As the Tea Party fizzles

What will history say about the Tea Party movement's accomplishments during the last two years? Twenty years from now will they be characterized as what launched a fundamental change in America's electorate, a hard turn to the right? Or, will those accomplishments, such as they were, be seen as the sound and fury of a boomlet?

After all of its anti-big government rhetoric and anti-Obama fuming, is the Tea Party movement of 2011 waxing or waning? At the Atlantic, Joshua Green says "The Tea Party is Losing Steam."

The Tea Party may continue to alter races across the country, and could also shape the Republican presidential field. But it appears to have reached the limit of its influence in Washington. Here, where it counts most, the Tea Party is looking like a spent force.

Click here to read Green's analysis.

If Green is right, and I think he probably is, we can expect to eventually see the most disappointed and determined of those in the Tea Party crowd walk away from the GOP to form a third party. Democrats who remember the effect Ross Perot had on the 1992 presidential election are smiling as they read these words.

Meanwhile, Republicans who remember the effect Ralph Nader had on the 2000 presidential election know a Tea Party ticket in 2012 probably would spell doom for their ticket. Might this be among the reasons the GOP's field of declared candidates is presently so lackluster?