The Tea Party Returns

ABC News ^

[Sub-Driver]

The Tea Party Returns

By ABBY D. PHILLIP (@abbydphillip) June 21, 2013

Opposition to President Obama's healthcare law catapulted the Tea Party to national prominence three years ago, and now anger over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups may be serving as a tipping point for a Tea Party revival.

And in the House of Representatives, where the movement's most ardent supporters reside, their influence is already being felt.

Most recently, the Republican-sponsored farm bill failed to pass through the House on Thursday in part due to Republican opposition to funding the food stamps program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. And earlier this week, House Speaker John Boehner caved to pressure from Tea Party-backed lawmakers on immigration reform.

Taken together, the farm bill's failure and Boehner's concession to anti-immigration-reform segments of his party appear to imperil the prospects for any bi-partisan legislation in the House — either on immigration or upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.

"This is the first time in months I've seen House conservatives full of energy and excitement. Farm bill defeat has encouraged them," said conservative pundit Erik Erikson on Twitter minutes after the bill went down, delivering a blow to Republican leaders in the House.

"I'm satisfied with the outcome," Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. "With the way that the SNAP program is integrated into the farm bill, it's more government spending and we just need better control of government spending."

Lawmakers in Washington are emboldened by the growing sense of alarm within the Tea Party, which is still a relatively diffuse group of state or local-based groups that has managed to coalesce around a common opposition to the Washington establishment.

[ponygirl]

And can quickly disappear into the ethers and blend in with the crowd. Even more unsettling.