R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson this morning posted on NRO an  "Open Letter to the House GOP".  He's among a growing number from the Right and from within the GOP counseling the House Republicans to "accept the victory and move on."  But what makes his counsel significantly different from thje others in the chorus is that he includes this: "I respectfully suggest that you rake in your chips, stuff them in your pockets, and tell the dealer to deal the next hand."

He may or may not be right about the timing.  After all, we still have a week before the artificial line in the sand is crossed.  But we thank the Senator still for the key word he uses and sentiment he expresses is "respect."

What Thompson implicitly acknowledges, what some on the Right and far too few many within the GOP still refuse to acknowledge, is that not for the Tea Party, absolutely none of what has transpired, of what has finally been exposed about and conceded by the White House and the Congressional Democrats, would ever have happened.

We are not presently engaged in some routine squabble over a few, or even a huge pile of bucks, the kind of squabble that in the past made you roll your eyes and pronounce a pox on both their houses.  Rather, we are engaged in a war, a war for both the life and soul of the country.  And if we lose our soul, we'll lose our life as well.  In a war, extreme measures are sometimes called for.  For heaven's sake, a war is extreme by definition.  Tea Partiers know this, which is why the Tea Party exists in the first place.

The Great Reckoning continues.