe Biden empathized with the Occupy Wall Street movement Thursday, and criticized big banks in harsher terms than most people in the Obama administration are typically comfortable with.

At The Atlantic's Ideas Forum, Biden said he understands what underlies the anti-Wall Street movement, and compared it to the anger driving the Tea Party.

"What is the core of that protest, and why is it increasing in terms of the people it's attracting -- the core is the bargain has been breeched with the American people," Biden said. "The core is the American people do not think the system is fair or on the level..... That is the core of what you're seeing on Wall Street. And that's what started, by the way -- there's a lot in common with the Tea Party. The Tea Party started why? TARP. They thought it was unfair -- we were bailing out the big guy."

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Sheldon Whitehouse

Sen. Whitehouse On Disaster Funding: Take That, Tea Party!

Susan Crabtree | September 27, 2011, 6:04AM

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Democrats are hoping Republicans' more conciliatory spirit displayed Monday night to avert a government shutdown over disaster aid is a sign of shifting political winds after August's debt showdown that resulted in Standard & Poor downgrading the nation's creditworthiness.

After the vote last night to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency through November, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told TPM he hopes the Senate's agreement to pass a compromise bill sends a message to Tea Party House GOP members that the do-or-die brinkmanship has got to go.

"I think we were less close to the precipice this time," he said. "I think there was a little bit more anxiety on the part of the GOP to go there, and I hope it sends a message back to the House and the Tea Party that the Senate is not going to be amenable to this stuff anymore."

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Barack Obama

Things That Make You Go, Huh?? Obama's Unlikely New BFF On Bridges: Rand Paul

Susan Crabtree | September 22, 2011, 5:25PM

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

President Obama is getting a little strange bedfellow help on his plans to rebuild the nation's bridges from the unlikeliest of sources: none other than Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

Paul accompanied the President on Air Force One Tuesday to Cincinnati and attended Obama's jobs speech in front of the crumbling Brent Spence Bridge, which spans Southern Ohio, conveniently close to Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) district, and Northern Kentucky, home to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Both Boehner and McConnell have rejected the majority of the President's jobs plan.

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Mitt Romney

Romney Accuses 'Labor Stooges' At NLRB Of Political Payback

Susan Crabtree | September 12, 2011, 3:42PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney joined the GOP's latest anti-union salvo -- reining in the National Labor Relations Board -- at an event in South Carolina Monday.

Romney, and his latest high-profile supporter Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, toured Boeing's new manufacturing plant in North Charleston. The NLRB is suing Boeing for moving an operation to South Carolina, a right-to-work state, from Washington state after unions protested there.

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Jimmy Hoffa

White House: 'Hoffa's Words Are His Own'

Susan Crabtree | September 6, 2011, 6:51PM

Teamsters President James P. Hoffa

White House spokesman Jay Carney put only a bit of distance between President Obama and incendiary comments Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa made warming up a crowd before Obama's pro-union speech Monday.

Hoffa's comments caused a stir in GOP circles with many conservative figures and commentators accusing the Hoffa of inciting violence against Tea Party activists and the members of Congress they support.

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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Swears He's Jim DeMint's Kind Of Guy

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 5, 2011, 7:26PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (MA)

It was quite a performance. But was it enough?

Mitt Romney ended his tour through Tea Party country on Monday with a late-scheduled slot at Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) Palmetto Freedom Forum. DeMint backed Romney's run for the White House in 2008, but has not extended him much love this time around.

As he did at a New Hampshire tea party rally over the weekend, Romney laid out his case that the haters on the right are wrong and, truly, the former governor of Massachusetts is just the man the angry wing of the GOP is looking for.

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Jimmy Hoffa

Hoffa: 'Let's Take These Sons Of Bitches Out!'

Susan Crabtree | September 5, 2011, 3:34PM

Teamsters President James P. Hoffa

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa didn't mince words when warming up the crowd before President Obama's pro-union speech in Detroit Monday.

Hoffa described the recent Republican-led assaults on collective bargaining rights as a "war on workers" and described Obama as union workers' general who will lead them to victory in 2012 over the Tea Party and like-minded allies.

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Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin To Tea Party: You're Winning. Don't Blow It Now

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 5, 2011, 1:44PM

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin addressed a Tea Party Express rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on Monday, a day after Mitt Romney addressed his first-ever tea party event in the same state.

For Romney, it was a political gamble. As a rule, tea partiers don't like him much -- and some even conspired to embarrass him publicly as he took the tea party mic.

Speaking Monday, Palin seemed to send those tea partiers a message. Romney's new kowtowing shows you are winning in a big way, she told the crowd. Now don't blow it.

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Sarah Palin

Palin/O'Donnell Event Descends Into Total Chaos

Benjy Sarlin | August 31, 2011, 11:28AM

Sarah Palin

Update, 12:57 PM: According to NBC, Tea Party of America president Ken Crow said "I had to cancel O'Donnell," and is trying to lure Palin back to the event.

Update, 2:45 PM: Success! Palin sources tell RCP's Scott Conroy that the ex-governor will be in attendance.

First Sarah Palin was scheduled to attend the Tea Party of America's Iowa rally this weekend. Then Christine O'Donnell was invited. Then Christine O'Donnell was uninvited. Then she was re-invited. Now Palin is out. Maybe.

Easy to follow, right? According to the Wall Street Journal, Palin will not share the stage with O'Donnell, who she famously endorsed in 2010, because the ex-governor is sick of "continual lying" by the event's organizers. But there's still confusion over what's going on: Real Clear Politics' Scott Conroy disputed the report on Twitter, saying sources had told him the event was only "on hold," while a Tea Party of America official told reporter Shushanna Walshe the event was still a go after a talk with Palin.

It's easy to see where Palin might get a negative impression of the organizers, however. After initially asking O'Donnell to join the event, Tea Party of America's top officials split over their reasons for rescinding O'Donnell's initial invite, with president Ken Crow citing scheduling problems and co-founder Charles Gruschow citing widespread disdain for the former Senate candidate among Tea Party activists. They quickly brought her back into the fold, however, and Crow said they had "panicked" initially in dropping her.

Palin, who has yet to rule out a presidential bid, will still visit Iowa this weekend for other events.

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell Re-Invited To Iowa Tea Party Rally Featuring Sarah Palin

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 31, 2011, 8:46AM

Christine O'Donnell

According to a chagrined tea party leader, Christine O'Donnell will once again be a belle at the movement's ball for Sarah Palin this weekend.

The Delaware News-Journal reports the Iowa-based Tea Party of America re-invited O'Donnell to speak at its Saturday event in Indianola, Iowa after booting her from the list of speakers.

On Twitter late Tuesday, O'Donnell wrote she has "humbly re-accepted the re-invitation."

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Mitt Romney

Tea For '12: Mitt Romney Suddenly Finds Time For The Tea Party

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 31, 2011, 6:15AM

Mitt Romney

For some undefined but Texas governor-sized-and-shaped reason, Mitt Romney is suddenly very interested in attending tea party events.

It's a strategy that's easy to mock, considering the tea party-friendly Rick Perry's poll numbers -- and Romney's penchant to say the right (read: well-received) thing -- but it shows that Team Romney is actively stepping up to the Perry challenge, which could have a dramatic effect on Perry's march to the top of the field.

But for now, the sheer political expediency of Romney's upcoming tea party tour has political observers snickering and Democrats pointing and laughing. But Team Romney says there's nothing to see here.

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell Booted Off Tea Party Event With Sarah Palin

Benjy Sarlin | August 30, 2011, 3:59PM

Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell, back in the news this month promoting her new book, is no longer welcome at a Tea Party event with Sarah Palin this weekend.

O'Donnell was set to appear with Palin, who endorsed O'Donnell's 2010 Senate bid, at a rally in Indianola, IA. But officials at Tea Party of America, which is hosting the event, told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that they were dropping her. While the group's president cited scheduling problems as the cause, co-founder Charles Gruschow offered a very different explanation: backlash from local Tea Party activists upset over O'Donnell's inclusion.

"We decided not to have her speak," Gruschow said. "We felt it was in the best interest of the movement."

O'Donnell was a brief cause celebre for Tea Party activists in 2010, who helped her defeat heavily favored Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) in a Senate primary before she was trounced in the general election by Democrat Chris Coons. But the magic seems to have faded after her defeat as her much-hyped book has only sold about 2,000 copies.

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2012

Mitt Romney To Attend First Big Tea Party Rally

Benjy Sarlin | August 30, 2011, 3:32PM

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney will speak at a Tea Party Express rally in New Hampshire on Labor Day, his first appearance at a high profile event associated with the movement.

Romney's scheduled appearance, first reported on CNN, comes as he faces renewed pressure on his right flank thanks to Rick Perry's surging campaign. Perry was one of the earliest national politicians to jump on the grassroots bandwagon -- he made his famous "secession" comments at a Tea Party rally in April 2009 -- and is currently polling very well with self-identified Tea Partiers. He, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain will attend a forum with the Tea Party-leaning Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in South Carolina on Labor Day.

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Polls

Tea Party Unfavorability Jumps In New AP Poll

Kyle Leighton | August 29, 2011, 10:02AM

It seems that the Tea Party's governing style, most clearly on display during the debt ceiling fight in Congress, has taken a toll on Americans' view of the movement. Polls have been showing a drop in its approval, and a new AP/GfK poll shows that its unfavorable rating has seen a sharp rise. 46 percent of those surveyed said they have a negative view of the Tea Party movement, versus 28 who say they view it favorably.

The last time the AP conducted a national poll on Americans' favorability of Tea Partiers was in their pre-governing period: throughout 2010 the conservative movement was viewed slightly unfavorably but the splits were close. In June of 2010 it even earned a positive rating, with 33 percent of over 1,000 adults surveyed finding the movement favorable against 30 percent. In the last AP rating, taken Nov. 3-8, 2010, directly after the 2010 election, the split stood at a slim negative rating of 32 percent favorable against 36 unfavorable.

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Barack Obama

AFL-CIO Pres: Obama Aligned Himself With Tea Party To Cut Middle Class Programs

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2011, 10:59AM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

The most powerful union official in the country offered reporters his harshest critique of President Obama to date Thursday, questioning Obama's policy and strategic decisions, and claiming he aligned himself with the Tea Party in the debt limit fight.

"This is a moment that working people and quite frankly history will judge President Obama on his presidency; will he commit all his energy and focus on bold solutions on the job crisis or will he continue to work with the Tea Party to offer cuts to middle class programs like Social Security all the while pretending the deficit is where our economic problems really lie," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters at a breakfast roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

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Tea Party

Study: Tea Party Members Cultural Dispositions 'Authoritarianism, Fear Of Change, Libertarianism And Nativism'

Kyle Leighton | August 22, 2011, 5:30PM

What are the four primary characteristics most associated with those Americans sympathetic to the Tea Party? "Authoritarianism, ontological insecurity (fear of change), libertarianism and nativism." So says one of the many findings in a study presented to the American Sociological Association on Monday.

The academic study, Cultures of the Tea Party, purports to break down the cultural attitudes of Tea Party loyalists, through a mix of polling data and interviews with tea partiers at a gathering in eastern North Carolina. The study's lead author is Andrew J. Perrin, an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, with co-authors Steven J. Tepper, an associate professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, Neal Caren, an assistant professor of sociology at UNC, and Sally Morris, a doctoral student in sociology at UNC.

The study used polling of North Carolina and Tennessee, conducted by Public Policy Polling (D) in the Summer of 2010, and determined the cultural dispositions by measuring the responses of tea partiers to set questions. After PPP surveyed over 2,000 voters who were sympathetic to the Tea Party, researchers then reinterviewed almost 600 in the fall of 2010. Those interviews included everything from personality based queries like "Would you say it is more important that a child obeys his parents, or that he is responsible for his own actions?" to more political ones, like "Do you think immigrants who came into this country illegally but pay taxes and have not been arrested should be given the opportunity to become permanent legal residents?" The study also incudes interviews and short responses with ten participants at a Tea Party rally in Washington, NC.

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Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters Tells Constituents: 'The Tea Party Can Go Straight To Hell' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | August 22, 2011, 12:07PM

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) had some tough words for Tea Partiers, at a constituent event in the Los Angeles area on Saturday.

The local ABC station reports that Waters, plus fellow area Democratic Reps. Karen Bass and Laura Richardson, held a town hall event in Inglewood, where over a thousand attendees asked tough questions about unemployment and the economy.

Answering the crowd, Waters promised to fight the Republicans in Washington. "I'm not afraid of anybody. This is a tough game -- you can't be intimidated, you can't be frightened," said Waters. "As far as I'm concerned -- the Tea Party can go straight to Hell."

In response, the crowd offered up a round of applause.

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Harry Reid

Harry Reid: The Tea Party Will Fade Away

David Taintor | August 15, 2011, 12:25PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Is the Tea Party in its waning days of influence in Washington? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) seems to think so.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reid said "the Tea Party was the result of a terrible economy. I've said that many times, and I believe that."

"That (the tea party) will pass," Reid added. "They will lose a number of seats next year."

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Tea Party

Tea Party Movement Getting Americans Steamed

Kyle Leighton | August 15, 2011, 6:10AM

The debt ceiling fight turned out to be a damper on the American economy, and for the approval ratings of political leaders in Washington. But it's starting to consume the same political entity that decided to make raising it a major issue: the Tea Party. Last week saw the release of three separate polls that showed Americans are not just more skeptical of their movement, but growing tired of their role in the political process, which builds on previous evidence that the Tea Party is being pushed away by independent voters.

The Tea Party movement, as an idea, was originally about anger at the way things turned out after 2008. Congress had been taken over by Democrats, and President Obama came into office after a change election with high approval ratings and the political capital to make that change. Then, surprisingly, those Democrats didn't work to enact Republican policies, they proposed and passed a few of their own. This was not how government is supposed to work, according to some very conservative Americans.

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Stimulus

Cut And Grow Fail: CBO Schools Tea Party Freshman In Basic Economics

Brian Beutler | August 11, 2011, 3:15PM

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)

This story was updated at 4:40 p.m. to include text from Huelskamp's letter

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), a Tea Party-backed freshman who voted against the final debt limit bill, recently asked to hear from the Congressional Budget Office about the impact of government spending on economic growth. It's an article of faith on the right that vastly shrinking government will unleash the forces of private enterprise, and faced with CBO's opposing view, Huelskamp wanted to know the answer to two questions:

1). What current federal departments, agencies, programs, or portions thereof do not contribute to economic growth?

2). In the programs that CBO believes do contribute to economic growth, what level of spending cuts would amount to a level you believe would be significant enough to "probably slow the economic recovery"?

But if the newly elected member of the Budget Committee was hoping the non-partisan CBO would buy into his premise, he'll be sorely disappointed.

In a response letter Thursday, CBO-chief Doug Elmendorf gives Huelskamp a layman's lesson in Keynesian economics: Under current economic circumstances, new federal spending would help economic growth, and current and future cuts could stymie it, particularly if they hit key government investment.

"When demand for goods and services falls short of the economy's ability to produce them, as is the case currently, increasing government spending can increase aggregate demand and thereby narrow the gap between the economy's actual and potential levels of output," Elmendorf writes.

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Polls

CNN Poll: Grand Old Party Downgrade

Kyle Leighton | August 9, 2011, 12:58PM

TPM has been reporting for weeks about the effect of the debt debate on individual political leaders and the subsequently low ratings of Congress. But new data from a CNN poll shows that there's been a difference in the minds of many Americans: the Democratic Party is getting a split on approval/disapproval at 47 - 47, but the Republican Party disapproval rating is all the way up to 59%, against a 33% approval.

The GOP approval rating has been going down in the CNN poll since their 2010 victories: in the October 27-30 version, the Republican Party had a small plurality in approval, at 44 - 43. But since last fall's election they've seen a steady downward trend in the survey, to the current low, which is the highest disapproval rating in the CNN poll in the last twenty years.

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John Kerry

Kerry Slams 'Tea Party Downgrade'

Igor Bobic | August 7, 2011, 11:27AM

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, blamed Republicans and in particular Tea Party intransigence for the unprecedented S&P downgrade of U.S. credit from AAA to AA+.

"I believe this is without question the Tea Party downgrade," he said. "This is the Tea Party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered the will of even many of Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal."

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Polls

The Tea Party Won...Then They Lost

Kyle Leighton | August 4, 2011, 6:00AM

On Tuesday TPM reported on a new Pew study that said the Tea Party and conservative Americans had essentially outworked their liberal counterparts on the debt ceiling debate: Tea Partiers had paid more attention and were more likely to have taken action to influence the outcome of the debt battle.

Then in an interview with CBS, House Speaker John Boehner was happy to be considered the victor in the debt talks, saying he'd been able to get 98% of what he wanted.

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John Kerry

Kerry Discloses Democrats' Sticking Point In Debt Talks

Susan Crabtree | July 30, 2011, 7:23PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator John Kerry (D-MA)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) isn't saying why both sides aren't any closer to a debt deal after a day filled with feverish negotiations Saturday, but Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) spelled it out during a floor speech Saturday night.

The sticking point for Dems, Kerry said, involves detailed negotiations over an enforcement mechanism that would require Congress to act on entitlement and tax reform by a date certain or faces the consequences. Democrats want to ensure that such a trigger does not simply mandate severe spending cuts, but also includes tax increases -- the so-called "shared pain" Democrats have cited lately.

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John Boehner

The 22 Republicans Who Bucked Boehner On The Debt Bill

Susan Crabtree | July 29, 2011, 7:27PM

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)

After a dramatic 24 hours filled with vote delays, arm-twisting, and the Tea Party flexing its political muscle, in the end House Republicans managed to pass Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) debt bill quite easily in a party-line vote of 218 to 210.

Boehner ended up agreeing to include a balanced budget amendment -- even though it has no chance of passing in the Senate. The concession was enough to attract a majority of Republicans, many of whom were elected on pledges to slash spending. The real heavy-lifting now begins between Boehner and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who must forge a compromise that can pass both chambers and be signed by the President before the rapidly approaching Aug. 2 deadline for default.

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Debt ceiling

Tea Party Rally Against Boehner Plan Draws Big Crowd Next To Nobody

Benjy Sarlin | July 27, 2011, 3:40PM

Tea Party Rally In Washington DC

During the health care debate, Tea Party groups mobilized thousands of members to rally against the bill right on lawmakers' doorsteps in Washington, DC. Now the movement is again at a crossroads as Republicans struggle over how far they're willing to push Democrats on spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling.

You wouldn't know it, however, from their rally on Wednesday.

Despite featuring Tea Party icons Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY), among others, a gathering outside the Senate organized by the Tea Party Express to urge Republicans to stand firm against a compromise bill drew only a handful of attendees.

Reporters, many of whom came to interview presidential candidate Herman Cain, appeared to easily outnumber protesters. And despite being the most prominent attendee, Cain ended up not addressing the crowd and instead watching from the sidelines.

The dismal showing comes as Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations are waging an aggressive campaign against a plan by Republican leaders to raise the debt ceiling with a two-tiered set of cuts and no promise of a balanced budget amendment.

While the proposal by Speaker Boehner looked to be in serious jeopardy on Tuesday, especially after the CBO found it reduced the deficit less than its backers hoped, the bill appears to be gaining some momentum Wednesday as rank and file members push back against the hardline insurgents.

John Boehner

CIVIL WAR: GOP Coalition Splinters Into Open Conflict Over Debt Ceiling

Benjy Sarlin & Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 27, 2011, 6:00AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Speaker Boehner

The Republican leadership's efforts to avert a debt ceiling crisis with a two-tiered set of cuts is turning into the most divisive wedge issue the party has confronted since President Obama took over in 2009.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) may have thought his face-saving plan, which he hoped to bring to the floor Wednesday, offered a path to victory. However, since treading upon it he's been beset from all sides. It's not just that the President is threatening to veto the bill, should it ever make it past the Senate; it's that Boehner's fellow conservatives are sniping at him with (not so) friendly fire. Now the vote he'd hoped to bring triumphantly to the floor Wednesday looks delayed until at least Thursday, and even then the outcome is uncertain.

That's because the GOP is teetering on the brink of a debt-based civil war. More traditional Republicans and big business types are desperate to avoid a recovery-crushing default. But their Tea Party colleagues are leading a rebellion of epic - perhaps even galactic - proportions. Cue the John Williams music and find out who stands where in this stand-off between the Establishment's storm-troopers and the Rebel Alliance.

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Debt Ceiling

Reid: Questioning Constitutionality Of McConnell Debt Plan Is Load Of Tea Party Garbage

Brian Beutler | July 14, 2011, 3:20PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell first unveiled his plan to avoid a debt default, observers and critics have wondered aloud whether it passes Constitutional muster. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, the argument goes, and, by transferring the authority to issue more debt entirely to the President, the plan could fall afoul of it -- or so the argument goes.

This and other concerns have crept from the conservative Heritage Foundation to the Tea Party, and may ultimately call into doubt wither something like the McConnell plan can pass the House of Representatives.

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Debt Ceiling

Rep. Paul Broun: Let's LOWER The Debt Ceiling!

Benjy Sarlin | July 7, 2011, 3:34PM

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) found a novel way to out-conservative even Tea Party members demanding the debt limit never be raised: he suggested the ceiling be lowered instead.

In an op-ed in the National Review Online, Broun urged members to sign onto legislation that would reduce the debt ceiling by $1 trillion next year, forcing Congress to go beyond balancing the budget and instead find a huge surplus, which experts suggest would be tough given that a sudden $2 trillion plus total cut to federal spending would plunge the economy into a deep recession.

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Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson Paralyzes Senate Over Budget Fight

Benjy Sarlin | June 28, 2011, 4:49PM

Ad from candidate for U.S. Senate Ron Johnson (R-WI), "57"

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) ground the Senate to a halt on Tuesday, threatening to block "business as usual" until Democrats submit a budget.

Johnson began his broadside by objecting to a quorum call, blocking the Senate from proceeding with a vote. Quorum calls, like many basic Senate procedures, are approved by unanimous consent and Johnson threatened in a floor speech to wreak havoc on these uncontroversial motions.

"Business as usual is bankrupting America," he said in a floor speech. "It must stop."

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Tea Party

Freedomworks Launches Tea Party Budget Commission

Benjy Sarlin | June 27, 2011, 1:49PM

William Temple, Chairman of the Tea Party Founding Fathers

Budget commissions are all the rage right now, and Dick Armey's Freedomworks have put together a Tea Party-flavored panel of their own to try and mark down a specific legislative goals for the movement.

According to the group, the Tea Party Debt Commission is modeled the White House's own commission, led by Erksine Bowles and Alan Simpson, which recommended about $4 trillion in savings through cuts and revenue increases and drew support from Democratic and Republican Senators who are now trying to negotiate a similar deal amongst themselves. Rather than relying on a blue-ribbon gathering of economists, former budget officials, and retired lawmakers, however, the Tea Party version will consist of 18 local activists from 2012 swing states and focus on finding a consensus among the grassroots.

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Tea Party

Can The Tea Party Survive A Debt Ceiling Deal?

Benjy Sarlin | June 27, 2011, 5:45AM

Imagine the following: President Obama and Speaker John Boehner emerge next week after a series of tense, closed-door meetings to announce a historic deal that cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade -- more than anyone thought possible. Additional goodies are thrown in that Republicans have been clamoring for as well: an enforceable cap on spending and a vote (symbolic, of course) on a balanced budget amendment. The breakthrough? Republicans agreed to raise $1 trillion in new revenue, mostly through closing various tax loopholes and credits but also by allowing the absolute highest end of the Bush tax cuts -- those affecting millionaires only -- to expire next year.

But that's not good enough for the Tea Party movement, whose leaders say the GOP sold them out. Activists cry bloody murder. Primaries are threatened. Michele Bachmann stages a sit-in. A week of protests are quickly organized outside the Capitol.

But then a funny thing happens...nothing. A large number of Freshman Republicans vote against the bill in protest, but it passes with near unanimous Democratic support. There's considerable grumbling in the press until the next week, when Obama proposes something conservatives hate, perhaps a new executive order slowing deportations, and the base rallies to stop him. Polls show conservative Republicans as unified as ever as another round of dismal economic news puts the White House within reach, and soon everyone is too focused on 2012 to care about the last fight. In such a scenario, can the Tea Party remain a credible force?

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Libya

McCain: Tying Obama's Hands On Libya Will Come Back To Haunt GOP

Susan Crabtree | June 21, 2011, 12:17PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pleaded with GOP colleagues Tuesday not to tie President Obama's hands when it comes to U.S. military action in Libya, reminding them it could come back to haunt future Republican presidents.

"We are all entitled to our opinions about Libya policy, but here are the facts: [Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi is going to fall. It is just a matter of time. So I would ask my colleagues: Is this the time for Congress to turn against this policy?" he said in a lengthy statement on the Senate floor. "Is this the time to ride to the rescue of a failing tyrant when the writing is on the wall that he will collapse?"

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Medicare

Florida Tea Party Leader: GOP Medicare Plan A 'Public Policy Nightmare'

Brian Beutler | June 20, 2011, 11:29AM

Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson thinks the GOP budget -- and in particular its call to phase out Medicare and replace it with a marketplace for private insurance -- is a total disaster. He's saying that Republicans, including members in his sphere of influence like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), should back away from it.

In an email to fellow Tea Partiers last week, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, Wilkinson called the GOP plan a "public policy nightmare" that could trigger "huge Democratic wins in 2012," and prompt Republicans to blame the Tea Party for their losses.

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Herman Cain

Herman Cain: Most Black People Too Poor To Tea Party

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 7, 2011, 10:48AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain

Asked about his own position as the most prominent African American in the Republican party these days, Herman Cain is fond of saying he refuses to "stay on the Democratic plantation like he's supposed to" or that he refused to drink the liberal Kool-Aid.

Asked why more African Americans haven't joined him at tea party rallies and conservative conventions like the Faith And Family Conference in DC this weekend, the millionaire ex-CEO has a different explanation. African Americans, Cain told TPM, are too poor to tea party.

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