I think the House leadership/GOP-e, to their eternal discredit, blunted the effectiveness of the TEA Partiers while the Democrats just sat back and watched. It seems to have escaped the “leaderships” notice that, were it not for the 2010 TEA Party sweep, they would still be in the minority. (Of course, Boner and company may actually prefer sucking hind tit—No hard decision making or heavy lifting.)
This was a similar game the Dems played a while back - they were “stuck” with conservative Democrats, grudgingly took them in to get the numbers up, then stuck it to their own. I think Newt took advantage of thet to get 4 balanced budgets and surpluses that Billy-Jeff took credit for. I think the same happened here - the GOP-e grudgingly took the “win” thinking they would have compliant little freshman - and when they didn’t play ball - then they were on the outs..... This makes me sick - and yearning for a 3rd party (conservative) alternative.