For two years, Tea Party lawmakers in the House have been the stubborn barbarians at the gate, strong-arming their often reluctant Republican colleagues by refusing to compromise on spending, taxes, debt or social policy.
But Representative Paul D. Ryan's ascendancy to the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket is a signal event for a movement that counts him as one of their own. If Mitt Romney wins in November, a Tea Party favorite will be a heartbeat from the Oval Office.
More than that, Mr. Ryan is now unquestionably the face of the Tea Party caucus in Washington, and his success is certain to embolden House lawmakers whose proudly unyielding approach to governance has contributed to legislative gridlock.
Once considered a fringe of the conservative coalition, Tea Party lawmakers are now indisputably at the core of the modern Republican Party.
“Governor Romney's selection of Congressman Paul Ryan is an excellent choice and a game changer for the presidential election,†Representative Kevin Brady of Texas said in a statement. “It's now a campaign of ideas on how best to get this economy moving again, balance the budget and restore America.â€
He added: “My guess is that Barack Obama has a sick feeling in his stomach today.â€
For Mr. Romney, the choice has quickly helped to validate him in the eyes of skeptical Tea Party members in the House. Many in the movement had worried that a President Romney would hardly be an ally for their legislative goals.
Choosing Mr. Ryan eases those concerns even as it signals a shift in the movement's balance of power.
“Selecting someone like Paul Ryan, wh o is so popular with Tea Party activists, proves that Mitt Romney is committed to addressing the economic issues that have been troubling our nation for the last four years,†Amy Kremer, the chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, the movement's largest political action committee, said in a statement.
Mr. Romney's emergence as the presumptive Republican nominee earlier this year raised questions about whether Tea Party supporters would find themselves marginalized in an election season dominated by the party's establishment.
In fact, the movement has expanded. Tea Party voters in Texas helped the Senate candidate Ted Cruz defeat David Dewhurst, the state's lieutenant governor. In Indiana, the Tea Party ousted the veteran Senator Richard G. Lugar. And in Wisconsin, activists helped Gov. Scott Walker survive his recall election.
At a Wisconsin Tea Party rally last month just before the recall, Mr. Ryan stood in solidarity with the movement as he urged its memb ers to unite behind Mr. Walker. “The nucleus of our society, of our economy? It's not government. It's us. It's we the people. It's the individual,†he said. “The whole country is watching.â€
Mr. Ryan, in his speech accepting the role of Mr. Romney's running mate, said he had reached across the aisle to find solutions that are workable to members of both parties.
“I have worked closely with Republicans as well as Democrats to advance an agenda of economic growth, fiscal discipline and job creation,†Mr. Ryan said.
But his success may help to harden the political impasse in Washington between Democrats and Republicans, and between the House and the Senate. A huge postelection debate is looming over the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts and entitlement spending, issues on which Mr. Ryan has been urging Tea Party members to stand firm.
If Republicans win the White House in the fall but fail to take the Senate from the Democrats, Tea Party members in the House may see even less reason to compromise on their drive to make the federal government smaller.
“Congressman Ryan wants the same thing we do: to pass pro-growth policies and shrink the size and scope of government,†said Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group. “No one understands the dire consequences we face by continuing to ignore our spending problem better than Congressman Ryan, and no one can do a better job of articulating a vision of how to fix it.â€
Within the Tea Party caucus, Mr. Ryan is not the most absolutist. He voted for the bailout of big banks known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, at the end of President George W. Bush's second term. And he voted for the bailout of the auto industry. Both actions are anathema to some Tea Party lawmakers. And in some ways, he is not the Tea Party archetype. A six-term congressman who has worked in Washington his entire career, Mr. Ryan is an insider-type politician who works from within the system, not against it.
But as chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Ryan has resisted pressure from some in his party's leadership to compromise with the Obama administration in the interests of a grand bargain that many Tea Party members see as selling out.
And his far-reaching budget plans have attracted Tea Party support for the same reason that they have generated such fierce Democratic opposition: because they would go so far in reshaping the country's longstanding fiscal obligations.
President Obama's campaign released a 90-second video attacking Mr. Ryan on Saturday. The video uses an old clip of the newly minted vice-presidential candidate bragging that “I put out a very comprehensive plan rewriting the health care system, Medicare, Social Security, our entire tax system.â€
The Democrats intend that as an attack, but for Tea Party members it is a de facto mission statement.
Three years ago, the Tea Party movement emerged as a vehicle to protest Mr. Obama's health care legislation. Members followed up with a wave of political victories in the 2010 midterm elections that gave the movement a strong - if not always organized and coherent - voice in Congress.
Now, Mr. Ryan's place on the national ticket testifies to the staying power of the Tea Party ideology and provides a single person around which the movement can coalesce. When he delivers his remarks at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this month, Mr. Ryan will be speaking for the Tea Party as much as anyone else.
Tea Party activists are still likely to make some mischief at the convention, just as some of the movement's lawmakers in the House Republican caucus will no doubt find reasons to fault Mr. Ryan.
But every movement needs someone to help it focus. For the Tea Party, Mr. Ryan appears to be that man.
