Tea Party could be key voting bloc in Senate

[onehandle]

Washington (CNN) -- The old proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is one way to describe the 2010 election -- especially when explaining the complicated alliance between Tea Party activists and the Republican establishment.

These two former enemies -- remember the contentious and divisive primary season -- are now united in the common goal of trying to defeat Democrats on November 2. Look ahead to the next day, and there is a good chance the alliance will begin to show cracks should Tea Party candidates score big wins -- especially those running for Senate.

As many as eight Tea Party candidates could be coming to Washington in January: Sharron Angle of Nevada, Ken Buck of Colorado, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Joe Miller of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Marco Rubio of Florida. All of these candidates, with the exception of Johnson, defied the wishes of the GOP establishment and beat Washington-backed candidates in the primary or, in the case of Lee and Miller, defeated incumbent Republican senators.

These eight newly minted senators would likely line up behind Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who opposed his GOP colleagues and helped long-shot conservatives win their primary contests. These new lawmakers would immediately become an influential voting bloc with other GOP senators aligning themselves with this group. Republican leaders would have to juggle the demands of a more conservative GOP conference while facing the reality that to pass legislation in the Senate, compromise is a necessity.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/10/19/preston.on.politics/index.html

[brooklynite]

1. The question is, will a Tea Party caucus FINALLY scare some Moderate Republicans away?

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins will NEVER be able to act conservative enough to avoid Tea Party primary challenges. They'd do much better coming over to the Democratic side, or at least trying to rally the sane remnants of the Republican party.

[Gman]

2. Rubio seems to be the only likely winner

All the others except for Paul are neck and neck or behind. I don't know where Paul stands currently. I think it's a real big "if" at this point. I don't expect more than maybe 3 of these to win, if that many. Then again, I just got a new pair of rose colored glasses.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Tea Party candidates are all Republican nomineees.

They are Republicans. They might get one out of that list, Rubio, and to do that they need many Democrats willing to vote for the other Republican,Crist. Where Democrats actually vote for Democrats, this so called Tea Party will fail.