Tea Party House members are making demands on the Republican leadership, but are apparently concerned about what they see is some backsliding by the leadership already. Is this an early indication of future dissension within the Republican Conference?
In his Tuesday press conference, Boehner dropped only one line that could worry the Tea Party. Asked whether Republicans would support raising the debt ceiling, Boehner would only say that it was being discussed. A real Tea Partier would have said no, possibly with an expletive prefacing it.
"How can they raise it?" asked Robin Stublen, a Tea Party leader in Florida, where the GOP did very well Tuesday. "The debt is the first thing we talk about. Raising the debt limit is like increasing the limit on a credit card that's already been maxed out."
But it's what parties in power sometimes have to do. Obama spent some of his first State of the Union pointing out that he "hated" the bailout that he voted for and implemented. He, and other Democrats, spent much of 2010 apologizing or explaining why they'd failed to deliver on what the party wanted—cap-and-trade legislation, an end to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, immigration reform. Some elements of their base were more forgiving (Hispanic voters, who carried Harry Reid to victory in Nevada) and some less (gay voters, who voted less Democratic than usual).
So Republicans need to do a combination of education and sleight-of-hand to convince Tea Partiers that, no, seriously, they are doing everything they can to dismantle the state.
