The Tea Party is Back

Heritage  "Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago last night, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped an estimated £10,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This Boston Tea Party, which John Adams described as the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened,” was not just a protest about taxation. Our forefathers did not destroy tea because of a simple tax dispute. The 1773 Tea Party were protesting the process by which the British government taxed them. They were fundamentally rejecting the way the British were governing them.
Last night, the spirit of the Tea Party won another major victory when ...Harry Reid ... was forced to drop his $1.27 trillion, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill. The problem with Reid’s omnibus spending bill was not just its size—although our federal government does spend far too much of other people’s money—but the way it was drafted and forced on the American people.

McConnell throws Reid under the Omnibus  "Michael Geer points out that with the omnibus bill pulled, the odious Food Safety Bill -- essentially a massive federal power grab -- also dies (at least for now). The next Congress will surely see similar legislation introduced, so we must continue to inform the public of the danger of putting unelected bureaucrats in the position of regulating the smallest details of food production."

How Republicans defeated a $1.1 trillion bill  "In the ensuing clamor to leave the chamber after a long-day’s work, senior Republicans hailed Reid’s shift as a capitulation — a move not only right, but necessary in this political climate."....
"Democrats looking for a silver lining may take comfort in the fact that the bill’s failure opens up time on the Senate calendar for deliberation on the DREAM Act, an immigration cause célèbre on the left, and repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy on homosexuality. Reid said he intends to pursue weekend votes on both items."

Pork pulled, tax cuts passed, fiscal hawks ascendant.  "The swelling revolt among Democrats throughout this town will continue to propagate and grow. It will be fascinating to see how the political year unfolds. Will the wild wing of the party seek a primary challenger to Obama? Will a number of Democrats switch parties and join the Republicans as is rumored? Will vulnerable Senate Democrats cut new deals with the Republicans? And what will be the relationship between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House when she is in the minority and out of power and Obama still is with his Mandarins in the Oval Office? Pelosi’s relationship is said to be frigid at best with Obama. How she reacts will be entertaining."