That Didn't Take Long: GOP Repuidates Tea Party

Daniel Larison notes what this week's tax compromise says about the GOP's Tea Party inspired rhetoric concerning spending, 

One of the stories some conservatives told themselves in 2010 was that the Tea Party movement had succeeded in getting the Republican Party “out from under Bush.” This has become a recurring theme in Peggy Noonan’s columns in the last few months. According to the new received wisdom on the right since 2006, it was principally Bush’s spending that harmed GOP fortunes, and the Tea Party was supposed to represent a reaction against this...

Fresh off of a significant electoral victory aided in part by the Tea Party movement, what has been the first and most pressing priority of the Republican leadership? To make sure that the deficit-expanding tax cuts they failed to pay for in the Bush years continue to increase the deficit in the future, and to make sure that they don’t pay for them now.