From THE HUFFINGTON POST:
A newly-launched Tea Party caucus in the U.S. Senate will hold its first meeting on January 27, Roll Call reports.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who announced the creation of the political affinity group last week, first spoke of the idea during the 2010 midterm campaign. Shortly after floating the concept, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) took it upon herself to introduce the idea into the U.S. House of Representatives.
Roll Call reports that Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) will be members of the new caucus in the upper congressional chamber.
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On the heels of winning Kentucky’s 2010 U.S. Senate race, Paul said that if a Tea Party caucus were to materialize, he would extend an invitation to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to join. It remains to be seen, however, whether the Republican leader — whom Paul maintains a complicated relationship with — will ultimately embrace the group.
Yes, kids, I know we covered this yesterday, but there’s a new development. From THE HILL:
Conservatives believe Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) used a weekend trip to woo star GOP freshmen away from the Tea Party.
McConnell took Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on a high-powered weekend trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan that is being seen as a ploy by the leader to secure allies for forthcoming legislative battles.
The visit gave the freshmen firsthand access to world leaders and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, as well as plenty of quality time with their party leader in the Senate.
The list of invitees immediately raised eyebrows because Rubio, Toomey, Johnson and Ayotte are seen as occupying the middle ground between the leadership and the Tea Party caucus, who are expected to battle over the direction of the Republican Conference in the 112th Congress.
…snip…
Two other conservative freshman senators with close ties to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — were not on the trip, some conservatives noted.
…snip…
Two other conservative freshman senators with close ties to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — were not on the trip, some conservatives noted.
…snip…
Some Republican aides think McConnell is trying to bring Rubio, Toomey, Johnson and Ayotte into his sphere of influence.
All four are potential recruits to the Tea Party caucus. Other freshmen, such as Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), are considered less likely to side with DeMint, Paul and Lee in battles with the GOP leadership over spending, earmarks and other issues.
…snip…
Former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) predicted last year that McConnell would have to move quickly to build ties with conservative freshman senators.
“We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples,” Lott told The Washington Post in an interview. “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”
Tip of the hat 
to the handsome and brilliant Neon Vincent whose comment yesterday inspired today’s poster. (Make note of the sunflower in my gun. That’s my way of embracing the new civility, even though the gun is and always has been a water gun.)
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Oh, wow, I’m honored to have inspired you.
notice that i carefully worded the hat tip so i could use the word inspired? guess who inspired that? 😉
Inspired herself is touched.
BTW, you should check out my latest diary on the Big Orange. It’s about a catfight between Joan Rivers and Sarah Palin. Break out the popcorn–and Photoshop, too!
that’s where i was! 😆 you’re on my hotlist, so i always know when you have a diary up.
Yay for your flower! My gesture will be on February 11th. I’m abstaining from celebrating the very special 5 year anniversary of Dick Cheney shooting a 78 year old man in the face. 😦 (I love that story).
Alice and Wonderland never gets old. 😀
we princesses are all about sweetness and civility. 🙂 (we need a batting eyelashes emoticon)
😆
such a princessy giggle.
Wait, I thought the old guy wound up apologizing for getting his face in the way of Deadeye’s gun?
Yertle is schlepping them around South Asia and Lotty is speaking of coopting. Who really believes DeMented is going to let AynRand be the hall monitor for their caucus since he has seniority?
This could develop into a full fledged Senate Rethuglican food fight. I think I’ll go put some popcorn on.
i said over at the big orange that it’s ironic how much the rethugs love the civil war, because they’re about to have one. i think yertle will win this round, and we’ll have to wait to see how organized the teabaggers are in 2012 to see if they’re strong enough to get their revenge and beat yertle and those siding with him in primaries.
The problem with their love of the civil war is that they all want to be on the Confederate side.
a confederacy of dunces.
What a strange twist…. a field trip to a war zone, to be wooed by McConnell?
Sounds like a nightmare to me.
But speaking of the tea party–
A town hall meeting in Arizona.
One of the victims who was shot attended the meeting & brought up the topic of gun control.
A tea party the politician danced around it saying *now is not the time* & the gentleman who had recently been shot said * you’re dead*….
UPDATE:
(Reuters) – A victim wounded in the January 8 shooting spree in Arizona was ordered by a judge on Tuesday to keep his distance from a local Tea Party leader he was accused of threatening over the weekend.
The protective order obtained by Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries against James Eric Fuller stems from a confrontation between the two men during Saturday’s taping of a town hall edition of the ABC News program “This Week.”
Sheriff’s department spokesman Jason Ogan said on Tuesday afternoon it was unclear when Fuller’s 72-hour holding period would officially lapse or whether he had yet been released.
Ogan said criminal charges accusing Fuller of threats, intimidation and disorderly conduct would be presented this week to the county attorney’s office, which will decide whether to prosecute the case.
Humphries said he felt ambivalent about the situation.
“Based on the lessons that we have just learned about past law enforcement contacts with Jared Loughner and how he was never ‘flagged’ because no legal complaints were ever filed, I do believe that care should be taken before dismissing all charges against Mr. Fuller,” Humphries wrote in an email on Sunday night.
So did you catch that??
the tea party guy has a restraining order against the victim who was shot & thinking about filing official legal complaints!
The tea party (pry mah gun out of mah cold dead hands mentality)….
all about *freedom* & *less government* pitches a royal fit about his safety– BECAUSE someone issued a verbal shooting remark– does not want to talk about gun control but calls the cops & government officials to protect him???
Sorry to be a bit off topic, but we are talkin’ tea party & Mad hatters right?
if you pick mitch mcconnell instead of little randy or jim demented, you get a trip to a war zone. it’s the rethuglican’s version of the dating game.
not only does the i-♥-guns teabagger get all scared when someone threatened him, he called the socialist police and justice system to protect him.
on the tape, it looked like he might have peed in his pants, too.
he was found sitting in his tea pee? 😆
If I hear “job killing” or “America has spoken” one more time, I’m going to scream! (maybe better lay of Cspan a while). At least the infighting has started (oh goody!).The yertle trip is just what they do to keep a distance to avoid influence. For instance, Karl Marx moved the commie headquarters to the USA twice because he wasn’t getting his way with the IWA. And disappointment is never far behind any big movement. Look at what happened in 1933-34 when the NSDAP devout found out that the word “socialist” was a ruse and the big boys had no intention of breaking up the big Prussian estates of the Junkers. All that fervor and work to end up dying from lead poisoning, all at the same time. Maybe when the gopers do it the can call it “The Night of the Long Green”. And would somebody please tell the Bachpuss that you can’t repeal the president, nor can you repeal the senate. What was she not thinking?!?
what makes me really want to vomit is when they completely ignore every single poll and blabber about how the only poll that really matters is the one that happened in november. remember what every campaign speech was about? jobs, jobs, jobs. however, now they insist that they all campaigned on repealing health care, and that’s what the public wants.
We’re in for the biggest Keystone Cops/Stooges comedy ever witnessed. I just love how they “softened” the “killing” term by switching it to “destroying.” Why didn’t they consult Palin? She’d have offered up something like “killoying” or “destruckilling.” Gawd. And now to find out that instead of getting real work done and solving real problems, the Repubs are going to spend the rest of their time on the Hill trying to defund parts of the Healthcare Bill. Will any of the misinformed, or even the sensible, folks who voted for Republicans find their behavior reprehensible? Is it possible?
folks who voted for republicans can’t find their asses with both hands and a map reader. also, “reprehensible”, is a long word……
and they vote for people who can’t find their own asses, but luckily for them, there are lobbyists to do that job for them.
True. So true. So not likely they’d be able to turn the pages in a dictionary, either.
Dictionary – hahahahahahahhahahahaahahahahahah! That’s a good one.
the rethugs may think they’re being really slick, but i think while they’re appeasing the teabaggers (because so many are scared shitless of being primaried), they’re alienating the independents. renaming the bill with another ridiculous name makes them look petty and stupid.
As always, love the work. BTW … (being an Ohioan and in Portman’s district), I just can’t see him joining the TP group. How about a wrestling/boxing poster with DeMint and McConnell?
i’m waiting for the civil war to really heat up. until then, i’ll be on the lookout for just the right poster for yertle and demented.
my next goal is to come up with names for all 47 teabagging senators on the american taxpayer dole
yertle, demented, we already have a start
yertle isn’t a teabagger, but he’s scared stiff of them. demented, little randy, and mike lee are certified teabaggers. though some of the others might have characteristics of teabaggers and some of them ran as teabaggers, i think that most of them will run as fast as they can from the teabagger label, at least until they have to run again in 6 years and might need them again (if they’re still around in any numbers).
i think they are all teabaggers at heart
i don’t think a lot of them have enough conviction about anything other than their own power and greed to be teabaggers. a lot of them make noise to make them sound like they love the teabaggers, but that’s about their own fear of losing their seats, not about a change in their thinking. the house is another story. there’s a lot of batshit crazy there.