Last week, I surveyed the damage done to the Republican brand by the recent shutdown. Some faulted “the Tea Party” for the wreckage, though, as I noted earlier, not one Republican of any stripe was willing to put his or her name on the line to end it. So, in truth, the GOP as a whole owns it.
Nonetheless, it’s worth exploring Tea Party voters in a bit more detail. Just who are they? How many of them are there? Are they a new and different kind of Republican? CONT.
Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill