So long, TEA Party, we hardly knew ye

The 2010 mid-term congressional elections may prove to be the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party's watershed moment.

The ouster of Baltimore's Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi as speaker of the House two years ago may, in fact, be the one defining accomplishment of the Tea Party. Good work.

Two years ago, the conservative Tea Party movement – mostly a grass-roots effort – helped break the stranglehold that the Democrat Party had on the House, Senate and presidency.

With the help of the conservative movement, the Republican Party gained control of the House of Representatives, thus ousting the liberal daughter of an equally liberal Baltimore city boss, and paving the way for Ohio's John Boehner to become House speaker.

That was the good news.

But that was two years ago.

Today's 2012 Tea Party had fewer victories than the Cincinnati Bengals in October. (OK, that's not mathematically possible, but you get the general idea.)

On both the national and local levels, the party seemed content to support the status quo. They were the Republican Party's little brother, all too content to yell at the playground bully: "My big brother can beat up your big brother."

No, he can't.

It's not all the fault of the Tea Party, to be sure. Once the party made an impact in the 2010 congressional midterms, the mainstream media began to take them a little more seriously. Paybacks are hell, after all.

Perhaps the party's defining downfall came this past summer, after the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre.

The killer had a rather common given name and a rather common surname. (We'll not give the sick SOB the satisfaction of publishing his name.)

However, a once somewhat credible national news reporter named Brian Ross was all too quick to announce that the city of Aurora, Colo. had a Tea Party member with the same name as the murderer.

That's like saying the Rev. Jim Jones' "Kool Aid" was served by every Jim Jones in Jonestown in 1978. (OK, maybe that's not right, either; but you get the general idea.)

ABC's Brian Ross – a talking head who can read a teleprompter almost as well as our president – announced that the movie theater gunman's name was listed on a Tea Party website as a new member.

The names were the same. The identities were not.

Ross did retract his inaccuracies, but the damage was done. For those who heard the initial report but not the correction, the Tea Party suffered irreparable harm.

As National Review wrote in its Aug. 13, 2012 edition: "The cows are sick – (quick), find a witch. Or, if you work in the mainstream media, a Tea Party will do."

Indeed.

On the local level, the Highland County Tea Party mostly (totally?) backed losers on election day.

The only Tea Party endorsements I can recall were those of Mitt Romney for president and Josh Mandel for senator. In baseball parlance, that's 0 for 2. Next up.

Not only were these endorsements predictable, they were also meaningless. Good Lord, were they even considering endorsing Barack Obama or Sherrod Brown? Of course not.

If the Tea Party – at any level – wants to find any measure of credibility, it's going to have to endorse non-Republican candidates. Make a real statement, for once.

Conservatives, if they continue to listen to the "family values" talking points of people like Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and some other "nasty" loudmouth whose name I can't recall, who have at least 11 wives (or ex-wives) among them, well, it's going to be a long, hard road toward political relevance.

Consider: On Nov. 6, Ohio's maverick Democrat candidate for the Supreme Court, William O'Neill, defeated incumbent Justice Robert Cupp, a Republican, by a 52-48 percent margin.

Personally, I voted for Justice Cupp.

However, after O'Neill – a registered nurse, by the way – won, I had to smile.

Mr. O'Neill ran a very independent campaign, not seeking party endorsements or political cash.

His own party did not endorse him in the primary. (That reminded me of an old friend with the same first name, whose weekly office visits I will always miss.)

The Tea Party ought to abandon political party affiliations and seek out those independent candidates who just might make a difference. Otherwise, they'll be no more relevant than a warm spit in the ocean on spring break.

It's time to stop listening to your partisan talking heads and make a few honest, nonpartisan statements. If you don't, you'll simply fade away as old soldiers do.

The difference is: We will remember and bless the old soldiers.

Will anyone remember the Tea Party?

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.