So insists the Texas Jewboy and former gubernatorial candidate in a piece penned for Tina Brown's Daily Beast, the headline of which is "Why Democrats Should Blame Themselves for the Tea Party." Friedman, who lost to his bid to become the Democratic nominee for agriculture commissioner last month, writes of the Tea Party's rise to prominence:
The biggest losers in all this, of course, could well be the Democrats. The Democratic Party of the past had a historically populist core, always standing up for the people against the big corporations and special interests. The Democrats of today sorely lack the moral clarity of a Barbara Jordan, the cojones of an Ann Richards, and the conscience of a Molly Ivins. Today's Democrats seem very much like -- well -- Republicans. If the Democrats still had voices like Barbara, Ann, and Molly, there might never have been a need for a Tea Party.
