One of the under-appreciated aspects of the “tea parties” we’ll hearing about today is the dance of indecision among Republican officeholders about how closely to identify with this phenomenon. Sure, it’s tempting to snuggle up to a populist-sounding “movement”–however artificial and “astroturfed” it actually is–that’s in rough accord with the GOP’s simplistic anti-tax and anti-spending rhetoric. But aside from the possibility that the “tea parties” will be a bust in terms of attendance, there’s the unfocused, and generally anti-incumbent, atmosphere of the events, and lots of sheer craziness.
Even if those concerns are overcome, there’s the legitimate fear among Republicans that the tea parties will offend the big majority of Americans who are a bit more worried about the economic crisis than about the horrible injustice of boosting the top marginal income tax rate to where it was eight years ago. One of the larger mistakes made by the Republican Party in recent years was the decision to align itself with the hard-core Cultural Right in the Terry Schiavo saga, a decision that clearly repelled millions of people. The tea parties have the potential of becoming another such moment.
In any event, Ben Smith of Politico has a rundown of where some of the leading Republican pols will be today. Lots of them have apparently found something to do other than joining their local anti-tax shriekathons.