Changing the rules of the game:

‘JT2’ 4:21 am  Belmont Club
“O’Donnell’s win enormously increases the influence of the Tea Party, starting tonight, over every Republican elected official in the country. They are all now on notice that if they go along with the Democrats, voting for more spending and a bigger government, then the Tea Party will not only come after them, but also that it can’t be stopped or bargained with, negotiated with or scared off by arguments about losing the seat to a Democrat in November. The Tea Party has now emerged as the Terminator for ‘big government’ Republicans.
We will see who plays a better game of ‘chicken’, but right now given the mood among voters this looks like it may turn out to be a spectacularly successful political strategy against the country’s ‘political class’, even though it’s an emergent phenomenon rather than something cooked up by a Karl Rove.
It’s also worth noting that an emergent, unorganized movement is extraordinarily difficult to target using Alinskyite tactics, which is why the left and the media keep trying to appoint a leader for the Tea Party, or attach to it any of their usual negative labels. If they could just pin it down they could go after it with their usual tool set, demonizing everybody supporting it through ‘guilt by association’, but so far every weapon they try against it just seems to convince another chunk of the electorate that the Tea Party candidate, even if a bit kooky, is way more likely to be the only one on the ballot who is on their side…”