Brooks says there may be long-term damage, but right now, for the NOvember election, the experts he's contacted see no evidence at all of the Tea Party dragging the Republicans down.
I think the evidence is clear that the general election coming up in less than 2 months is a referendum on the Democrats, who for the last two years have controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency. Voters who like what Democrats have been doing will vote for them and the rest will vote for Republicans.
With the economy in the toilet, and the government seemingly helpless to do anything about it, a lot of people will vote Republican. If in January both houses of Congress switch to Republican majorities and 2 years from now the economy still sucks, expect people to vote for Democrats.
As James Carville was famous for saying, "It's the economy, stupid." This isn't rocket science.
