WASHINGTON EXAMINER: House Tea Party Brigade is Washington’s most independent political force.

Among the most prized and frequently claimed — yet least often demonstrated — virtues in establishment Washington is political independence. Politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties routinely insist that they are independent. There are even two senators who call themselves “Independent” but both caucus with Senate Democrats and almost never vote contrary to the wishes of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The truth is there is only one genuinely independent political force in Washington these days, the Tea Party, a fact that is abundantly demonstrated by the future prospects for the recently passed immigration reform bill in the Senate.

Generally, in Washington parlance, “independence” means ignoring what your constituents want in order to do what the media wants.