The Senate's top Democrat told a home state newspaper he expects the conservative movement's grasp on the GOP to diminish. The days of the Tea Party's influence on American politics are numbered, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this weekend. The Senate's top Democrat told a home state newspaper that he expects the conservative activist movement's grasp on the GOP to diminish, a bold prediction given the influence that group showed Saturday in Ames, Iowa, where Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a Tea Party darling, won an influential presidential straw poll.