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Tea Party denies GOP Senate majority
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Republicans would control both Senate and House this Wednesday morning, were it not for Tea Bag wing nuts that cost the GOP at least two and possibly three seats in Congress' upper chamber.
The lesson, if Republican activists choose to accept it, is that similar extremism -- especially as espoused by a self-described "Mama Grizzly"" -- could cost Republicans the White House in 2012.
Is there any way Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could have won re-election against any candidate other than Sharron Angle?
A veteran, not-very-popular politician found himself running against an opponent who wanted to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, and the EPA, described Social Security as "welfare," and said she saw no obligation to help bring jobs to a hurting Nevada.
The result, to borrow a term from the Battle of Gettysburg, was a "Bloody Angle." The issue became the challenger, although the incumbent Reid has been in the Senate for 24 years.
The Republicans seemed to have a lock on Vice President Joe Biden's old Delaware seat, with a popular moderate congressman and former governor. Christine O'Donnell changed all that, and began the mother of all TV spots by saying: "I am not a witch."
"Tonight, there's a tea party tidal wave," Kentucky Sen.-elect Rand Paul declared to cheers. He will be able to join Sens. Jim DeMint, Jim Inhofe, and Sen-elect Ron Johnson of Wisconsin in a caucus that might take its theme from Dragnet: Dum, de dum dum.
Look at who won Tuesday night. The Republicans' "freshman" Senators will be political veterans and insiders, men far more accustomed to the corridors of power than storming the barricades.
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The night air across American rang out with partisan bluster: The Republicans' victory was not graceful. GOP National Chairman Michael Steele declared victory with mid-campaign nastiness, not a victor's magnanimity.
A few lonely voices seemed to recognize the need to govern, to work at solving the nation's problems.
"Divided government will give Republicans in Congress a chance to move beyond the extreme and partisan rhetoric of this campaign season and show they can work constructively towards real solutions to our energy security and environmental problems," said Republicans for Environmental Protection, a group active here. (It backed Kirk in Illinois and Rep. Dave Reichert in this state.)
Lotsa luck. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Republicans elected to the Senate Tuesday have a record of subservience to Big Oil and Big Coal, Roy Blount a case in point. Soon-to-be House leaders have drawn a line in the sand: No compromise.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Republicans' chief goal the next two years is to win the presidency in 2012.
The GOP's failure to win the Senate points to a path to what it must avoid to reach that goal. Americans have reacted in 2010 to what they saw as Democrats' excess. They could just as well recoil at extremism of the right in 2012.
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