Stalking Horses

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Michele Bachmann is making her GOP colleagues uncomfortable these days. Last week she started the Congressional Tea Party Caucus – the latest litmus test on how devoted members really are to the fledgling movement. Indiana’s Mike Pence, chairman of the Republican Conference, was quickly to sign up. Not so quick were House Minority Leader John Boehner, who has declined membership on the grounds that he belongs to no caucuses, and Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy are still weighing what they’ll do.

Democrats have watched the Tea Party divisions with glee. But just in case there’s not a Michele Bachmann in every district, in some cases Dems might be helping things along Alvin Green-style. A mysterious “Tea Party” independent candidate recently showed up in the race to unseat Rep. John Adler, a New Jersey Democrat. The candidate, though, may have more to do with Adler’s office than his Republican opponent’s, the Courier-Post reports. Why wait around for your opponent to screw up when you can hasten the process yourself through a stalking horse?