Tea Party Could be Key Voting Bloc in Senate

By Mark Preston CNN Sr. Political Editor The old proverb The enemy of my enemy is my friend is one way to describe the 2010 election -- especially when explaining the complicated alliance between Tea Party activists & the Republican establishment.  These two former enemies -- remember the contentious and divisive primary season -- are now united in the common goal of trying to defeat Democrats on November 2 and as many as 8 Tea Party candidates may be coming to Washington in January.  Look ahead to the next day and there is a good chance the alliance will begin to show cracks should Tea Party candidates score big wins -- especially those running for Senate. As many as eight Tea Party candidates could be coming to Washington in January:

1. Sharron Angle of Nevada
2. Ken Buck of Colorado
3. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
4. Mike Lee of Utah
5. Joe Miller of Alaska
6. Rand Paul of Kentucky
7. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania an
8. Marco Rubio of Florida.

All of these candidates with the exception of Johnson defied the wishes of the GOP establishment and beat Washington-backed candidates in the primary or in the case of Lee and Miller defeated incumbent Republican senators. These eight newly minted senators would likely line up behind Sen. Jim DeMint the South Carolina Republican who opposed his GOP colleagues and helped long-shot conservatives win their primary contests. These new lawmakers would immediately become an influential voting bloc with other GOP senators aligning themselves with this group. Republican leaders would have to juggle the demands of a more conservative GOP conference while facing the reality that to pass legislation in the Senate compromise is a necessity. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele sought on Saturday to downplay any perceived rift between the Tea Party and party leaders during a rally in California. And Sarah Palin predicted Monday that GOP leaders would embrace the Tea Partys ideals or face its wrath. I think the machine within the GOP is going to understand realize that this We the People message is rising and is resonating throughout with independents with hard-core conservatives with moderates because its so full of common sense and time-tested truths that could put the economy back on the right track Palin told CNNs Shannon Travis at the kickoff of the Tea Party Express bus tour in Reno Nevada.

Heaven forbid the GOP machine strays from this message. If so the GOP is through.

Palin did downplay the idea that the Tea Party is a divisive movement that excludes moderate-minded individuals from the Republican Party. As long as we apply time-tested truths and we prove that they work -- and thats what we have to do in the next two years: Send a new Congress to D.C. to apply those solutions that are based just on free-market principles that really cant be argued then by the independents and by the moderates she said. Then they start embracing more of what the partys all about. It remains to be seen what the final results will be in the midterm election. What is known though is that Washington will be a much different place on November 3 than it was 24 hours earlier.