Stewart: Tea Party Won The 'Battle For The Soul Of The GOP' (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart returned to "The Daily Show" last night after a weekend filled with media coverage of Christine O'Donnell and the Tea Party, and whether or not there is a "battle for the soul of the Republican Party" going on across the country.

Stewart was surprised that the "soul himself" Karl Rove was not a fan of Christine O'Donnell, saying he wanted questions answered about her past and all the "nutty things she's been saying."

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black," Stewart said, before pointing out that Rove had since fallen in line after making those statements, perhaps due to pressure from other members of the GOP and Fox News who support O'Donnell. So does that mean the Tea Party is winning this soul fight? Stewart had this to say:

"There isn't a battle for the soul of the Republican Party. It's the Tea Party Express, they've won! Now the battle is about how many Republicans think they can cram themselves on to their train."

So then what is the soul of the Tea Party? Republicans and pundits describe them as crusaders for fiscal responsibility who are also pro-life and anti-gay marriage.

"So they're basically conservative Republicans," Stewart said. "How are they different? [...] Oh, these people are actually gonna do that sh*t."

WATCH:

Comments

[Godfearing]

12:05 PM on 09/24/2010

Hey, God Fearing Republican Tea Party Birther movement. Bearing false witness against President Obama is a no-no in your own book. Watch out for the Karl Rove's mentor Lee Atwater's deathbed revelation moment! Beware of the MEANESS OF CONSERVATISM! before it is too late.

[Barbie and Ken forever]

02:11 AM on 09/24/2010

Wait, they have souls?

[billhodges]

06:43 PM on 09/22/2010

Paul Mason writing for the BBC, he recounts a recent demagogue-less Beck speech. “Once Glenn Beck starts speaking the language becomes restrained, moderate, not even a hint of euphemism or innuendo,” he writes, “indeed an insistence that the audience must reach out and persuade their political enemies, not hate them.”

“[T]here was no hate in the speech I heard,” Mason adds later. “And there was very little politics. In the process of becoming the figurehead for the American right, Beck has found new depths within his own personality and ‘got religion’ even more than he had it before.”
 
Mason isn’t alone in his observations. Tim Kraulidis was assigned as Beck’s escort at another recent speaking engagement. Kraulidis describes the events he saw as intriguing. “I was impressed with the politeness, sincerity, and friendliness of this man,” he writes. “He is a very conscientious man.” He goes on to explain that Beck fulfilled every picture request, went out of his way to greet volunteers and production staff, and noted that Beck’s attitude was such that “it was not all about him.” No hate speech. No fear mongering.
 
Yeah, but what about the hard core haters?
 
Spotlight on blogger Emily Zanotti. She admits she doesn’t like Beck: “I’m not a fan of the guy. I never have been.” But after attending one of Beck’s event last weekend, she had to confess, “I liked it (well, a good chunk of it), and that freaks me the f**k out.” [Asterisks her's.] As she explains:
[L]et me be really honest here – from the perspective of someone who has come to believe the hype surrounding Glenn Beck’s slow descent from conservative talking head to universally-reviled public figure and who frequently answers questions about him with “I understand what he’s doing, but I don‘t think he’s moving anything in the right direction” — I actually left inspired.
 
After the historical references, the calls for charity, and the many allusions to faith and God, Zanotti couldn’t figure out why people hate him: “I will say that I left with a little more respect for the man and a lot less respect for his most vocal detractors.”
 
In the end, Zanotti’s not trying to make any converts, but simply making an observation:
He’s well crafted, well spoken, well packaged and well timed. And if you love him, you love him. If you hate him, you hate him.
 
But what does it say when those who are supposed to hate him start liking him?

[Layman23]

01:58 AM on 09/23/2010

"Supposed to hate him"? You dont have to hate him, but just one look at his babbles and the disgust will remain forever like a bad taste you cant forget. Beck is the crowning glory of how the media has turned the facts into a circus. Goebbels will be proud !

[LMPE]

06:23 PM on 09/22/2010

Is it just me or does Karl Rove's face look as if it belongs to an infant?

[Barbie and Ken forever]

02:14 AM on 09/24/2010

What a mean thing to say about infants!!!!!

[themightylemur]

11:39 AM on 09/22/2010

Christine O'Donnell needs to quit looking so hawt if she wants to curb the M-Trac

[Olethea]

08:09 AM on 09/22/2010

Given the opportunity these people will enter your bedroom and your womb and hold you hostage. This is not the party of freedom, it's the party of social and moral dictatorship. Vote, people.

[CessnaDriver]

04:14 PM on 09/22/2010

The Republican Party: Get the government off of your back and into your pants!

[Barbie and Ken forever]

02:14 AM on 09/24/2010

Exactly

[SparkyDash]

06:35 AM on 09/22/2010

I don't think the teaparty won anything, but I do believe while the GOP blatantly obstructed everything this administration put forth, said no to everything, did nothing to help this nation, lied, bullied, and tried their best to force our president to fail, the teapartiers simply came in and took over the Republican Party. The once respected GOP is no more...it is impotent, and while they were playing games with this nation instead of helping it, they were taken over by the loonie-toon right.

[Jdaddy1951]

08:42 PM on 09/21/2010

Soul? What soul? They don't need no stinkin' soul!

[zzeltar]

07:11 PM on 09/21/2010

The tea party is just a renaming of the GOP for damage control. Same failed ideas, intolerance etc. But now with an added fundamentalist agenda.

[yellowdoggie]

05:58 AM on 09/22/2010

And with a larger dose of r@cism.

[zzeltar]

12:14 PM on 09/22/2010

Yes you are quite correct! F& F #401! ;)

[whiskeytangofoxtrot451]

06:56 PM on 09/21/2010

How can you battle for something that doesn't exist?

[Phxflyer]

06:09 PM on 09/21/2010

Once again, greater analysis and insight from the fake news than we get from any of the "real" news broadcasts.

[Me atlast]

09:06 PM on 09/21/2010

Fanned... I SO wish regular media could address these things...

[Barbie and Ken forever]

02:12 AM on 09/24/2010

Agreed!

[arkadie7]

05:28 PM on 09/21/2010

How can you battle for the soul of people who have none? Most of these teabaggers don't even have reflections when they look in a mirror.

[Hoosierbrad]

05:59 PM on 09/21/2010

But they do come out at night, don't they?

[Bedazio]

06:25 PM on 09/21/2010

They are asleep at night with their dentures on the night table.

[Barbie and Ken forever]

02:12 AM on 09/24/2010

LOLZ

[UpFromLiberalism]

05:17 PM on 09/21/2010

"...he's just a comedian..."

"...he just says thing to get attention..."

"...no one takes him seriously..."

[Hoosierbrad]

05:58 PM on 09/21/2010

You get more truth in The Daily Show and the Colbert Report than all of the cable so-called news networks combined.

[wethepeople3884]

03:22 PM on 09/23/2010

glenn beck?

[supertim]

05:04 PM on 09/21/2010

"So they're basically conservative Republicans," actually i beg to differ, they are not conservative republicans, this is the good ole Christian Right Wing Fox (pun!) in sheep's clothing since independents tend to shy away from evangelical extremists, so they call themselves Tea Partiers instead, but a leopard does not change its spots, and at the recent Values Voter summit, anti Muslim paranoia connected the evangelical right with the secular Tea Party movement

Coalition of fear: Tea Party, the religious right and Islamophobia
http://tiny.cc/ctbt7

[prettyinpink]

04:50 PM on 09/21/2010

You about to be ruled by a tea party man (woman).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kPSkwAkLIk

[Phxflyer]

06:11 PM on 09/21/2010

In your dreams teatard.