Tea Party

Michael Silverstein is the author of "Fifteen Feet Beneath Manhattan" Looking at the Democratic Party these days from a progressive perspective, one can't help but think of that old blues lyric: "You've been a good old wagon, but you've done broke down. " The broke-down wagon here is a Democratic Party that has moved away from its economic roots. It's now a party not only supported financially by Wall Street and other very rich backers, but intellectually supportive of those at the top as well, at the expense of traditional Democratic constituencies.

The people who represent the United States abroad serve in the front lines of America's interests. Our diplomats often work in areas which can only be described as combat zones. I am reminded of this every time I enter the State Department and see two plaques on the wall commemorating members of the Foreign Service who died in the line of duty. The older plaque took 187 years to fill up. Most of the people listed there lost their lives to accident or disease. The more recent plaque, however, took only 20 years to fill up. And most of the people on it were murdered by terrorists.

By Leonard Boasberg Three younger Republican leaders in Congress have undertaken an effort to rebrand the Republican Party, hoping to unload the stigma of the Bush administration and memories of their party's failures. In a new book, Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders , they deliver a scathing critique of the Republican record. "We let the people down," says one of the trio, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican. The book does not make clear what new policies the young guns have in mind, but Cantor has given us a hint.

The Republican Party wrapped up its polarizing primary-season purge Tuesday by nominating conservative tea party candidates in Delaware and New York. The most disappointing result was Christine O'Donnell's triumph over Rep. Michael N. Castle (R., Del.) in the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Delaware. Castle, one of the most decent and thoughtful public servants around, was beaten by a candidate who has trouble telling the truth about her credentials. O'Donnell's victory should have Republicans asking who's in charge of their party.

Rick Santorum's decision to quit the presidential race last week clarified a number of things: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee; the general election will be closer; and for the second cycle in a row, the conservative activists who make up the GOP's base are going to get stiffed. This is not how the 2012 Republican primary was supposed to unfold. When the race unofficially got under way 18 months ago, the tea party was at the peak of its influence, having just handed Republicans control of the House.

By Tim Rutten Though the actual voting is still two weeks away, it seems clear that this midterm election cycle will be defined by a surprising presence and a remarkable absence. The presence, of course, is the tea-party movement, and what's absent are the social issues that so bitterly divided the electorate in recent campaigns. Demography and evolving public opinion are well on the way to making an electoral dead letter of same-sex marriage, which played a pivotal role in the 2004 presidential campaign.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican presidential candidate from Minnesota, turned away from her audience at a campaign stop Wednesday and pointed to the small of her back. "I may have a yellow dress on back here," she said. "But I have a titanium spine. " The crowd in Daniels Island, S.C., went crazy. In New Orleans, 2,000 conservative activists at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last month were moved in a similar way, stomping, whistling, and cheering when she delivered this ringing call to arms: "President Bachmann will allow you to buy any lightbulb you want!"

ROCK HILL, S.C. - If you ask South Carolina tea party leaders about conservatives coalescing behind a Republican presidential candidate other than front-runner Mitt Romney, they'll say you're a few months behind the curve. The state's fledgling antiestablishment groups tried to do just that last fall, aiming to re-create the success they had last election cycle in flipping some long-held legislative seats. "We understood the math, that it would be Romney and four conservatives or Romney and one we'd get behind," said Karen Martin of the Spartanburg tea party.

WATERLOO, Iowa - The U.S. House of Representatives is a notoriously poor launching pad for presidential ambitions, but Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.), who formally kicked off her campaign Monday in this town where she was born, enters the contest for the 2012 GOP nomination with several strengths. They include deep family roots here in the first state to vote next winter; a strong conservative record that appeals to tea-party activists hungry for a champion against both major parties in Washington, and a rousing speaking style that rallies the faithful and helps her stand out in the pack.

The easy victory of Houston lawyer Ted Cruz in the Republican U.S. Senate runoff in Texas shows the tea party movement remains a potent force in American politics. It also highlights an antiestablishment frustration among voters, especially grassroots conservative activists, which could influence national elections in November. Cruz, a tea party favorite, defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by 13 points Tuesday, even though most of the Texas GOP establishment - including Gov. Rick Perry - had backed Dewhurst.

It had become fashionable in certain circles to mock tea party activists for their vocal warnings about the abusive power of government, with jokes, for instance, about tinfoil hats. But isn't paranoia useful if someone really is out to get you? That question seems relevant in the wake of reports that the IRS was targeting hundreds of right-leaning groups with tea party or patriot in their names for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Officials demanded that the organizations send membership lists, meeting minutes, rosters of donors, their leaders' reading preferences, copies of their pamphlets - even, in some cases, records of posts on social media.

Unlike some nonprofit groups that have obtained tax-exempt status to help influence elections with millions of dollars in TV ads, the Greenwich Tea Party Patriots of South Jersey say they have no desire to flood the airwaves. They just want to pay less for U.S. mail. But the group's application for 501(c)(4) status, submitted in early 2011, has yet to be approved or denied by the IRS. And amid a scandal unfolding in Washington that has led to the ouster of the IRS's acting chief, the group claims it was unfairly targeted by the agency and is threatening litigation if not granted tax-exempt status by Friday.

WASHINGTON - President Obama picked a senior White House budget official to become acting head of the IRS on Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over agents targeting tea party groups. Obama named longtime civil servant Daniel Werfel as acting IRS commissioner. Werfel, 42, serves as controller of the Office of Management and Budget, making him a key player in implementing recent automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.

About a dozen tea party activists from the Philadelphia area gathered outside the Kimmel Center on Wednesday - site of Comcast Corp.'s annual shareholders' meeting - to protest the company's ownership of the liberal-leaning MSNBC 24-hour cable news channel. Inside the meeting, shareholders peppered Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts about the company's decision to ban local gun-shop advertisements. There were also complaints about the Rev. Al Sharpton, host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC.

WASHINGTON - At various points over the last two years, Internal Revenue Service officials targeted nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution, according to documents in an audit conducted by the agency's inspector general. The documents, obtained by the Washington Post from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings, show that on June 29, 2011, IRS staffers held a briefing with senior agency official Lois G. Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where "statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run. " Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the agency, raised objections and the agency revised its criteria a week later.

WASHINGTON - Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by the Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner. The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.

Michael Silverstein is the author of "Fifteen Feet Beneath Manhattan" Looking at the Democratic Party these days from a progressive perspective, one can't help but think of that old blues lyric: "You've been a good old wagon, but you've done broke down. " The broke-down wagon here is a Democratic Party that has moved away from its economic roots. It's now a party not only supported financially by Wall Street and other very rich backers, but intellectually supportive of those at the top as well, at the expense of traditional Democratic constituencies.

  A South Jersey tea-party organization is running a slate of candidates in the June 4 primary to challenge the Burlington County Republican Committee's picks for county and state offices. The West Jersey Tea Party, established in 2010, is endorsing candidates to seek the Republican nod to run for Burlington County sheriff, the one seat up for grabs on the county Board of Chosen Freeholders, and four state Assembly seats. The Democrats have no primary contests for these positions.

WASHINGTON - After years in which the Republicans' answer to almost every question was to reduce spending and lower taxes, some of the party's most influential voices are beginning to suggest that it is time to take a broader - and softer - focus. The latest to join that movement is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, who in a speech Tuesday called for Republicans to "focus our attention really on what lies beyond the fiscal debates" and to create "conditions for health, happiness, and prosperity.