Sooner or later, reality...

...intrudes. (As George Costanza said, in a different context, it just does.)

Mike Murphree is as sympathetic as anyone to Senator Jim DeMint (above) and his crusade against earmarks, those pet projects financed by Congress, usually out of the public eye. Mr. Murphree is chairman of the Charleston Tea Party and sees earmarks as a root cause of overspending and political corruption.

But even Mr. Murphree, 48, a general contractor, has split with Mr. DeMint on one particular earmark that many [in South Carolina] see as vital to the region. It would advance plans to deepen the Port of Charleston, just outside the city limits, to accommodate the mega cargo ships that will be calling once the Panama Canal is expanded in 2014.

Mr. Murphree said that the local Tea Party was divided over the earmark and that he had come down reluctantly for it. “If we had more time and didn’t have to go through all this federal rigmarole, we’d hunker down and stop the earmarks,” he said in an interview. “But we don’t have that luxury.”

“I’m all for change and all for reform,” [Senator Lindsey] Graham (above), also a Republican, said in an interview. “But this is where the reality of governing rears its ugly head.”

Reality, unlike theory, is messy.

I expect at least a few of the current crop of tea party candidates to get elected to the United States Senate. Then I'll be interested to see how long it takes for them to "go native" and start pushing for earmarks for their constituents.

I give 'em all about six months -- tops.