NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No body ever said tea parties have to be pretty.
At least, not the kind of tea party gathered here in the thumping heart of gaudy country music.
These people have come from all across the nation for the first National Tea Party Convention to denounce not just President Obama and the Democrats, but Republicans and all of Washington for getting infected with the same voracious and parasitic plague spawned by big-government liberalism.
Folks here are loud and they are proud.
Already, the infant organization called Tea Party Nation has been riven by infighting, dogged by accusations of impropriety and can, at best, point to just one successful candidate.
All of this has been catnip for the battalion of liberal reporters eagerly covering every disjointed mishap of this free-wheeling and unorganizable band of rebels.
But it would be wrong to think tea partiers have not had any successes.
Indeed, they alone are responsible for killing the Democratic government health-care scheme.
Tea partiers sounded the alarm and stormed town-hall meetings.
It was only after the spontaneous, rogue wave got rolling that Republicans woke up and answered the call.
Naturally, at a tea party like this, any fine china is going to get broken.
And if there is a party that has too much fine china, it’s the GOP.
Tea partiers have saved their most ferocious attacks for those in the Republican establishment for allowing the “conservative” party to fall under the spell of bigger government.
They are wrenching the mantle of conservatism from the undeserving hands of the GOP and making them earn it back.