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U.S. Rep. John Larson and the Tea Party

Detained by two reporters before he entered a closed door session of the Democratic caucus, U.S. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Larson let loose a string of metaphors on the Tea Party movement.
Politico described the interview as “…an 11-minute, metaphor-laced talk.”

Mr. Larson, who runs the Democratic caucus in the House, was identified by Politico as “the top communications arm for the party in Congress.”

Some of Mr. Larson’s metaphors were meteorological:

"And this week we're told that the tea party will bring yet another cold front to Washington, D.C. And in doing so, it's our understanding that the Republican leaders are standing back and looking to see what kind of shadow is cast to see whether or not we'll have six more weeks of continuing resolution."

Republicans, the Democratic caucus leader said, haven't created "one single job." Their attitude, since recapturing the U.S. House in the last elections, owing partially to an invigorated Tea Party movement, has been one of “icy indifference.”

The Washington DC rally that inspired such poetic references from Mr. Larson is, according to Politico, “expected to draw some of the party's top conservatives” and “was organized to oppose the slew of continuing resolutions to fund the government, rather than a long-term bill.”

The continuing resolutions to fund the government were made necessary when the last veto proof Democratic Congress failed to pass a budget, thus arousing the ire of the Tea Party movement, which was partially responsible for the removal of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the degradation of the status of Mr. Larson’s caucus in the House.

Had the national Tea Party movement been more icily indifferent to spendthrift legislators, it is very likely that both Mr. Larson and Mrs. Pelosi would not have suffered an ego-blasting diminishment in status and power.

It is not the icy indifference of the Tea Party movement, but rather its success in cleaning the House of spendthrift Democrats, that gave rise to the Chairman of the Democratic caucus’ meteorological metaphors. And when members of Connecticut’s Tea Party convene at the state capitol in Hartford on April 15 to protest the indifference of remaining Democratic House members to a $14 trillion national budget, the chances are very good that those assembled will not be icily indifferent to Mr. Larson.

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