For tea party Republicans, House leadership hopes turn into disappointment or how stupid is the tp?

Longtime conservative activist L. Brent Bozell called several reporters late Tuesday to boast about the tea party’s stunning upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia’s Republican primary. When asked what he would do next, Bozell laughed and said he was going to have some more lasagna with the conservative operatives who happened to be dining at his house.

Across the Potomac River in his first-floor suite at the Capitol, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy started making calls, too — but not to the press. McCarthy (Calif.) instead began dialing fellow House Republicans, reassuring them that in spite of the shocking news, their caucus was not imploding. If they were worried about what happens next, he was happy to help.

Those precious first few hours of celebration — in Northern Virginia, on Fox News and across Capitol Hill — would come to haunt conservatives over the next two days, when their political machinery proved woefully unable to match their excitement. The only conservative who jumped into the race for majority leader is Rep. Raúl R. Labrador (Idaho), a long-shot candidate who waited until Friday afternoon to announce a bid.

McCarthy’s apparent easy ascent as unrest swirled around him underscores how the tea party, even with its strong pull in congressional primaries and ability to dictate the Republican agenda, remains a limited force in the insular and relationship-driven sphere of House Republican politics. Though sizable in number, they lack the organization and preparation, the battle-tested aides and the Machiavellian instincts to take over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-tea-party-republicans-house-leadership-hopes-turn-into-disappointment/2014/06/13/0a782b58-f303-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html?hpid=z1