The Tea Party was written off as a spent force after November. Much like Occupy Wall Street, the funny radicals in three-cornered hats seemed destined to fade away. But the obituaries arrived too soon. In scheduling in the next cliff to coincide with the expiry of America’s sovereign debt ceiling, President Barack Obama has handed them an opportunity. The next seven weeks will be the Tea Party’s point of maximum leverage. The goal will be to conserve it for as long as possible (the more cliffs the better). But the urge for a showdown will also be strong.
They will be aided by the fact that the Republican party is essentially leaderless. Last Thursday, John Boehner escaped the usual mockery for having choked up when he took the Speaker’s gavel. This time people sympathised: any sane person would sob at the prospect of leading today’s Republicans. The chances of glory are few in a party of disaffecteds bent on bringing their leaders to heel. Last week barely a third of Mr Boehner’s fellow House Republicans joined him in voting for the mini-deal to avert the first fiscal cliff – and set up the next one (just 52 days away). Sentiment has since hardened. One Fox commentator branded Republicans who voted for it as “Profiles in cowardice”.
Many of those who held their noses and approved the tax increases knew their vote would be held against them. Paul Ryan, the former vice-presidential candidate, and 2016 hopeful, tried to make amends on Friday. In voting against a belated measure to permit $9.7bn in new debt to help victims of superstorm Sandy, Mr Ryan said it “would be irresponsible to raise an insolvent programme’s debt ceiling without making the necessary reforms”. No prizes for guessing which ceiling he was really talking about. Nor for assessing the 2016 motivations of Marco Rubio, the Senator from Florida, who voted against last week’s mini-deal.