I don’t think a Tea Party challenge is all that dire a prospect. A new conservative electee in Congress very quickly learns that his path to riches lies on the left. If he plays ball he will be a wealthy man even if he loses his next election. If he does not then his wealth will be limited to his salary and what he can garner from his own efforts. Thus a large portion of our brave brash conservative candidates become Washington Republicans and useless to the Republic within a very short time of being elected.
I truly do hear what you’re saying and it IS a great disappointment to see that...
But still, not all of them do. And it is OUR job to keep electing them, and REPLACING those who go soft and of course replace all the RINOs.
Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions in the Senate...
In the House we have (From Wikipedia):
The TEA Party caucus chair was Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Of a total possible 435 Representatives, as of January 6, 2013, the committee had 48 members, all Republicans.
Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Chair
Joe Barton of Texas
Gus Bilirakis of Florida
Rob Bishop of Utah
Diane Black of Tennessee
Michael C. Burgess of Texas
Paul Broun of Georgia
John Carter of Texas
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
Howard Coble of North Carolina
Mike Coffman of Colorado
Ander Crenshaw of Florida
John Culberson of Texas
Jeff Duncan of South Carolina
Blake Farenthold of Texas
Stephen Fincher of Tennessee
John Fleming of Louisiana
Trent Franks of Arizona
Phil Gingrey of Georgia
Louie Gohmert of Texas
Vicky Hartzler of Missouri
Tim Huelskamp of Kansas
Lynn Jenkins of Kansas
Steve King of Iowa
Doug Lamborn of Colorado
Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri
Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming
Kenny Marchant of Texas
Tom McClintock of California
David McKinley of West Virginia
Gary Miller of California
Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina
Randy Neugebauer of Texas
Rich Nugent of Florida
Steven Palazzo of Mississippi
Steve Pearce of New Mexico
Ted Poe of Texas
Tom Price of Georgia
Phil Roe of Tennessee
Dennis A. Ross of Florida
Ed Royce of California
Steve Scalise of Louisiana
David Schweikert of Arizona[20]
Pete Sessions of Texas
Adrian Smith of Nebraska
Lamar S. Smith of Texas
Marlin Stutzman of Indiana[21]
Tim Walberg of Michigan
Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia
Joe Wilson of South Carolina
I don’t think all of this list are TEA party though. Some of them may be RINOs, since I do not know of all of them. Pete Sessions of Texas is TEA? Not what I heard. I’m also disappointed in Bachmann; she hired Ed Rollins who went on to bash the remaining conservatives in the race thus giving us Romney, and then reneged on her promise to oppose Boehner for Sepaker. Also, I do not see Trey Gowdy of South Carolina here. Isn’t he TEA?
In any case, we need to WORK on making the list longer and better.