Tea Party

The movement has already either dwindled or evolved, but the Pennsylvania Republican is a legacy of what substance it had.

On June 26, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off an upset victory against Incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, a senior Democrat who had been floated as a replacement for Nancy Pelosi. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic Socialist who ran on a platform that involved abolishing ICE, Medicare for all,…

Plus, we're baaaack!

The Afternoon Links are back! Where have they been, you ask? Regular readers of other TWS newsletters (JVL, Kristol Clear) know: I'm now a proud father of twin girls. They are a handful, but the dog has taken to them! If only he could hold a bottle ... So, fret not, the Afternoon Links are back,…

Some heretofore-skeptical commentators are declaring that February 28 is the date Donald Trump truly became president of the United States. That might signal some good news, but it was closely followed by bad: March 1 could go down as the date of death of the Tea Party movement in America.

Lost in the momentous events of the recent election was the news that the citizens of the District of Columbia overwhelmingly approved a "state constitution" for the proposed state of New Columbia. This presages a renewed public campaign for D.C. statehood. One can easily imagine how much the…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the forthcoming pre-caucus GOP debate, why the Donald isn't inevitable, and why Tea Partiers should oppose Trump.

The right and left are moving towards each other, in a sort of pincers movement designed to destroy the army of free traders pressing Congress to give President Obama what is known as fast-track authority. That would permit him to put any trade deals he negotiates with eleven Pacific Rim countries…

Even as they publicly condemn Tea Party Republicans as hostage-taking legislative thugs, the truth is that some Democrats are quietly jealous of them. Think of it: The Tea Party gang gets to intimidate party leaders, threaten legislation, block nominees, shut down the government and default on the…

Forget Bill Clinton. And Richard Nixon. And, for that matter, George W. Bush. The president who has faced the greatest "level of obstruction" is, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the current president of the United States -- Barack Obama.

The boss was on the set of MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday to discuss Iraq, the Tea Party, and the midterm elections. Watch the videos below:

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on his recent piece "The Real Lesson from Mississippi."

On balance the Republican “establishment” has done fairly well this primary season. Its favored candidate in the Nebraska Senate race lost, and of course Eric Cantor went down to defeat, but Thad Cochran, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell all hung on. So, all is right in the world, right?

In advance of tomorrow’s Nebraska Republican Senate primary — one of the most hotly contested in the nation — Ben Sasse’s final two television ads note his opposition to Obamacare. The first begins, “Conservatives are rallying in Nebraska against Obamacare and for Ben Sasse,” and it features Sarah…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the republicans' efforts to win big in 2014, and whether the Tea Party will play the role of spoiler as republicans hope to take back the Senate.

Representative Kerry Bentivolio once said, “I have a problem figuring out which one I really am, Santa Claus or Kerry Bentivolio. All my life I have been told I’m Kerry Bentivolio, and now I am a Santa Claus, so now I prefer to be Santa Claus.” Bentivolio, a 62-year-old freshman Republican from…

The GOP Senate primary in Nebraska will be a 2014 battlefield in the hot war between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party insurgents. But at first glance, it's hard to see a casus belli.

Two hundred and forty years ago this month, a gang of Bostonians dressed as Indians boarded the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. That fateful action on December 16, 1773, and Parliament’s inflammatory response—closing the Port of Boston,…

The Scrapbook was understandably intrigued when Cass Sunstein, a former Obama White House official and former Harvard law professor, published a Bloomberg.com column headlined “How the Alger Hiss Case Explains the Tea Party.” If you know anything about the famous perjury trial of the high-ranking…

Democratic congressman Alan Grayson of Florida used an image of a burning cross to spell "Tea Party" in a recent fundraising email:

Living in rural New England with four dogs teaches important political lessons—to the dogs.

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on today's investigative hearings on the IRS scandal.

Career IRS employees have testified on Capitol Hill that the federal agency's chief counsel played a part in the scandal of targeting conseratives, the House Ways and Means Committee announced today in a press release. As a result, House Ways and Means Committee chair Dave Camp, House Oversight and…

Refuting Democratic suggestions that progressive groups were also swept up in the IRS probe of the tax status of Tea Party organizations, the Treasury Department's inspector general has revealed that just six progressive groups were targeted compared to 292 conservative groups.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the growing IRS scandal.

After the IRS revealed it had wrongly targeted hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups, the agency claimed that the misconduct was limited to "low-level employees" in its Cincinnati office. Yesterday, the attorney for Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, told…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Mark Hemingway on his editorial about the burgeoning IRS scandal and the media's coverage of it.

Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer was asked on TV this morning whether he thinks the IRS actions violated the law:

Treasury secretary Jack Lew asked Steven Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, to resign his post in response to the reports that the IRS had unfairly singled out conservative non-profit groups for close scrutiny. Miller has resigned, President Barack Obama said in a…

When the IRS went fishing for information from those Tea Party groups, it cast a very wide net.  

Not front page material in the Grey Lady's news judgment.  But good enough for page A-11.  With the third paragraph reassuring readers that an agency spokesperson had insisted 

Washington is buzzing about the expose this morning by ABC News' Jonathan Karl showing that the White House's Benghazi talking points underwent 12 different revisions and were scrubbed of references to terrorism. The report builds on and confirms the reporting by The Weekly Standard's Stephen…

There wasn’t much in the way of substance to distinguish Marco Rubio’s official Republican response to the State of the Union Address from the Tea Party response by Rubio’s Senate colleague, Rand Paul. Both were delivered by potential 2016 presidential nominees who entered the Senate on a wave of…

President Barack Obama's closest political adviser, David Axelrod, is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser later today for a Democratic candidate for Congress who linked the Tea Party with the shooting in Tucson that injured former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The Democrat that will be joined…

Can the Romney campaign become a cause? Can a mere electoral effort become a broad political movement? That's what really successful campaigns do—think Reagan 1980 or Obama 2008. The last few days have suggested this possibility. And the Virginia small businessman who took a stand provides an…

On July 31, former Republican senator Bob Bennett made a bold pronouncement on the Fox Business Network. “I do feel that the Tea Party wave is receding,” he said, “and it’s not going to be nearly as big a factor in this election as it was in 2010.” There was a tone of hopefulness in Bennett’s…

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

This morning, on ABC, reporter Brian Ross suggested the Colorado movie theater shooter might be a Tea Party member:  

In Parma, Ohio, President Obama talked about dressing up like a Tea Party member to get votes in Hyde Park, Chicago:

A SWAT team raided the home of the sister of freshman Republican congressman Blake Farenthold of Texas, Politico reports:

With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare, the issue now shifts to the elected branches of government and raises this question: Will the intense opposition dissipate or will it lead to a fervent new effort to repeal the liberal health care law?

James Piereson has an important article in the June New Criterion on the "forthcoming political revolution" in America. Here's the heart of the argument:

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,  So frolic, so gay.... —Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632), "The Merry Month of May." The poet Thomas Dekker is surely set to become a Tea Party favorite, anticipating as he did the merry and gay (in the old-fashioned sense) month of May 2012: Merry and gay…

Regarding Dick Lugar’s loss to Richard Murdock, the Old Gray Lady wants you to know one thing: He went down because he was just too gosh-darned moderate and sensible for those insane Tea Party Republicans in Indiana and the dastardly outside groups that targeted him:

Richard Mourdock’s big primary victory over incumbent senator Dick Lugar in Indiana suggests that the insurgent Tea Party conservatism of 2009-2010 is alive and well in the 2012 Republican party. (On the other hand, Keith Judd’s showing against President Obama in Tuesday’s West Virginia Democratic…

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign released another campaign ad this morning, a 60-second spot that will run in battleground states Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. "While the campaign has done a number of response spots,…

The Obama campaign has released a new web ad that lists every apparent accomplishment of the president's three years in office. The seven minute spot begins by showing how bad the economy was when the president took office, and suggests that President Obama saved America with the stimulus, the auto…

Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is fighting for survival in his contentious Republican primary with state treasurer Richard Mourdock, a conservative with broad Tea Party support. Speaking with reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon, Lugar seemed to be unsure about whether or not the Tea Party…

The world came unhinged in the fall of 2008.

In many ways, the story of the 2012 Republican primary has been the inability of Mitt Romney to win over more than a third of self-identified “strong Tea Party supporters” or “very conservative” voters. If he had received the support of those voters, even a slim majority of them, the race would…

The Richmond Tea Party group is blasting the IRS for allegedly failing to grant tax exempt status to the pro-limited government organization. “The Internal Revenue Service has served Richmond Tea Party (RTP) with unreasonable requests to obtain a tax-exempt status, fitting the pattern of the…

A new Pew poll of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters finds Rick Santorum with a slight lead over Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race, 30 percent to 28 percent. Seventeen percent support Newt Gingrich, and 12 percent support Ron Paul. The poll was conducted between February 8…

Republicans have been critical of the Obama administration's "preventive care" regulation, both before and after its (meaningless) modification Friday. But have our elected leaders and our candidates made the fundamental point? This regulation isn't some kind of weird bug in the software of…

A new 60-second radio advertisement from the Mitt Romney campaign makes an appeal to South Carolina's socially conservative Republicans. Listen to the ad below:

Rasmussen polling shows Mitt Romney leading in South Carolina, while Newt Gingrich is in second place and closing. It’s also interesting, however, to note the Republican candidates’ respective levels of support among Tea Party and non-Tea Party voters in what will be the first Republican-leaning…

Des Moines

A new poll of New Hampshire primary voters show Mitt Romney in a solid position nearly two weeks out from the “first in the nation” primary on January 10. A Boston Globe survey of 538 likely GOP primary voters released yesterday shows Romney with 39 percent support in New Hampshire. Newt Gingrich…

As the race between Mitt Romney and ‘Not Romney’ approaches Iowa, THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Jonathan Last reveals a serious problem with Romney’s electoral history. Romney is a one-term governor who's lost 17 of 22 times his name has appeared on a ballot. "Aside from getting votes, he's a great…

A new poll from Gallup today finds that a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents find Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney "acceptable" nominees for the GOP. For Gingrich, 62 percent of those polled said the former House speaker was an acceptable Republican nominee, while 54 percent…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters — which shows Newt Gingrich with a 21-point lead over runner-up Mitt Romney — suggests that Gingrich is uniting the Tea Party and establishment wings of the Republican Party.  The poll shows that among likely Republican primary voters who do not consider…

What if the two prominent grassroots movements of the day, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, joined forces to support an agenda that would be good for America? 

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a crowd of conservative activists Friday afternoon at the Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit in Washington that his goal is to “make government simpler, smaller, and smarter.” Romney outlined his own fiscal policy,…

Classy as ever, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been down in Florida campaigning for the President's reelection:

On Martin Bashir's television program this afternoon, Democratic strategist and MSNBC analyst Karen Finney said that Republicans are supporting Herman Cain because of his race:

In an interview that will be aired tonight on ABC News, President Obama continues to express his commitment to the Occupy Wall Street protesters. 

Phil Klein: "GOP debate winner: 'None of the above'"

Wall Street Journal: "Infrastructure Likely Part of Obama Jobs Push"

In her speech to a Tea Party gathering in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday, Sarah Palin criticized what she called "crony capitalism:" 

Damon Root: "Michael Lind: Libertarians "Apologize for Autocracy" and "Side with the Confederacy"

Earlier this month, California Rep. Maxine Waters said the Tea Party "can go straight to hell." The next day, Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, speaking at a convention in South Florida, told attendees that some Tea Party-supported Republicans in Congress want to see blacks "hanging on a tree."

Politico: "Rick Perry panic fires up the left"

New York Times: "C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight"

Ace of Spades: "Bill Keller Of The NY Times Wants His Readers To Know Most Of The GOP Candidates Are Crazy Religious Nuts"

Yuval Levin and Pete Wehner ask, in today's Wall Street Journal, whether the Tea Party will be willing to take on entitlements:

John Bolton, writing in the Washington Times: 

The following facts about the federal budget deficit are, as far as I know, widely accepted:

It’s amazing that a senior member of a party that’s in control of a legislative body that hasn’t passed a budget of any sort in more than two years would publically try to pin blame for Standard and Poor’s recent downgrade of America’s long-term credit rating on, of all groups, the Tea Party. But…

John Kerry announced today on Morning Joe that he believes the media should take some responsibility for keeping the Tea Party and its ideas out of our public discourse:

MSNBC host Martin Bashir interviewed Stanton Peele, a psychologist and an "expert on addiction," this afternoon. Bashir urged Peele to psychologically evaluate supporters of the Tea Party. "It reminds us of addiction because addicts are seeking something that they can't have," Peele said. "They…

James Kirchik: "Why Islamist terror dwarfs Breivik's brand: Almost nobody supports 'Christianist' violence"

"Pair of votes shows House divided on Libya"

In time for summer, two dispatches of interest from the world of publishing.

In time for summer, two dispatches of interest from the world of publishing.

The Tea Party was clearly instrumental in fueling Republicans’ tremendous success in last year’s election, and Republicans will presumably need strong Tea Party support next year as well if they are to unseat President Obama and repeal Obamacare. So it’s worth asking this question: What does the…

House Budget chair Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) says there's a growing sentiment among House GOP caucus members that Congress ought to make larger defense spending cuts as a way to relieve the national debt. Speaking after his foreign policy address last night, Ryan said he attributes this libertarian or…

I was interviewing Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on February 17, in his temporary office in the Russell building on Capitol Hill, when his chief of staff Doug Stafford entered the room.

"Rubio defends plan for ousting Qaddafi"

No one's paying much attention, but things in Ivory Coast continue to deteriorate.

Over at Pajamas Media, WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Jeffrey Anderson takes note of the surprising results of Tea Party poll:

James O'Keefe has a new NPR video out and SPOILER ALERT: It's also really embarassing.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has just issued a statement on the NPR controversy:

So the latest video by James O'Keefe has been released. Bear in mind that there's always the matter of context when watching video stings and not all of O'Keefe's endeavors have been, uh, "winning" as one fomer sitcom actor might be inclined to say. You live by gonzo journalism, you die by gonzo…

So the latest video by James O'Keefe has been released. Bear in mind that there's always the matter of context when watching video stings and not all of O'Keefe's endeavors have been, uh, "winning" as one fomer sitcom actor might be inclined to say. You live by gonzo journalism, you die by gonzo…

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Libyan rebels calling for international help.

Is the Tea Party racist? Mychal Massie, speaking today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., says  “no.”

Looking toward the crucial 2012 presidential race, three things are becoming increasingly clear:

Freshman Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, one of the most promising of the new wave of Tea Party-allied Republican legislators, was chosen to give the Republican radio address, delivered just after President Obama’s weekly radio offering, on Saturday, January 29. This was a notable assignment for a…

Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Dr. Howard Dean shared his thoughts on the Tea Party.

A source on the Hill tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that ABC's Diane Sawyer is trying to line up freshmen Republican congressmen for a segment the night before the new Congress begins its new session. This is the email from ABC producers to the freshmen Republicans:

Palo Alto

The criminal and anti-American enterprise WikiLeaks said in a Twitter message this morning that it was under a “distributed denial of service attack," a method often used by hackers to slow or bring down websites. If this is the U.S. government at work, good for our civil servants. If this is…

On Oct. 22, Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, among our most knowledgeable progressive political commentators, published a courteous rebuttal, “Debating the Tea Party: A Reply to Peter Berkowitz,” to my recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Why Liberals don’t get the Tea Party Movement.”  The…

Left-wing groups convened the “One Nation Working Together” rally on the National Mall on Saturday, October 2, hoping to counter Glenn Beck’s well-attended “Restoring Honor” gathering in August.  They also wanted to energize their base before the November elections, hoping to counter Tea Party…

Since 1963 Theodore C. Sorensen has been subsisting on his eight-year career as a ghostwriter for John F. Kennedy, and faithful readers of the New York Times have come to rely on his periodic contributions to the editorial pages during the past 47 years. Here Sorensen has repeated, with emphasis,…

Recently, I strongly criticized the Obama administration for considering a political ad campaign against the Tea Partiers, suggesting that it was demagogic.  They didn’t like that over at the New Republic!  Jonathan Chait agreed with my basic take on the midterm dynamic, but said my…

1. Desperately Seeking Strawmen.  One of President Obama’s chief rhetorical tricks since he was inaugurated has been to attack strawmen, tendentiously drawn caricatures against whom Obama can contrast himself.  Usually, the president does this to create the false impression that he is a centrist –…