the tea party madness

too many people are seeing the tea partiers as advocates for reining in "out-of-control federal spending" --- that's not it at all ---- 

This isn't a debate about the size of government. It's a debate about whether the government, as we know it, should really exist. Any Republican who approaches their job as a legislator with the idea that their [the Tea Partiers]  ideas can help craft more balanced legislation is completely missing the point. This is Government Shutdown-politics, plain and simple.There's a kind of inexorable logic behind this kind of movement, and it doesn't allow for positive governance. It rejects the very idea that the Congress exists to identify problems and craft legislative solutions. The idea of compromise is completely rejected.

also, it would have been a little more believable if the tee party had started their thing while bush was spending us into oblivion with tax cuts for the rich and two unnecessary wars ---