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By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press
      


WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans rode the tea party tiger to
power last fall. Now it's turning on them, forcing party leaders to
endure embarrassing delays and unwanted revisions to crucial
debt-ceiling legislation.


      This tiger did not change it stripes. When tea partyers emerged
as a political phenomenon in 2009, they vowed to stand on principle
and change the way Washington works. They've kept that promise
despite some doubters' predictions they would succumb to the
get-along, go-along crowd once they reached Capitol Hill.


      That fidelity is now threatening GOP unity and causing headaches
for party leaders as they try to negotiate with Democrats in a
divided government. With the 2012 campaigns cranking up, some
Republicans are re-evaluating the fiery movement that fueled their
sweeping victories in 2010.


      House Speaker John Boehner's misreading of tea partyers'
doggedness this week forced his chagrined team to postpone votes
twice on his debt-ceiling bill. Finally, on Friday, Boehner had to
amend the bill in ways Democrats openly derided. 

The events proved
"that while the tea party Republicans are a noisy and effective
protest movement, they are unfit for governing," said Rep. Chris
Van Hollen, D-Md.


      Said Rep. Steven LaTourette, an Ohio Republican: "We've lost
some leverage."


      Boehner's original bill to raise the debt ceiling by Tuesday's
deadline was already doomed in the Democratic-controlled Senate,
where talks of a possible final-hour bipartisan deal were under
way. But the House's tea party holdouts forced Boehner to push his
bill even further to the right, prompting taunts that it wasn't
serious, let alone viable.


      Boehner could not secure the votes he needed from conservatives
until he accepted an unusual condition for a second debt-limit
increase, which would be necessary in a few months. Both chambers
of Congress first would have to approve a constitutional amendment
requiring balanced budgets, which requires a two-thirds majority in
both houses. Some conservatives have long dreamed of such a change.


But leaders in both parties acknowledge it is politically
unachievable.


      Boehner's original bill was already imperiled because it would
tie the second debt-ceiling increase to huge mandatory spending
cuts, which President Barack Obama rejected. The speaker's allies
said the tea partyers' demands make it all the harder to argue that
Democrats should seriously consider the House bill.


      Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said Democrats will "feel like
they've got a lot more power and influence in this process right
now."


      The political fractures are reaching into the GOP, and even the
tea party movement itself. Some tea party-backed lawmakers embraced
Boehner's original bill, drawing fire from the movement's most
unyielding wings.


      A group called The United West labeled four House Republicans
"tea party defectors." One of them was first-term Rep. Allen West
of Florida, a highly visible favorite of many tea party factions.


      The accusation angered conservative radio host Laura Ingraham,
who brought West on her show and defended him. 


"He understands how
to declare victory, even if that victory is incremental," she
said. West understands "the limits of one's power when you control
one house of Congress."


      West said, "One minute they're saying I'm their tea party hero,
and what, three or four days later, I'm a tea party defector? That
kind of tea party schizophrenia, I'm not going to get involved in
it."


      GOP Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia, who says he will not support a
debt limit hike under any circumstances, defended the tea party
movement.


      "The tea party has been maligned unfairly," Broun said in an
interview. "It's about limiting government according to what the
Constitution says it should be."


      "This is truly a reflection of the strongest political force in
America," Broun said.


      Even Democrats grudgingly acknowledge that the tea party has
pushed national policy toward deeper spending cuts without tax
increases. Obama for months insisted that higher tax revenues be
part of a debt-reduction package, but Senate Democrats have dropped
that bid.


      The highly decentralized tea party movement was born amid the
fiercely partisan fight that led to passage of Obama's health care
overhaul in 2010. At public forums throughout the nation, citizens
sharply criticized the plan's reach into private lives, including
its requirement that everyone eventually buy health insurance.


      The movement, which also decried federal bank bailouts and
stimulus programs, played a huge role in last fall's elections,
when Republicans regained control of the House after four years in
the minority.


      Now, some establishment Republicans are wondering if they got
more than they bargained for. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for
instance, strongly opposed the health care legislation, making
common cause with the tea party. But this month the chamber swung
solidly behind Boehner's original debt-ceiling bill. It suffered
embarrassment with all the other groups and individuals forced to
swallow the tea partyers' demands.


      Republican campaign strategists are weighing the tea party's
valuable energy against the possibility that it might push the
party away from mainstream politics, which appeal to crucial
independent voters. 

A Pew Research poll found that 68 percent of
American voters want lawmakers to compromise on the debt ceiling
and default issue, even it means striking a deal they disagree
with. Fewer than one in four said lawmakers should stand by their
principles even if it leads to a default on U.S. obligations.


      Veteran lawmakers and congressional staffers are struck by the
faith -- be it admirable or naive -- that many tea party advocates
seem to have in what they consider the moral rightness of their
ideas. 


Some GOP staffers privately roll their eyes at accounts of
House members insisting that Senate Democrats will suddenly come to
their senses and embrace the balanced budget agreement, even though
those senators have criticized the proposal for years.


      "I sure hope they don't try to take out the balanced budget
amendment in the Senate," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. He refused
to vote for the House debt-ceiling bill until it was added.


      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., barely conceals his
disdain for such thinking. The key question, Reid said in a speech
Friday, is "will today's Republicans break away from the shrill
voice of the tea party and return to the Republican Party of Ronald
Reagan?"


      When a Democratic leader praises Reagan, it's a sign of how
profoundly the tea party movement has influenced the GOP.


      Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Steven Ohlemacher
contributed to this report.

Gallery

House approves debt bill; Senate rejects it

SC lawmakers take credit for shift in Boehner plan

Politics and Government News

House Republicans rode the tea party tiger to
power last fall. Now it's turning on them, forcing party leaders to
endure embarrassing delays and unwanted revisions to crucial
debt-ceiling legislation.

Tea party role in debt bill raises GOP eyebrows

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