Troublesome "TEA"

Welcome to the newest G-O-TEA sensation. Seemingly out of nowhere, Dave Brat emerged to make national headlines. And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Virginia) political career is suddenly over.

Already, the G-O-TEA's finest talking heads are proclaiming today as "The Death of #Shamnesty". Are they correct?

Not really. And here's why. Comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) was already going nowhere fast before yesterday. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has already made that clear. So has Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). And so has their dear loyal local lackey, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson). They don't actually cherish family values. They just want to remain on good terms with the 21st Century Know Nothings.

House Republican "leaders" never had any real intention of giving CIR a proper floor vote. HR 15 has been sitting there, just waiting for action. Yet every chance Republican "leaders" have been given to act on CIR, they've instead tried to blame someone else for their own inaction.

Yet even as House Republican "leaders" (such as Cantor) were obstructing CIR to death, they were rallying around the "imagery of reform". They were using "softer language". They were "rebranding"...

And even that was too much for the 21st Century Know Nothings. So they rallied around Dave Brat. And they propelled him to victory yesterday.

And now, they're dancing around the corpse of #Shamnesty. There's just one problem with their disgusting happy dance: It's revolting to everyone else. CIR polls well nationwide, even in Virginia's 7th Congressional District. Dave Brat may have capitalized on the 21st Century Know Nothings' unbridled xenophobia in the primary, but his hard line against CIR may hurt him in November.

Rep. Joe Heck should take note of this. Emulating Dave Brat may win him more hard core G-O-TEA fans, but it will lose him general election votes. There truly are consequences to drinking too much of that troublesome "TEA".

Upset

Ah, so now it makes sense. Nice to see that cleared up...

Actually, not really. Actually, this is pretty scary. No, scratch that. This is awfully scary.

Last Wednesday, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) flip-flopped (again) on comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). After a year of him refuting the 21st Century Know Nothings on CIR, he parrot ed their talking points. And even worse, his staff called the police on CIR advocates.

Now we understand why this happened. For the past week, we were scratching our heads. Even though Rep. Joe Heck never actually voted for CIR, he had seemed to play nice with activists... Until last week.

Like Heck, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) never actually voted for CIR. He just occasionally hinted that he may one day allow some bits & pieces of it. And that was still too much for the G-O-TEA base in his district.



By the time Rep. Eric Cantor's supporters lashed out at CIR advocates, it was too late. Eric Cantor just lost his own primary. It wasn't even close. He barely scored over 44% in his district.

Dave Brat was not supposed to win last night. Republicans were not supposed to deliver this message on immigration reform. This simply wasn't supposed to be the big headline news today.

But now, it is. Dave Brat is "hot". Eric Cantor is not. And the "TEA Party" is far from over.

Today, Republican establishment "leaders" were planning to celebrate "victory" in Nevada and elsewhere. That's not happening. A little upset in Virginia just upset that narrative. That's because it reminds us of that inconvenient truth about "the establishment" becoming more "TEA Party" in order to survive. And if any "establishment" figures even stray a millimeter too far from the "TEA Party" line, they'll be the ones upset come Election Night.

So now, it makes sense. Still, one thing confuses us: How did Rep. Joe Heck oobtain accurate VA-07 poll numbers that Rep. Eric Cantor himself couldn't? Well, at least someone could smell this upset from a few thousand miles away.