I dunno but it doesn't seem to me that the Tea Party types are any different than the Buchanan types or the Perot types or the Spiro Agnew types or the George Wallace types. That's as far back as my political memories go or maybe I'd be giving a shout-out to Huey Long.

The common denominator is anger, anger, if you drill right down to it, at personal failure coupled with profound, wilful, intellectual dishonesty. The ones I know (and I know a few) aren't great failures as seen from the outside - they have jobs, kids, possessions, businesses, whatever but it's not enough. They're not the biggest fish in their particular pond, materially, intellectually or socially. They haven't really achieved much, never will, and they know it and they hate it.

"I could have been a contender!" is their deep-down rallying cry and it's somebody else's fault that they get no respect. It's the government's fault, no it's the democrats' fault, no it's the liberals' fault, no it's Obama's fault. Always Their fault, always Them. Every year or two the words change but it's the same bitter blame-game tune.

There's never a shortage of second-rate celebrities who will pander to them for their fifteen minutes: Palin, Gingrich, Safire, Hearst, it's a long list.

Tea Partiers. Cowards. Miserable wretches.