GOP Bait-and-Switch

This election cover only drives home Rich’s point this weekend about the usefulness of the “new breed.”  With the old-line GOP set to welcome a slew of familiar country club types back into the Senate, they couldn’t be happier that the Tea Party has given the Grand Old Party so much populist juice, while, at the same time, keeping the media distracted and entertained.

Can they govern, TIME wants to know. Yeah, they can govern the menu at the next Jim DeMint BBQ party. Talk about a false premise. I mean, two of the four barely even stand a chance of winning, making O’Donnell and Whitman — two laughing stocks in the making, eMeg the subject of this fabulous tweet — seem tucked in the back just for gender balancing.

I mean, Scott Brown was also a Tea Party maverick … for a couple of minutes, and made for a wonderful cover too.

I’m curious, by the way, how you deconstruct this cover.

(photos: Peter Hapak for TIME)