‘Tea party’ remains resolute, with 2012 in view

By Kathleen Hennessey, The Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington— GOP leaders in Congress often seem to be bending over backward to please the most conservative flank of their party — but the gymnastics don’t appear to be doing the trick.

Like the vast majority of Americans, “tea party” activists say they disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job, but the reasons they offer are notably different than those heard elsewhere.

In interviews, leading activists in several states complained that Republicans were too quick to compromise and too accommodating to Democrats. They complained not of an insufficient effort on job creation, the top concern voiced by most Americans, but an inadequate attempt to rethink the role of government. They urged lawmakers to be more aggressive and stick to a pattern of brinkmanship that has brought spending cuts, along with repeated threats of federal shutdown and one near-default.

While most Americans are crying uncle, these grass-roots conservatives are pushing for more. In key races around the country, tea party activists already are backing primary challenges to some established Republican members of the House and Senate with others threatened.

“If there’s one common thread that I hear no matter where I am, it’s people saying, ‘The issue is we need to start changing out the people; we need new people in there,’ ” said Dawn Wildman, a tea party organizer in San Diego.

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