Glenn Reynolds points to a group of Rhode Island tea-party protesters who successfully beat back a local effort to raise taxes, a development that leaves me smiling like a captured Somali pirate.

If tea-party protesters measure their success by respect from the mainstream media, they’ll grow old waiting for a good day. If they go where their numbers and voices have the most leverage — local government meetings, congressional meet-and-greets, and maybe state legislatures — they won’t need non-snarky coverage from the likes of Rachel Maddow to achieve their goals.