Rep. Bachmann Hopes GOP Will Be "Re-Defined" By Extreme Tea Partiers

In an interview last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) shared her not-so-revolutionary idea for how Republicans can win seats in this year's congressional elections (via Matt Corley):

BACHMANN: Well, it's embrace the tea party movement with full arms and hold as many open forums as they possibly can to bring people in and listen to them because the leadership right now is truly coming from the tea party movement because it is disaffected Democrats, Independents, Republicans. It's really people who love the country and who brace what ultimately has been the mission statement of the Republican Party. If you look at the two parties, Democrat and Republican, there's no question that the heartbeat of the tea party movement would be more in line with the mission state of the Republican party certainly than that of the Democrat party. So if the Republican Party is wise, they will allow themselves to be re-defined by the tea party movement. And I hope that that will be the case.

As one of the most tea-baggy members of Congress -- she was named 2009's "Wingnut of the Year" by CNN -- it's not surprising to see Bachmann extolling the movement's virtues.  And, by year's end, Republicans were already taking her advice.  Not only were "mainstream" conservative leaders like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) pandering to far-right crowds, but Tea Party slogans were making their way into official GOP communications. 

On the one hand, attempting to absorb the Tea Party movement is smart politics, if not an electoral necessity for the GOP.  After all, while the Tea Partiers clearly have their sights set on the Democratic majority, they're not exactly thrilled with congressional Republicans either.  In fact, in an interview published this morning, RedState's Erick Erickson said the top priority for 2010 should be "beating the Republican establishment." 

But, on the other hand, consider the following photo of the right-wing activist who hosts TeaParty.org, flagged earlier today by the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel:

Thanks to the rise of the Tea Party crowd, the GOP is well on its way to being "re-defined" by incoherence and hate. That might be fine with Bachmann, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable strategy for success.