Not surprised. But suddenly energized at the thought of the Tea Party becoming the REAL opposition party. And the GOP being consigned to a footnote in the history books.
Look for the TP to become a living, breathing political party overtaking the GOP.
The GOP and Democrats will both be responsbile for the coming economic debacle.
The Tea Party will be in the cat bird seat as they warned of and tried to prevent this impending disaster. I think the Tea Party is in a good place right now.
The shutdown and debt ceiling are good for one thing: showing low information voters that their god is fallible. The checks may indeed stop. They are waking them up to the fact that government cannot always take care of them so they should not be dependent upon it for forever.