Tea Party out to Defeat 3 Longtime GOP Senators,oops,they must not of fallowed the rules,and voted with the dems,to much-lol

Tea Party out to Defeat 3 Longtime GOP Senators
In eyes of tea party, bipartisanship of 3 longtime GOP senators may make them unwelcome

What does a longtime Republican senator with a national reputation for working well with Democrats do in the face of a potentially career-ending tea party challenge? If you're Richard Lugar of Indiana, you tell them to "get real."

If you're Olympia Snowe of Maine, you fight off the "Snowe Removal" effort by making key alliances with tea party activists and highlighting your record of fiscal conservatism.

And if you're Orrin Hatch of Utah, you woo them.

Lugar, Snowe and Hatch are all on notice that their approach to governance may no longer be welcome.

It's clear the tea party — not even 2 years old — isn't going away anytime soon after huge success in last fall's congressional elections. Dozens of its favorite candidates — Republicans who champion limited government and sharply reduced spending — won House and Senate races. Now, the tea party is empowered and turning its attention to vulnerable Republicans up for re-election in 2012. How the three GOP senators handle the tea party threat will go a long way to determining whether the outcome mirrors that of 2010.

In Indiana, the tea party is organizing to unite behind one candidate who could challenge Lugar in a primary. In Maine, the plan is for a spring "Snowe Removal." In Utah, Hatch's efforts have begun to pay off, but the junior senator, Mike Lee, who replaced Sen. Robert Bennett in a tea party upset in 2010, has said he won't endorse Hatch for re-election.

Unlike in 2010, when incumbents were surprised to be overtaken by upstarts, these longtime senators can't say they were caught off guard.

Lugar, 78, is telling tea party activists to "get real" if they want to take on the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty. They also oppose his support for President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees and for the DREAM act, legislation that would give a faster path to citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants if they graduate from college or serve two years in the military.