Why is the Tea Party silent on Libya?

Liberal critics are decrying the war on Moammar Gadhafi, but the right's notoriously noisy grassroots movement has barely uttered a word. Why?

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) said Obama's decision to intervene in Libya should have been authorized by Congress, but otherwise the Tea Party has been largely silent.
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The president's decision to authorize military action in Libya has plenty of liberal critics up in arms — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), for one, has threatened Obama with impeachment over the airstrikes — and plenty of conservatives are howling, too. And yet, "the relative lack of Tea Party angst over the no-fly zone has been surprising," writes Dave Weigel at Slate. None of the big national Tea Party umbrella groups — the Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Express, and FreedomWorks — has commented on the military action, nor on Obama's decision to pursue it without seeking authorization from Congress. Why?

It's because the Tea party loves America: The Tea Party may be overwhelmingly libertarian, says Weigel at Slate, but "if it has one defining characteristic, it's that it's nationalist." To them, removing the terrorist appeaser Gadhafi is more important than a constitutional debate over whether Congress should have been consulted. That's why 73 percent of Tea Party supporters favor a no-fly zone.

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