Great mission statement emphasizing the shiny, bright, new, beautiful ideals of the Tea Party movement. Now that some of their first elected officials are not living up to their campaign promises, the necessary addendum to the mission statement is (as Chef so eloquently stated): "(If) you don't follow your mission statement we will fire you". Again, it's all shiny and new, so I withhold judgement until this proves itself one way or another.
The problem I have with the Tea Party is the dark underside which many of you like to deny exists. Despite it's seeming focus on the country's financial problems, there seems to be a deep-seeded faith-based element to it. While many of you won't have any problem with this, I hardly see this as an example of getting back to what the Founding Fathers were all about. In a lot of ways I see the Tea Party as a more fiscally responsible wing of the holier-than-thou Republican party, but I do have my biases as far as that stuff goes. I also feel that there is an element of racism in the movement - another thing that many people will deny until they're blue in the face. I think the Tea Party's demographics speak for themselves as far as that stuff goes. It's almost not even worth arguing because it's really just a subjective judgement.
All in all, once the shine wears off, I expect the Tea Party to regress toward the mean and blend back into a (possibly) slightly more fiscally conservative Republican Party. Maybe I'm just being cynical.