Markos Moulitsas

Last week’s Tea Party convention featured all the usual conservative talking points. Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) railed against the “socialist ideologue” president, while former Alabama Judge Roy Moore bemoaned Obama’s “socialist agenda.” A speaker received a standing ovation when he demanded to see President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. And of course, attendees drooled at the sight of Sarah Palin.

One of the favorite axioms of Washington’s chattering class is the notion that “America is a center-right nation.” The Democratic wave in the 2006 and 2008 elections forced Beltway pundits to shelve that piece of received wisdom for a few years — after all, what kind of center-right nation gives the center-left Democrats a 59-41 seat majority in the Senate, or a 235-198 majority in the House of Representatives?

In an era of conservative ideological fundamentalism, it’s only a matter of time before the Tea Party crowd starts taking a closer look at North Dakota’s Republican governor, John Hoeven, the current favorite to win his state’s open Senate seat this November.

No matter who wins the tight special election in Massachusetts, the results will likely render Democrats paralyzed with fear.

In December, Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith shocked the political world and became a Republican.

In early 2009, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist joined newly minted President Barack Obama on the campaign trail, extolling the virtues of a stimulus package that would help save and create much-needed jobs in the Sunshine State. It was a show of bipartisanship that put party labels aside to work hand in hand for the common good.

With Democratic Tennessee Rep. Bart Gordon having announced his retirement, the missing ingredient for a potential Republican wave year in 2010 — open seats — appears to be materializing.

On a recent conference call to conservative activists, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint told listeners, “All of you all over the country — please remember that Senate seats are not about a particular state. They’re about our country. Every vote I take is not about South Carolina. It’s about the United States of America.”

Democrats had known there was an “intensity gap” between angry conservatives in the Republican Party and the unexcited Democratic base, and in a midterm election, base turnout often determines who wins the night. Yet no one suspected it was this bad.

American liberals are tough on terrorists and secure in their knowledge that the Sept. 11 conspirators are guilty of mass murder.