I have a really dumb question to ask of anyone that might know the answer. Why on earth are the Republicans allowing Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and possibly Sarah Palin to run for the United States Congress or presidency when they admit to being members of the Tea Party and support Tea Party policies more so than the Republican policies?
Michele's designated herself the leader of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, so why is she using the Republican Party to get elected? Is she afraid she wouldn't have a chance in high water of winning as a Tea Party member?
Isn't that like having a Democratic Party member that supports the Republican Party 99% of the time run on the Democratic Party ticket for President? Come to think about it, Sen. Joe Lieberman was doing that for a very long time till Democrats finally eliminated him from the Party.
Thanks to the media and the stupidity of both Parties, we now have a three party system (Liberal/progressive(Dems), moderate conservatives(Repubs) and extreme conservative/libertarians(Tea). If Rep. Bachmann supports the Tea Party, she should be forced to run on their ticket. The same applies to Sarah Palin or any other candidate.
They are using the Republican Party to get elected (I assume because they are better known and have a better voter base than the Tea Party). If the Republican Party leadership played their cards right, they'd tell these Tea folks to shove off instead of treating them like another Ross Perot (temporary candidate to help stir up the base).