It was reported in the New York Times that Mitt Romney is courting the tea party leaving many to speculate if he was going to use his powers of persuasion to take over the movement or be swallowed whole by it.
Looking at Romney’s track record as governor of Massachusetts one sees anything but tea party roots. What is obvious is that at that time he was a liberal or moderate Republican whose legacy from those days was the precursor to Obamacare, a program that was anathema to tea party adherents.
The upside to a Romney takeover of the tea party is the hope that he is still a liberal Republican like his father and will bring reason to the tea partiers chasing the fringe lunatics back to the fever swamps. It also gives Romney an edge in the GOP presidential primary over secessionist Perry and homophobe Bachmann while not scaring away independents and moderate Democrats in the general election.
What if instead the tea party swallows Romney? Well as we have said in earlier blogs the liberal Republican is all but dead and so what if Republicans lose to the Dark Side a liberal who denies he’s a liberal.