Michele Bachmann calls for a Congressional Tea Party Caucus, proof that teabaggers are Republicans

[ProSense]

Reali-TEA sets in for GOP

by Jed Lewison

Conventional wisdom is that Republicans are lucky to have tea partiers on their side. The problem with that thinking is that tea partiers already were on the GOP's side: they are basically conservative Republicans.

To some degree, tea partiers have done a service to the GOP by diverting attention of conservatives from the stained GOP brand, and they've also made conservatism relevant to the media. On the other hand, extremism and antiquated racial attitudes have come to define the tea party movement for many Americans, and most Republicans are smart enough to know they can't afford to be seen as racist extremists.

All of which leads us to a report in Politico today from Jonathan Allen and Jake Sherman:

GOP leery of Tea Party Caucus

With the official formation of a congressional Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Michele Bachmann has thrust an existential question before House Republican leaders: Are you in or are you out?

Indiana’s Mike Pence, chairman of the Republican Conference, was adamant. “You betcha,” he said, deploying a Minnesota catchphrase.

But Minority Leader John Boehner won’t have his name on the caucus list.

And Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor and his chief deputy, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California — known as “Young Guns” for the GOP — are undecided.

As examples like this start to proliferate, it's going to start becoming clear that despite the energy tea partiers have brought to conservative politics, the tea party movement has put the GOP between a rock and a hard place. Once Labor Day rolls around, the real campaign begins, and average Americans will start paying attention to the election season. One thing they don't want to see is guys dressed up in strange revolutionary outfits talking about civil war and saying Obama is Hitler. The problem the GOP has is that the other thing most Americans don't want see is a return to the failed policies of the Bush-Republican years.

That's one of the reasons why, as bad as the economic situation is, and as realistic as it is that the GOP could win this election, it would be a mistake to count Democrats out. The other part of the reason is that Democrats have been very successful in enacting key policies to start changing the direction of this country. It's true that not everybody believes Democrats have gone far enough, but it's equally true that people don't want to turn back the clock to the way things were the last time Republicans were in power.

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[ProSense]

1. Bachmann Compares Tea Partiers To WWII Heroes, Tells Americans To Honor Vets By Donating To Hannity’

Bachmann Compares Tea Partiers To WWII Heroes, Tells Americans To Honor Vets By Donating To Hannity’s Friend

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I tell you that story on this hot, beautiful day in July to tell you: That’s the kind of people we are. That’s the greatness that we have descended from in this country. We dishonor the service and the sacrifice of men and women of greatness — those men and women who fought and died for us — so that today we will be free. Without a veteran we would never know freedom in this country. It is veterans that we owe our freedom to.

John Gomez gets that! He loves veterans, he stands for veterans, he stands for our military! And to honor their sacred memory and their sacred sacrifice, is it too much to ask that we would raise the money and go door to door, and drop the literature, and make the phone calls, and plead and beg with our neighbors? Get to the polls, because this is the greatest nation that has ever been in 5,000 years of recorded human history. And for the sake and sacrifice of the heroes that have gone before, for the sake of the yet unborn yet to come, this we must do.

ThinkProgress attended Saturday’s event and recorded Bachmann’s speech. Watch it:

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She's nuts!

[RBInMaine]

2. OH HOW SWEET IT IS ! This kook has swallowed the crazy-ade BIGTIME.