Mrs. Ginni T, from The Drunk Caller to The Daily Caller.

A remarkable theme echoing through much of the political press Thursday morning is the realization that Tea Party candidates who are running for office as Republicans are hurting the party’s chances in a year that otherwise has been predicted to be a huge Republican landslide. The Washington Post headlines its story on the topic “Tea party antics could end up burning Republicans“, while Reuters declares “Tea Party-backed Republicans spur party switches“. The Guardian brings out the best headline and best line, however, with the headline “The GOP’s coming Tea Party hangover” and the line “Tea is the Republican party’s cocaine: thrilling for a moment, but ruinous over time.” Tea Party candidates have won nominations in Republican primaries by channeling unfocused rage, but as that rage now erupts into a combination of genuine violence and a complete inability to articulate a platform (as demonstrated by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in this video, where she can’t even deliver an opening statement in a debate), even Republicans are moving away from “the crazy” and looking for candidates who are interested in good government rather than good theater.

Once upon a time, there really was a “tea party movement” that was an independent grass-roots entity. But the GOP co-opted the movement before it could catch fire nationwide, and stripped out the independent parts of it while boosting the socially conservative portions and other parts more congenial to the GOP’s own base. But this didn’t exactly work out as planned.