Krauthammer's cynical view from inside the Beltway apparently doesn't include our awakened electorate. Recycled political activists is one thing Tea Partiers are not. The Tea Party movement is typically populated and led by average people who have never in their lives done anything more politically active than vote...occasionally. And we are actively and successfully recruiting younger people. We are in this for the long haul.

Old salts and newly elected should understand that an awakened electorate is watching like never before. Those who revert to 'business as usual" will quickly become targets and 2012 is just over the horizon.

The arrogance of this administration will be its downfall. It led to the trouncing on Tuesday and it followed it. Obama is the only one who refuses to CHANGE. The rest of the country appears to want to in a very bad way! There is where I have HOPE!!!! In the people!!

Do not underestimate the Tea Pary. I live in MA and was very disappointed with some of our elections here on Tuesday. And, I am very angry at our State Republican Party who did little to nothing to promote some of the excellent candidates we had. It appears to me that the only people with "juice" these days is the Tea Party. This republican will be attending her first Tea Party meeting this coming Wednesday evening. I hail from a large military family and I guess it is time for me to step up and participate in making a difference. I feel my party has no interest in me and they continue to ride the mantra of "what do you expect from a blue state". I expect you to get out and fight, especially when the battle was yours to win and you blew (not to be confused with blue)it!

Bravo Jeri! Time to take the Republican party back from those who can't distinguish between pragmatism and compromising principles!

I'm in agreement with RiverKing on this one. And Charles, with all due respect, the Republicans did receive a mandate of sorts: no more business as usual. If there is business as usual, then the Republicans should be tossed out on their noses, and I'll help do it. Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio said it best:

""We make a great mistake if we believe that ... these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party. What they are is a second chance, a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago." --Senator-elect Marco Rubio (R-FL) as noted on The Patriot Post

AMEN!!! RiverKing. I like Krauthammer's views as a rule but I also believe he is wrong on this one. This is not the typical cycle as he shall soon see.

I agree Jeri - I live in Western New York - part of the Socialist Republic of new york - I am disgusted that those who voted for health care were all re elected - as well as all the other wealth redistributing demoncrats in my area - we are not all liberal demoncrats here - we have tea party groups - we will keep fighting to stop the destruction of America.

Has anyone noticed what the Republicans have been doing since trouncing the Dems this past Tuesday? You'd think they'd be out on every street corner and soapbox shouting about how Americans had awakened in time to see the sham that Liberalism is. That Americans had finally got to see Liberalism in all it's "glory" ... had watched how it has taken us to record debt ... swallowed up our healthcare system ... taken more control from states ... had divided Class and race.

But no ... what were they doing? Attacking the Tea Party!!! That's right ... it was the Tea Party's fault that they had not won the Senate! If it had not been for O'Donnell, or for Angle ... or for Miller ... blah, blah, blah. Here we are at one of the great moments in Conservative history and we're shooting our own.

Good Grief ....

Krauthammer-- you need to get out of the office and walk around and talk to folks. This was not the normal recycle. I have been participating in elections since Goldwater/Johnson, and I ain't never seen spirit and anger and resolve like this. To hell with the Republican party. They haven't been toeing the line or following conservative policy for a long time. I am not kidding when I say that we were a few weeks away from an armed revolution, something I did not want, but as one of our founders said, the tree of liberty needs to be occasionally watered with blood. The Tea Party is not a bunch of stupid rednecks spitting tobacco. It is the base of what used to be the Republican party. Did you notice that despite some great independent and libertarian candidates, the Tea party stuck together to avoid another Bush Sr./Ross Perot/Bill Clinton type fiasco in the various house and senate races, as well as governors' races. I predict that if anybody wants to get elected in the next eight years, they had better get real cozy with the Tea Party. I am willing to write off California and Massachusetts forever. They can have each other. The Republican party is on life support right now, and the kill switch is in the hands of the Tea Party.

This is the first time that I can remember that we, the people, actually had a choice that was not between "bad" and "worse."

We, the people, are supposed to restrain the government, because it always wants to grow. Republican or Democrat.

It's sort of like intestinal bacteria. Necessary for life, but it cannot be allowed to run wild.

Govt as intestinal bacteria. That has to be the GREATEST and most appropriate analogy I have ever heard constructed. Bravo!

Viva Rubio! 2016 baby, mark my words...

As a resident of Illinois I am a frustrated member of the conservative libertarian wing of the republican party, a.k.a. the tea party. Look up the Illinois county map for governer and you'll see 99 red counties with four blue counties. This netted us a blue governer and a purple senator. The tea party needs to start focusing on informing the 99 remaining counties that the inner-city minority vote and the near-insurmountable urban machine politics CAN be overcome. This will require a significantly energized ground game in a lot of rural areas. Pining on blogs like this will do little to effect change at that level. Listen tea partiers, you need to take the battle to the country-class. Most are puzzled about the leadership they end up with. Do the math - 125 republican votes per red county would have given us a republican governer! Is that too difficult to accomplish? Can it be replicated in the other states with urban machine politics overruling the will of the conservative majority? YES IT CAN! (to borrow a concept)

I have an honest question for those of you who are impressed with Marco Rubio. I am hard pressed to understand why he is allowed to fly under the radar on this, but he, early on, expressed his displeasure with Arizona's SB-1070 calling it racist and, further, he opined that it was sure to result in overreaction on the part of law enforcement and, among other things, result in racial profiling. Such thinking gives me pause as it doesn't sound like the opinion of a thinking conservative, yet the Republican party seems enamored with Rubio's credentials. Does the acronym RINO ring a bell?

sorry, charles. Scott Brown didn't win in MA because of the "anti-Obamacare". See, here in MA, we already have a health care system that covers 97% of the commonwealth.

We just said NO to rolling our taxes back to 3% and we went bluer than blue. Yes, we have some rapid "tea partiers" here in MA - no doubt about it. But the majority of MA, including indies, are sane people. We like our higher standard of living for ALL, not just the chosen few.

Scott Brown is toast in 2012, despite the fact he would be considered a democrat in the southern states. He has been a major disappointment for MA citizens.

Never believe anything in politics

until it has been officailly denied.

---Otto von Bismark (1815-1898)

I take issue with Krauthammer's assertion that Bush lost because of "2006 Republican "thumpin'" (to quote George W. Bush) was largely a reflection of the disillusionment and near-despair of a wearying war that appeared to be lost." The 2006 and 2008 losses were due to an unrelenting assault on Everything that Bush said or did during the previous 6 years. I get frustrated when we hear our learned friends spouting nonsense about what happened in the first 6 years of George Bush's administration. He was constantly under fire by the Radical, Left-wing Liberal Lame-stream-media. I challenge anyone to withstand that kind of assault and survive with the exception of Ronald Reagan!

Wow, Mr Krauthammer, I respect your opinion a great deal but I am shocked that not even you can see what happened. We the People stood up and shouted at the pols. Apparently we need to do it to the pundits too. Come on and be part of the solution. Not an apologist part of the problem.

Michelle and the other denizens of the People's Republic of Massachusetts, like those of RI and CT, remain politically comotose.

She thinks prosperty is delivered by government through wealth redistribution. These three states, as well as CA, NY and others, are caught in the web set by the public employee unions and the antiquated notion that the Democrat Party is the party of the working man. Problem is, the government employees have gathered all the marbles and too many of the rest of the electorate have not cauht on yet (including the clueless Michelle). The unions operate with a huge war chest extracted from hardworking private sector employees who do not enjoy the generous salaries and benefits of their public sector brethren, but which they are nevertheless forced to subsidize. The voters in these states, unlike those in the heartland, will eventually catch on once they connect their states fiscal woes, and their own, to those unions and the Democrat Party. The Tea Party has just begun to fight, and look what we have accomplished already.

I got to thinking, in view of the election results: we should propose that the blue states form their own country, a seccession of blue from red states, with the people free to move to one or the other. Let the ones who want socialism try it on their own, and not impose it on the rest of us, and let us live our lives free from government control and benevolence. And then Michelle, and her ilk will see who the sane ones are. Ever since I came to this country I wanted that the ones preaching equality and redistribution be able to get a taste of their own medicine, but the real deal, not the elite life of the leaders...

Just Saying: This is a brilliant suggestion. This would be true poetic justice. Leftists should be forced to live with the consequences of their own stupidity. We can start by making sure that CT, RI, NY, CA and other blue states get NO bailouts. Let their public employee unions pay for their budget deficits.

As a witness to the cycles of governance the electorate has sent to Washington, Krauthammer might just be thoroughly delighted if the 'awakening' of this electorate turned out to be genuine. Human nature is a hard thing to 'swing' entirely to a new mindset, and the prevailing winds in D.C. have yet to be proven to contain the constant fragrance of liberty for which we hope. As many have already stated, the Republicans are back in the majority, but on probation. I sincerely trust that they will take to the capitol not the elation of political victory, but the sobriety of high responsibility coupled with a sensitive ear to those who sent them. If not, I'm not sure where our electorate will turn at their next opportunity.