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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Washington's GOP will skip the Tea Party

Posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 08:54 AM

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Far be it from me to rain on anyone's tea party, but after Wednesday's headlines fade and the conservative candidates that make it past the post on Tuesday are glowing in the aftermath of their victories, a process will begin that seems unstoppable.

Tea Party voters (and their candidates) will discover that Washington D.C. is where revolutions (and good ideas) go to be absorbed, if not exactly die.

Just ask the trail blazing candidate of Hope and Change. President Obama was handed an unprecedented mandate to radically alter the nation's politics. Instead he has governed as a centrist (yes, despite all the partisan campaign rhetoric, that's a truth that's undeniable to all but the most extreme).

It's worth remembering that President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, although in todays gridlocked climate it already feels like an eon ago.

So after a short lived victory lap on Wednesday, Tea Party voters will need to keep a very close watch on their two signature issues: government spending and federal deficits. I encourage them to be extra vigilant because passions fade after the results are announced. And the only direction either spending and deficits are going in is up, frankly.

How do I know this? Because President George W. Bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents preceding him, including LBJ. In eight years, President Bush increased the federal budget by a whopping 104 percent.

And let's recall that it was a Republican Congress that enthusiastically assisted his historic budget bloat. Because the GOP establishment in Washington (who's first order of business on Wednesday, I assure you, will be to bring the unvarnished Tea Partier's to heel) are the most enthusiastic practitioners of big government in the capital and the nation.

Recall that Bush came to power with promises of an "ownership society," smaller and more limited government, and a "humble foreign policy."

We all know know how that worked out: in the most comprehensively disastrous presidency of modern times.

Anyone who's ever spent a minute in Washington knows that the GOP establishment would never come to a populist tea party, now or ever. The denizens of D.C. have much more refined tastes.

So the new blood will either have to adapt or find themselves exiled. Either way it'll be business as usual by Friday, I guarantee it.

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Monsoonman | Nov 05, 2010, 10:44 AM EDT

obama now realizes his only mistake was his communication style in conveying his great vision for the future of america and that's why the democrats suffered such a humiliating defeat....He was speaking too fast and we didn't understand. He consulted with algore and from now on he will speak slowly and in small words so that we may be able to inculcate his brilliance...That was how algore was able to successfully convey his grave message to us: that "the earth has a fever"

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McNamara31 | Nov 03, 2010, 06:31 PM EDT

odonnell521 Well said and so true!

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seamusmoore | Nov 03, 2010, 12:10 AM EDT

odonnell521 I don't like to the bearer of bad news but your name is synomous with cowardice: Flight of the Earls in 1607 when the O'Donnells and the O'Neills hightailed it over to France with their yellow streak which lives on there today. You will find O'Donnells scattered throughout the western part of Ireland. I hope, for your sake, that your ancestors made it down to Munster. I know O'Donnells from Tipperary who were great men for "the cause". As for Cahir, clearly he doesn't get the tea party's origin, it because of the GOP Congress and Bush's rubberstamping of their spending. Why an "Arts" Editor is writing about politics escapes me, but remember he was raised in a country where the major difference between the two main political parties is where they stood on a civil war that ended 87 years ago. Hence, in Ireland, these two parties try to lure voters by buying their votes with benefits. Eventually, you run out of rich people to tax to pay for these goodies.

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maloney | Nov 02, 2010, 11:57 PM EDT

If by chance the Repubs go back to the same old. It will be the Repubs going down in the next primary & a new lot will have at it. kell...they left the F from the front of arts.

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hancock | Nov 01, 2010, 08:16 PM EDT

Intellectual laziness.

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kell7757 | Nov 01, 2010, 12:11 AM EDT

I thought Cahir was the Arts editor? Is is possible for a liberal to listen to opposing views without using the word Nazi? What is with the Nazi obsession amongst liberals? It's a little nutty.

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crowsnest | Oct 31, 2010, 05:52 PM EDT

" What do you think about this? " Hmmmm....let's see ...... Elitist's living in a bubble in Wash, DC with no real connection to the man on the street; fringe lunatics - religious and political- on center stage because they make good copy; a Democracy now owned by Corporations; a mainstream Media that always underestimates our intelligence and often doesn't ask the tough questions; a populace who doesn't read much, doesn't always vote, who work long days and hours just to get by so consequently can't keep up with important issues like Wars, health care,and often too tired to sift the wheat from the chaff ; a deficit in the trillions; yada yada yada- I think we are in deep do-do.

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S7McCabe | Oct 31, 2010, 03:12 PM EDT

I can't believe what I just read. Have you been talking to your mesiah, Ian Paisley to get your info? You too had a great economy, but you screwed up also. Read Maloney. Maloney has it right. Also, better to control the House than the Senate. We won't get rid of plastic faced Nancy yet but she is getting up in years and she won't be Speaker much longer. She is done talked out...of both sides of her mouth depending on what day of the week it is. I can read Politico if I want to read garbage. I don't and can see no reason to read this garbage anymore. Good bye.

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thomas409 | Oct 31, 2010, 01:53 PM EDT

I don't want to sound pessimistic, but the Republican party, in my estimation, is the closest thing we have to a Facist party in the U.S. Right up there with the Nazi party of a bygone era

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odonnell521 | Oct 31, 2010, 01:17 PM EDT

O'Dorherty has got it right. Pittsburghkid and all those like him need to get out of their fantasy world of Fox News, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh lies and deceit. And fyi citing publications like the Wall Street Journal to back up your opinions is a joke since its now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. As for the National Review and American Spectator, their allegiance is to the so-called "free market" of large corporations rather than a "democracy" of average working people. Finally, what saddens me most is that people like Pittsburghkid have left my 18-year-old daughter wondering if there's anything left in the U.S. other people consumed by fear, greed and hatred. And sharing a proud last name with that nitwit from Delaware isn't helping things.

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Pittsburghkid | Oct 31, 2010, 10:43 AM EDT

Mr. O'Dorherty you can not understanding of the Tea Party, unless you understand the term RINO. RINO's are Republicans In Name Only. The Tea Party ousted RINO's, all except McCain. Sarah Palin is loyal to McCain, and McCain changed his position on Criminal Illegal Aliens. I can not understand why you associate the Tea Party with G W Bush. Bush's Amnesty of Criminal Illegal Aliens was unacceptable to Conservatives and is unacceptable to the Tea Party. The Tea Party is a group of Pirates, that have boarded the Republican Party, and are going to take over the Republican Party. Obama told the Hispanics to distroy "their enemy". No President has ever pitted one group (Hispanics) again another group. Obama wants to flood America with Hispanics, in order to surpress "their enemy". You are right Conservatives were swindled by Bush, but Obama plans far worse for the Tea Party. Our Backs are against the wall. Mr O'Doherty, you make fun of O'Donnell, and Toomey, but did you notice that those are Irish names. My advice to you is to quit reading the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek. Start reading the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and American Spectator. I know that you will be shunned by the Socialist Irish, that are running Ireland into the ground, but you will be ahead of the curve. For a Journalist, it is more important to be ahead of the curve, then to be apart of the "same old, same old boring nonsense.

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maloney | Oct 31, 2010, 08:59 AM EDT

Beautiful letter of surrender cahir but it's not all that bad for you. The repubs will only take the house. The dems. will still hold the senate & potus. Unfortunately for the radical liberals obama didn't get everything done you wanted. Now he never will.

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