James Carville Offers his Take on the Tea Party Movement

James Carville, well-known Democratic political guru, sent out an e-mail to supporters Wednesday offering his take on the tea party phenomenon shaping the nations political landscape.

The Republican Party is playing with fire, and they are setting themselves up to get scorched something fierce, argued Carville. All across the country, tea partiers are storming out of primaries waving the Gadsden flag. But what the GOP doesn't realize is that while that flag reads, Don't Tread On Me to the new radical right, it is actually sending mainstream America a very different message.

Carville took shots at recent comments from Republican governors such as Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, pondering whether the Lone Star State would be better in or out of the Union.

In one state, voters need to know the Republican candidate for governor favors seceding from the United States of America, wrote Carville. In another state, the tea partier running to be governor has a pretty concise set of priorities he'll pursue if elected: elimination of the Department of Education and codifying global warming as a myth. Once the parents and students of this state find out about this guy's plans, they'll be running away faster than a high-school track team all-star.

I've run a few campaigns, and watched hundreds more unfold over the years. I recognize an opportunity when I see it ... and baby, this is it, insisted Carville.

While an experienced and respected political manager, Carville won national attention in 1991 when he led U.S. Sen. Harris Woffords upset victory over U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh in Pennsylvania. Wofford won -- showing the nation that President George Herbert Walker Bush was weaker than pundits thought and setting the stage for the rise of Bill Clinton. Carville worked for Clinton in 1992 and hammered Bush on the same issue Wofford used to bash Thornburgh -- the economy.

While Wofford was considered to be Clintons running mate in 1992, he lost his bid for re-election to conservative Rick Santorum in 1994 when Republicans took both houses of Congress. The American people were reacting to the failures of Clintons first two years as president -- including his push for national health care.

Is 2010 going to be more like 1991 and 1992 when voters were angry about the bad economy, or 1994 when they were upset about a stumbling president who pushed for national health care. Neither scenario would offer Carville much solace.