Tea With How Many Lumps?

They're all in. Every Republican candidate for president is now firmly aligned with the Tea Party according to this article form the AP:  

GOP candidates in SC vow to carry tea-party banner.

Even Mitt Romney, the last, best hope for a reasonable Republican, has joined the right wing fray, meriting his own Reuters write-up,  Romney jobs plan to cut taxes, get tough on China

 Mitt said that he would take on China and its bullying trade policies by creating something called a "Reagan Economic Zone," a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade, that could serve as a mechanism for confronting nations that violate trade rules. He said he would use the zone against China. I imagine that Mitt would try to protect the ketchup and relish industries against Chinese encroachment (remember that Reagan tried to classify both as vegetables for school lunch programs). Other details were fuzzy.

It was bound to happen. The Tea Party's vice grip on the Republican nominating process was a foregone conclusion. We can now look forward to hearing about how every law passed by the Democrats was unconstitutional and that the economy will recover if we just cut taxes for corporations and keep them cut for wealthy individuals. 

All of the Republicans would repeal the health care law, but don't say how millions of jobless and poor people would be covered by insurance, other than to give them a $3,000 voucher to cover $11,000 insurance premiums. They also don't say how repealing civil rights laws that protect homosexuals and enable them to more fully participate in society will help make us great. I imagine those details are on the way as well.

Get ready for the longest campaign of your life.