Will Angry Newcomers Halt Senate?

The Senate is bracing for the arrival of more than six Tea Party candidates if the anti-incumbent headwinds continue to blow until November. There's fear that the new members will bring an end to any shot of comity continuing in the world's greatest deliberative body, according to the Wall Street Journal. "What I'm encouraged about most is that I don't have to be the contentious person all by myself any longer," said the famously irascible Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina. Possible new arrival, Wisconsin businessman Ron Johnson summed up the attitude of candidates in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Florida when he said at a Senate Republican Conference luncheon, "I'm coming here to join the fight, not the club." For centuries, the Senate has arrived on unanimous consent to go about its business. With candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, or Ken Buck coming to Washington—but refusing to join the club—that consent may become harder to come by, bringing the Senate to a screeching halt.