Now that the tea-partiers have used default successfully as a political weapon, it will surely be used again.
Clearly the tea-partiers who would not party with Mr Mosler during his Senate bid will have none of this.
But if it is dangerous for Republicans to antagonise the tea-partiers, is it also dangerous to flirt with them?
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The tea-partiers are unlikely to back down, however, after such a big win.
Like the Occupy Wall Street crowd, the tea-partiers did not have much by way of detailed policy when they started.
Therefore, opponents argue, allowing people to sport these plates is tantamount to allowing the tea-partiers to advertise on state property.
But the tea-partiers seem to have got it into their heads that the treaty is a bad one, and Republicans are stalling.
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But it can mobilise big numbers: tens of thousands of supporters (tea-partiers claim a million or so) rallied in Washington, DC, last September.
And in the New York governor's race Carl Paladino, a political novice backed by tea-partiers, trounced Rick Lazio by two-to-one in the Republican primary.
Nor did Jefferson write a mission statement for the tea- partiers.
Important as those skills are to party insiders, however, to voters they could be a liability, particularly if tea-partiers play as big a role in the 2012 cycle as they did in 2010.
With his eye on the general election, Romney wasn't so much buying the new Republican base -- the ultraconservative, once-and-future tea partiers -- as he was bribing them.
Congress got itself in this mess because a few dozen self-styled tea partiers have refused since last summer to help build a consensus agreement on either short-term stimulus or deficit reduction.
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The most vocal opponents of Obama and the Democrats have been the so-called Tea Partiers.
Beware, those of you who mock sign-waving Tea Partiers over glasses of chardonnay at wine and cheese parties.
If he asks for a debt limit increase as one of his first acts in office, already-skeptical tea partiers would abandon him in droves.
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Clearly, there are a wealth of political issues at play here assertive unions, flamboyant Tea Partiers, cross-cutting state and city legislators. (The Republican Governor will outline his vision for the referendum this morning.) But a real challenge for the transit plan, one that spans 10 counties, is its very intentional regionalism.
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