'World News' Political Insights: Tea Party Leaves GOP With Hangover

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2010— -- What would this wild and raucous primary season have been without some souvenirs?

Republicans are finally able to move past a chaotic series of primaries, and into a fall campaign season in which they are rightly optimistic about their chances for taking over control of Congress.

But memories of the primary-season battles will linger through November and beyond. Intra-party battles seem certain at this point to have an impact on the inter-party fight of the general election.

For all the tea party energy that's thrust itself onto the political scene this year, it's still not clear what it will all mean in the end -- or even that it will necessarily benefit the political party that's most closely aligned with tea party values.

Republicans are still grappling with a force many of them hardly understand, even as they seek to craft a united platform to take to voters this fall.

Christine O'Donnell's shocking win in Delaware last week -- the upset of the election cycle -- leaves Republicans in considerably worse position to take over a Senate seat that had been all but chalked up for the GOP this year.

O'Donnell was at least the seventh tea partier to best an establishment choice for the Republican nomination for Senate this year. Add Delaware to a list that includes Nevada, Kentucky and Colorado -- states where tea partiers arguably leave Republicans weaker in the fall than if the more moderate candidates had won.

Meanwhile, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's decision to mount a write-in campaign after losing her primary to tea party favorite Joe Miller means the GOP will have to expend time and resources to stop a three-way scramble from benefiting the little-known Democratic candidate, Scott McAdams.