Do you want to see tea party principles in action?
Candidate Rand Paul "pledged not to accept contributions from any senator who voted for a federal bailout of the banking industry." So of course, shortly after winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, Paul jetted off to Washington to attend a $1000 a-plate fundraiser hosted by Sen. Mitch McConnell and other Senators who ... you guessed it ... all voted for the bank bailout.
The tea party nation is outraged, right?
David Roos, a retired minister in Murray who has been active in the Tea Party movement, said it didn't escape notice in his circle that Paul had, as he put it, "capitulated to the establishment ... But Roos said the incident isn't enough to drive conservative voters away from Paul ...
Others ... argued that Paul has not turned his back on his principles, but rather is doing what is necessary to win so he can put those principles to work in office ...
"That doesn't mean that once you get into the game, you can't try to change the system for the better," Witten said. "He's just playing the very few parts of the game that he has to to get in ..."
If Paul thought he could win without McConnell's fund-raising, he probably would, but he will need that help against Conway, who is wealthy enough to give his campaign a big financial boost, Witten said ...
In other words, inside Washington, politics as usual doesn't bother the tea party nation ... and why should it? After all, they're just Republicans masquerading as tea bags.