Tea party dilemma: What to do about Mitt Romney



The anybody-but-Mitt Romney faction developing within the tea party may pose a problem for the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential ambitions, but some tea party organizers worry it could also backfire against the movement itself.

Romney, the current Republican front runner, is viewed skeptically – at best – by many tea partiers. And disagreement over whether to actively oppose him threatens to undo the uneasy truces forged in the run-up to the 2010 midterms and undermine the fledgling movement’s influence in the GOP.

The possibility of Romney winning the nomination is even reviving debate about whether activists should embrace, or even form, a third party – an idea that until recently had been dismissed as harmful to both the movement and the GOP.

“I honestly don’t know whether the movement will perform wellâ€