Bad taste left by Tea Party
WHILE the age-old war between Republicans and Democrats wages over the US debt crisis, conservative splinter group the Tea Party has threatened to bring the talks crashing down altogether.
Tea Party cheerleader Michele Bachmann, an early front-runner in the race to oust Barack Obama, has shot to prominence with her persistent condemnation of the President and his handling of the crisis.
Leader of sub-group Tea Party365, David Webb, has also grown his public image with his criticism of the Obama administration and firebrand racial rhetoric.
The group’s refusal to budge on calls for extreme austerity has made the already tortuous negotiation process almost impossible.
A potential compromise prepared by Republican speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner was blocked by the Tea Party, sparking panic when the possibility of default became incrementally more real.
As the clock continues to tick, both sides of the political divide have become increasingly belligerent with the group of fringe Republicans.
Former Presidential candidate John McCain branded them “Tea Party Hobbits,” who believe they can “return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.”
Martin Frost, a former Democratic congressman, went further, likening them to the Taliban, “intent on risking destroying what American political leaders have constructed in more than two centuries of hard, often painful work.”