I have a dumb question.

[napi21]

IF and I sure hope it doesn't happen, but IF several of these teabaggers agcually win in Nov. I think they are as angry with the establishment Pubs as they are with the Dems. so that means they won't want to vote with either party. What is their alternative if they refuse to vote with either party?

I know they can always abstain but that doesn't ge them anywhere and there's arn't enough of them to get their own way on anything either.

What are we looking at here? Does that mean even more stagnation than we've had for the last 2 years?

[Orrex]

1. Not a dumb question; instead, it's a smart question about dumb people

It must be remembered that, at the end of the day, TeaBaggers are Republicans, no matter how hard the MSM tries to make them seem like idealistic Independents. Given the choice between any Democrat and any Republican, it's safe to say that the TeaBaggers will vote for the latter.

They will vote with their true party--the Republicans. Of course, if they get actual TeaBagger candidates into Congress, so much the better (in their view). As far as they're concerned, rampant government corruption, out-of-control spending, and the dreaded nanny-state are only a problem when other people's candidates are in office.

[elleng]

2. Won't go along w Dems, or prolly w repugs in many matters,

so in certain situations, more stagnation, yes.

[StevieM]

3. The tea party candidates are Republicans. They will caucus with the Republicans.

They'll be treated as the leaders of the party, the basis for victory in 2012. In truth, their greatest strength is the most Americans don't really know who they are. They have yet to be fully identified as an exclusively right-wing movement. Low information voters may think that they are screw-everyone centrists, with no Party ID. Eventually, everyone will hopefully understand that they are little more than the GOP base.

Steve

[truedelphi]

4. I have no idea about the stagnation factor.

However there appear to be several different flavors of Tea Bagging candidates.

You have your Ron Paul types, who actually make sense in terms of financial oversight and what not. Several of these people are not any scarier than Dennis Kucinich. Though none of them are going to be protective of a woman's right to choice. And I am not sure if any of those people are even in the running for office at this point -the Tea Bagger movement has been hijacked by more diabolical forces.

So now you have the Tea Baggers who start out saying things that make sense, but two paragraphs into their speech start saying, "So what we need to do is to turn our nation back over to God." And their notion of God is a scary one. I start thinking about "The Handmaiden's Tale," when I hear them offering up their idea of what this nation needs to become.

[babylonsister]

5. Do you think that nitwit O'Donnell is angry? She was recruited because

she's cute. Seriously, this woman doesn't have a political brain in her head, and that's pretty obvious. But look what she did.

It's disheartening, but not overwhelming.

[emilyg]

6. They'll hold hands with Republicans.

[KharmaTrain]

7. When The Big Money Lobbyists Come Calling

...with an open checkbook, we'll see their true colors. Green and Red. The rushpublican game is to keep this country in angry mode...along with their big business (teabagger moneybags) and shut the government down. They want to make this administration look as weak as possible as this strategery has been working. Seems the "conventional wisdom" are that voters are shortsighted and stupid...they've forgotten who got us into this mess and that it's all the Democrat's fault. When the baggers get to DC they'll gladly take the corporate money and pay back the IOUs to their buddies at Koch Industries.

[napi21]

8. All that may well be true, but I think the predictors have a valid point

when they sayBoner & McConnell (although Mitch probably won't have the chance) are agoing to have their hands full with this new bunch. They're very unlikely to accept being bossed around like Pubs usually do.