Tea Party Hasn’t Lost Clout Despite Losses

The Wall Street Journal notes the “disconnect between tea-party election losses and the movement’s continued power in Washington underscores deep divisions inside the GOP that show no sign of abating after a busy spring in which so-called establishment candidates won far more intraparty contests than they lost.”

“The GOP leadership, for example, benefited from millions of dollars in campaign spending by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to promote leadership-backed candidates in nearly a dozen primaries, part of a broad effort to stem tea party momentum. And yet three of the Chamber’s top legislative priorities–an overhaul of immigration law, a replenished Highway Trust Fund and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank–are in jeopardy because of conservative resistance in Congress.”