"Sen. Rand Paul on Friday announced the launch of the Senate Tea Party Caucus"

[ProSense]

BOTH CHAMBERS GET A 'TEA PARTY CAUCUS'....

<...>

Late last week, the contingent got a Senate counterpart.

Sen. Rand Paul on Friday announced the launch of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, making good on an idea he floated during last year's campaign.

GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Lee (Utah) will join the Kentucky Republican as the first members of the caucus. <...>

The group's first meeting will be on Jan. 27. The Senate group mirrors the House Tea Party Caucus, which Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) announced she was forming last year.

It's worth noting for context that, while various issue-specific caucuses are quite common in the House, senators usually don't bother with factions like these. Indeed, they generally don't have to -- senators already wield enormous procedural power, and don't need to form caucuses to wield influence.

But DeMint, Paul, and Lee launched this endeavor anyway, and given the ideological bent of many Senate Republicans, it seems likely they won't be the only three members.

The larger point to keep in mind, though, is that line between of distinction between the so-called Tea Party "movement" and the Republican Party and its activist base has effectively disappeared. They're one in the same, and pretending otherwise seems pointless.

Dana Milbank had a good piece several months ago at the launch of the House Tea Party Caucus, explaining, "There and then -- on the Capitol grounds 104 days before the midterm elections -- Tea Party activists and Republican officeholders set aside any pretense about the two groups being separate. They essentially consummated a merger: The activists allowed themselves to be co-opted by a political party, and the Republican leaders allowed themselves to become the faces of the movement."

With the group now having a Senate counterpart, the process appears to be complete.

They're nuts, but at least they're focused.

[Lint Head]

1. Insanity piled onto insanity. Congress is now the elected looney bin.

[DBoon]

2. "allowed themselve to be co-opted"?

I think that was the intent all along

[ProSense]

3. They're one in the same

and focused (this is not to say they're altogether coherent or cohesive).

When Feingold loses and Rand Paul, a teabagger, starts calling the shots among Senate Republicans, it's time to acknowledge that the progressive movement is losing ground.

It's clear that Republicans have no problem with this, but what's not clear is how to countering the rising lunacy.

[nxylas]

4. Is there a membership list?

Or can we pretty much include every Republican congresscritter, since I doubt any GOOPer would have the stones *not* to join?

[vaberella]

5. That's true...you don't hear a "Progressive" caucus in Congress. n/t

[JohnnyLib2]

6. As a Kentuckian, I hope it separates him from McConnell a bit.

Votes count; fractures on that side of the aisle could, too.

Also, defeating one of these men could have a big impact along the way.

How's that for wishful thinking?