GOP's first Tea Party Test

As the jockeying & partisan pandering for new leadership positions heats up in the GOP, who is now in charge thanks to the Tea Party Movement, one must wonder if they will now thumb their nose at the Tea Parties and continue with more of the same....

From ABC News --

Republicans are facing their own leadership struggles with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite, challenging Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling for the job of House Republican Conference Chairman. The expectation is that Bachmann will fall short, but will the GOP leadership find a place -- even a symbolic one -- for the Tea Party? And, if they don't, will the roughly half of the 84 new GOP members of Congress who consider themselves Tea Partiers rebel?

ABC’s Rick Klein looks ahead to the unfolding drama within the party: “Republicans will face an early test of party unity in the spring, with a looming vote to raise the debt limit -- something many tea partiers oppose, even though a failure to pass such a measure would cause certain chaos in global markets and grind government functions to a halt. Other areas that could come up even sooner -- such as possible compromises on extending the Bush-era tax cuts and proposals to ban earmarks -- could pit tea partiers against veteran members who are more inclined to take more pragmatic stands in an era of divided governance. Republican leaders rightly point out that the new crop of members aren't strangers to them, personally or politically.

Top members of the GOP leadership campaigned for many of them and encouraged some of them to run; they have reached out to all of them in the days since Election Day. The presumptive House speaker, John Boehner, is signaling that the new crop will feel welcome in Washington.”

Will Boehner really extend a welcome mat or will he slam the door on the people who are responsible for him having the opportunity to be the next Speaker of the House?