Tea party candidates vow to make a difference in Senate

[onehandle]

Source: USA Today

They defined the election. Now, they hope to redefine the Senate. Relying on an anti-Washington message of limited government and less spending, a growing number of tea party candidates are pulling even with their Democratic rivals or are frontrunners in some of the nation's most closely watched Senate races of this year's midterm election.

With less than two weeks to go before voters decide which party will control Congress and the fate of President Obama's agenda, conservative Republicans in Kentucky, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Wisconsin and West Virginia are poised to be a part of the largest class of incoming GOP senators since the 1994 "Republican Revolution." That year, voters elected 11 new Senate Republicans.

Even if Republicans don't win the 10 seats they need to recapture the Senate majority, the upstart tea party candidates say their presence will be felt. "The base has revolted and sent a clear message to the Republican Party," Ken Buck, who won Colorado's GOP Senate nomination with tea party help, told USA TODAY. "The freshman class will challenge the status quo in the Republican conference."

Most of the candidates, including Kentucky's GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, talk about repealing or scaling back the new health care law. Others, such as Alaska's Republican nominee Joe Miller, oppose spending on pet projects directed by lawmakers, or earmarks. All vow to tackle the nation's growing budget deficit, pegged at $1.3 trillion this year. Democrats have tried to cast them as extreme — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calls his GOP opponent, Sharron Angle, "dangerous" — but South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative who has endorsed many of the candidates, says that approach won't sway voters.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_sreport/tea-party-candidates-vow-to-make-a-difference-in-senate

---

Where is the 'Democrats try to save us from more lunatics in the Senate' headline?

[saltpoint]

1. The fewer Baggers there are in the Senate, the better the

Senate will be.

[Tippy]

2. DeMint said what?.....K&R

[karynnj]

7. DeMint is the one not looking at the facts

Obviously the Democrats have had some significant success in letting people see that some of the Republican nominees are really extreme and not merely representatives of an ideology that Democrats reject.

If that were not the case, the Republicans likely would be easily winning at least DE, NV, PA, AK, and WV. (The swing in WV against the popular governor likely would have continue if he were a generic normal Republican. That there is even a race in KY, where McConnell won pretty easily in 2008, when the Democrats were surging, would not have happened if they would have elected the mainstream Republican.

DeMint is exactly the wrong person to take as almost an impartial expert here. He is the leading Senate figure backing the tea party. He will be either the hero (if all these lunatics are elected) or the goat (if so many lose because the country finally thinks they are insane). If they fail to make the most of the worst economy in decades, he will be blame within the party. Either way, there is likely to be a fight between him and his tea party people and the remaining sane Republicans.

[chelsea0011]

3. They will change nothing, because nothing will get done.

And do they think Obama won't veto any overturns? So where are the votes to override a veto? Some new reps. may get a step in the door come November, but come 2012 they will get a boot out the door, long with Scott Brown, my senator from Mass.

[Tippy]

5. Give Brown a kick in to ass from this Tennessean......

He sure has it comming, I just couldn't that nude picture of him didn't do him in.....

[Ticonderoga]

9. But But

He drives a big 'ol truck.

[Tippy]

10. He is an ass hole no matter what he drives....LOL

[Bitwit1234]

4. So we have a majority of Democrats and will continue to have a majority

and if a couple of tea bags win...THEY WILL CONTROL what is going on. THEY will overturn the Health Care Bill, THEY will overturn they Wall street and financial bill. I don't know but I tell you one thing, if 2 or 3 senators just because they are tea bags can control the whole damn senate then our congress is sunk. They are a bunch of loud mouth pri**s and that's the only word or them.

[shraby]

6. They won't overturn anything. The president has the veto.

[ladjf]

8. Yes, they would make the Senate worse than it already is. nt

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.