TEA Parties: Not (R) Love-Fests

We've maintained that the TEA Party movement is simply not "a Republican Party" operation, nor love-fest.

Or to quote a well-known morning radioguy, "I'm not a Republican; I'm a Conservative."

Well, whatever. Charlie's never been seen at a TEA Party, but you get the idea.

In any case, today's WSJournal writes up a House race which is representative. (heh)

In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.

And that's going to be a problem downstream, too.

..."The potential that the Republican Party puts up candidates that fail to excite the support of this movement is very real," says Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, University of Minnesota

Another example:

In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats. Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist's decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president's $787 billion stimulus package.

Mr. Crist has drawn a primary challenge from Marco Rubio, a former Florida House speaker, who is aggressively seeking tea-party members' support

Even Jeb Bush is maintaining distance from Crist...