ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Will the Republicans follow past precedence in nominating a presidential candidate for the 2012 elections or finally try something new? So far, all indications are they will continue to follow the same failed political strategy as in the past and nominate the candidate who has either paid his dues to the party or is the one who will pull the most Democratic votes in the election. Right now this candidate seems to be Mitt Romney, and they would once again set the party up for failure.

George Will, Pittsburgh TR
The tea party, the most welcome political development since the Goldwater insurgency in 1964, lacks only the patience necessary when America lacks the consensus required to propel fundamental change through our constitutional system of checks and balances. If Washington's trajectory could be turned as quickly as tea partyers wish, their movement would not be as necessary as it is. Fortunately, not much patience is required.The Goldwater impulse took 16 years to reach fruition in the election of Ronald Reagan. The tea party can succeed in 16 months by helping elect a president who...

The 51-46 Senate vote against the tea party-backed measure — which had been expected in the Democratic-run chamber — came shortly after House Speaker John Boehner told reporters he and President Obama had not reached a separate agreement to resolve the debt crisis.

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The Week - Tea Party firebrand Michele Bachmann is soaring in the polls — alarming the GOP establishment, and greatly aiding the president's campaign

David Corn, Mother Jones
It seems as if Quentin Tarantino has scripted Washington's debt-ceiling showdown. Most of his movies include an imaginative version of the ever-classic Mexican standoff. (See Reservoir Dogs.) And the current drama in the nation's capital is playing out like a Tarantino flick.The House, controlled by Republicans who in turn are controlled by tea party ideologues, is aiming a metaphorical gun at the president. The House Republicans are refusing to raise the debt ceiling (which could trigger a major economic setback) unless Obama agrees to trillions of dollars in government...

AP - Meet Washington's new odd couple: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fiery chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Tea Party hero and political newcomer Rep. Allen West.

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
The first few times I heard House Republicans talk about our budget mess, I worried that they had plunged off the deep end. But as I kept on listening, a buzzer went off in my mind, and I came to understand how much sense the Tea Party caucus makes.Why would we impose “job-crushing taxes” on wealthy Americans just to pay for luxuries like federal prisons? Why end the “carried interest” tax loophole for financiers, just to pay for unemployment benefits — especially when those same selfless tycoons are buying yachts and thus creating jobs...

E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- Media reports are touting the Senate's Gang of Six and its new budget outline. But the news that explains why the nation is caught in this debt-ceiling fiasco is the gang warfare inside the Republican Party. We are witnessing the disintegration of tea party Republicanism. The tea party's followers have endangered the nation's credit rating and the GOP by pushing both House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor away from their own best instincts.Cantor worked amiably with the negotiating group organized by Vice President Joe Biden and won praise for...

Joe Conason - As America lurches toward new and unfamiliar status as a nation that defaults on its debts, commentators around the world are wondering how the democratic government that was once the most admired in the world — for many reasons — is now so "dysfunctional," to use the polite term.

Reuters - Six Republican White House hopefuls unleashed a torrent of 140-character policy pronouncements on jobs, government debt and the Tea Party on Wednesday during the first presidential debate on Twitter.

Politico - Several Senate freshmen want more details, but the left the door open to the Gang of Six proposal.

AP - Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a conservative who helped found the House Tea Party Caucus, announced Wednesday that he will set up a campaign committee to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Michigan held by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

The Ticket - The debate over the nation's debt crisis turned ugly late Tuesday when GOP Rep. Allan West unleashed an email tirade on a Florida colleague after she trashed his support for a GOP budget bill on the House floor. In an email promptly leaked to the press, West, a first-term tea party favorite from South Florida, [...]

AP - In spite of his thundering speeches against big government, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a troubled relationship with the tea party, a rift increasingly obvious as he gets closer to a presidential bid.

AP - The House has passed legislation conditioning a $2.4 trillion increase in the nation's borrowing cap on a tea party-backed plan to require immediate spending cuts and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

AP - Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a conservative who helped found the found the House Tea Party Caucus, plans to run for the Senate seat from Michigan held by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, The Associated Press has learned.

AP - In spite of his thundering speeches against big government, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a troubled relationship with the tea party, a rift increasingly obvious as he gets closer to a presidential bid.

The Ticket - The outcome of the battle over the debt ceiling will be an early indicator of whether the tea party remains relevant, South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint said Tuesday, adding that he felt the movement was losing "focus." At a luncheon at the conservative Heritage Foundation, the Senate Tea Party Caucus co-founder told a group [...]

CONCORD, N.H. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is facing intensifying attacks from the tea party movement.

Perry was an early tea party supporter, but some conservative activists have turned sour as he moves closer to launching a presidential campaign. They're particularly upset with his position on immigration, but also criticize his record on public health, spending and his former affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Tea party groups in Texas have shared criticism with the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition, which now dedicates a section of its website to attacking Perry. The Granite State group also sent emails to supporters warning there's more to Perry than meets the eye.

Perry strategist David Carney concedes that activists in early voting states will be skeptical until they get to know the governor.

The House of Representatives takes up the "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill Tuesday. The Tea Party Caucus strongly favors the effort to cap federal spending at 18 percent of the GDP — a rate not seen since 1966 — and the plan to pass a balanced-budget amendment. But the bill stands almost no chance in the Senate and faces a veto threat from the White House.

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The Week - With White House negotiations on hiatus, Republicans in Congress are pushing their own plan to raise the debt ceiling: "Cut, Cap, and Balance." Under the plan, which is moving directly from the conservative Republican Study Committee to the House floor, the debt ceiling could be raised only if both houses of Congress agree to $5.8 trillion in unspecified cuts over 10 years. The plan also pushes for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution that would limit spending in a way that would make it all but impossible to raise taxes. President Obama said he will veto the bill in the unlikely event it passes the House and Senate. Where does that leave us? Here, four predictions:

Reuters - Senator Mitch McConnell's plan to avert an imminent debt default could lead to a day of reckoning for his Republicans as they weigh the prospect of fiscal disaster against the demands of Tea Party activists.

Reuters - Senator Mitch McConnell's plan to avert an imminent debt default could lead to a day of reckoning for his Republicans as they weigh the prospect of fiscal disaster against the demands of Tea Party activists.

Reuters - Senator Mitch McConnell's plan to avert an imminent debt default could lead to a day of reckoning for his Republicans as they weigh the prospect of fiscal disaster against the demands of Tea Party activists.