Tea Party Fatigue

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Adam linked this morning to a Politico piece that contends the media, after mostly missing the Tea Party’s emergence, has since spilled way too much ink on the movement. Certainly many Swamplanders have made this argument already. Dave Weigel has a fair rebuttal, I think: “If a political movement, however loosely aggregated, is driving the policies of one party, it deserves copious and probing coverage.” But I can sympathize with Tea Party fatigue, particularly in light of episodes like this: Tea Party groups are urging their members to phone or protest Republican Senator Bob Corker because of Corker’s stance on financial re-regulation. Corker’s apostasy? Trying to craft a better bill:

Senator Bob Corker, R, TN, has reached out to Dodd to “help make the financial reform bill” better. We need to call his offices now and tell him to stop the madness.

Somehow I doubt these folks are really seething about the potential for increased derivative transparency. Unless Tea Party groups can shed their protest reflex and develop a constructive and coherent political platform, we are going to see more stories dismissing their actual impact.