In addition to losing the presidential election last night, Republicans saw their hopes of taking back control of the Senate dashed, thanks in large part to gaffes by their own candidates.
In 2010, a wave of Tea Party activists took control of the House of Representatives, throwing out Democrats and moderate Republicans.
They attempted to do the same to the Senate, beginning with primary challenges to moderate Republican senators. Dick Lugar of Indiana, a moderate Republican with a Senate tenure of over 30 years, lost a primary challenge from Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party darling.
But after Mourdock's recent comments in a debate, when he mused that conception resulting from a rape is intended by God, he quickly lost support in the heavily Republican district, allowing Democrat Joe Donnelly to pick up the seat and increase the Democratic majority in the Senate in a race that should have been an easy win for the Republicans.
In the same way, one-term Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill was seen as an easy target for the Republicans in red-leaning Missouri, but her opponent Todd Akin opened his mouth, and out fell the infamous "legitimate rape" remark. Akin lost by 15 points.
In Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren defeated Tea Party-friendly Scott Brown, winning back Ted Kennedy's Senate seat for the Democrats.
Tea Party members in Congress have been just as much a pain for Republicans. The debt ceiling, which has been raised without incident on a regular basis for decades, spurred a fight in Congress that turned into a debacle as the federal government ground to a halt and Republicans saw themselves saddled with a reputation for intractability and inability to compromise for the good of the nation.
The United States saw its credit rating drop for the first time in history as a result.
Tea Party members seem to pride themselves on defying compromise and making government work worse. Voters are noticing.
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