How many times in the past five years have you heard a liberal media member declare the Tea Party dead?
It happened again on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne claiming, "I think that the era of the far right and the era of the Tea Party is over" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
E.J. DIONNE, WASHINGTON POST: I think that the era of the far right and the era of the Tea Party is over. We wasted $12-24 billion of GDP on a political tactic that was designed to win by intimidation. We have an opening for normal government for the first time since the 2010 elections.
Rather surprisingly, NBC's Andrea Mitchell not only didn't agree, but also said so:
ANDREA MITCHELL: I don't think that the era of the Tea Party (CHUCKLE) is over. I think that they will be resurgent in their districts and still be a big problem that John Boehner does not have a working majority without 30 or 40 of those hardliners who are not challenged in their own districts.
Mitchell was half right: the era of the Tea Party is far from over. What happened the past several weeks involving the government shutdown and the debt ceiling will likely increase the number of Americans identifying with this movement.
As for this being a "problem" for Boehner, that standing ovation he received from House Republicans Thursday suggests otherwise.
As for Dionne, he's been wrong about the Tea Party since its inception. Try to hold back your laughter as you read what he wrote in April 2010:
The Tea Party is nothing new. It represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics, and it will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections.
Nice call, E.J.!
