Conservatives and liberals alike have been passing around this Frum Forum post. It's full of very good points:

Conservatives and Tea Partiers were supposed to put an end to people like Romney. They had convinced themselves that the era of the Bush 41-style Republican was over and done with, and that the GOP would now and forever be controlled by the purebred conservatives, the ideological offspring of Reagan and Goldwater, the true believers who would finally cut Washington down to size and starve the statist beast until you could see its ribcage.

If Romney becomes the GOP nominee, it will prove that the Tea Party project was an abject failure, and that the momentum of 2010 was only temporary.

As Occupy movements grow up, they should take note of what's happening with teabaggers as they become assimilated into the larger Republican Party. Teabaggers are making a lot of mistakes that Democrats can avoid, with a little forethought and a whole lot more vigilance.