Rule #1: No one displaying the Confederate flag gets to lecture any American about patriotism. Rule #2: For a Republican Party intent on co-opting the Tea Party protests it helped foster, silence is golden. So while Democrats Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Barney Frank (D-MA) rushed to denounce the racist and homophobic slurs of Tea Baggers directed at U.S. Congressmen, the GOP has thus far been silent.
The absence of a rebuke for the shouts of the n-word and f**got is sadly unsurprising for Republicans eager to wrap their frothing-at-the-mouth fringe in the GOP's warm embrace. Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) turned to Twitter yesterday to proclaim he was "grateful for the thousands of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government healthcare and defending freedom." In December, Demint insisted "the GOP leadership needs to stand up for mainstream American principles" before concluding:

"We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party. If we do that, we can stand up and create the biggest tent of all."

Minnesota's Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite and benefactor, also made clear that she sees no space between them. Her preferred approach:

"Well, it's embrace the tea party movement with full arms...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."

The electioneers of the GOP second that emotion. Guy Harrison, executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), proudly declared, "We love the tea party movement." For his part, Texas Senator and head of the Republican campaign operation in the Senate John Cornyn argued, "I think it's important that we try to channel these relative newcomers to the political process through our primaries so that they can have an impact on who's nominated." And in January, RNC chairman Michael Steele told Fox News' Neil Cavuto:

"As I like to tell people - long before there was this big push on tea parties - if I wasn't doing this job, I'd be out there with the tea partiers."

Then, of course, there's Sarah Palin. The half-term Alaska Governor not only headlined (for a large fee) the February Tea Party convention in Nashville, she praised the "everyday Americans" she proclaimed to be "the soul of this movement." Two weeks later, she called the in-your-face Tea Baggers "a grand movement," adding, "I love it because it's all about the people." But, she insisted, those lovely people need to proclaim their fidelity to the Republican Party which already confirmed its loyalty to them:

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they're going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: 'R' or 'D'."

Of course, as the polling shows, Tea Party activists are arch-conservative, not middle of the road independents. (As CNN polling director Keating Holland noted, "87 percent say they would vote for the GOP candidate in their congressional district if there were no third-party candidate endorsed by the Tea Party.") And as her experience during the 2008 campaign showed, no one knows this better than Sarah Palin.
Of course, the Tea Party faithful were already on her side. Long before President Obama as promised delivered the tax cuts they now decry, today's Tea Baggers were calling Senator Obama a socialist Muslim and demanding his birth certificate at McCain/Palin rallies across America.
Just take a look back at Alexandra Pelosi's documentary of the 2008 campaign, "Right America: Feeling Wronged." Clips from "Right America" are virtually indistinguishable from, say, the "trailer" making the rounds for a supposed film about the Tea Party movement called "Fraud." Let's go to the videotape: "Tea Baggers 2009" is just a sequel to the "McCain-Palin Mob," and a bad one at that. As one McCain supporter put it before the November 2008 election:

"We all hate the same things."

And that fury has produced the most intellectually disoriented political movement in modern American political history. Almost every myth propagated by the Tea Party faithful finds widespread acceptance within Republican ranks.
For example, a DailyKos/Research 2000 poll found that a stunning 58% of Republicans did not believe (28%) or were unsure (30%) that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the United States. 17% of Republicans and 19% of white evangelicals (74% of whom voted for John McCain) insist President Obama is a Muslim, despite his repeated pronouncements and decades of church attendance to the contrary. After furious Tea Baggers interrupted town hall meetings with shouts of "keep your government hands off my Medicare," it turned out that 59% of self-identified conservatives and 62% of McCain voters hold that oxymoronic view. And as I noted in February ("The Tea Party's Taxing Logic"), while President Obama cut taxes for over 95% of working households, the Tea Party instead believes the sun orbits the earth:

Of people who support the grassroots, "Tea Party" movement, only 2 percent think taxes have been decreased, 46 percent say taxes are the same, and a whopping 44 percent say they believe taxes have gone up.

For his part, Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan went to the House floor to ask Republican leaders to "come out and condemn" and "say 'shame on you' to that kind of behavior" on display at Saturday's Tea Party protests. So far, his request has been rebuffed. Apparently, while such behavior "does not belong in a civilized society," it has found a welcoming home in the Republican Party.
UPDATE: On C-Span, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) blames Democrats' "totalitarian tactics" for prompting Tea Party activists to hurl racial epithets. Meanwhile on the House floor, GOP representatives cheered as a protester yelled "kill the bill" from the gallery.