“They don’t have the clout “
No, they needed about 40 more conservative/ Tea Party Representatives in the House.
Some of the worst spending bills passed the House with more Dem votes than GOP.
We just missed having the clout.
40 more votes is about all we need this time.
Getting 40 more tea party votes in the House is not having "just missed". It is missing by a wide margin.
The majority of Americans are not tea partiers, and do not agree with the economic conservatism of Paul Ryan. What that means is that, to the extent we want to move this country to the right, we have to use guile, and coalition building issue by issue. The same tools the left used to get us in this mess in the first place.
That is certainly not the preferred route, and contains its own potential pitfalls and missteps. But the sooner we recognize it is the only strategy that has a politically realistic chance of succeeding, the sooner we can get started.
That's true if the TP freshman return to their roots. That would mean a conservative as Speaker, not Boehner or Cantor.
I wonder if Michael Burgess or Allen West wants the job?
He does not have the political savvy to get big things done. Greta had him swinging his head back n forth one night trying to make sense of his budget. He couldn’t even answer all of the questions and kept coming back to working with the Speaker. Don’t worry, if Mitt wants him, he’ll be Mitts because Paul is the shadow lately. We are still in trouble because many voters will not like Romney no matter who he picks for VP.