It’s been at least ten minutes since our last Breaking News Story about the imminent (or already past) demise of the Tea Party, so we may as well trot out another one. Excuses for holding this particular wake vary from a general sense of dissatisfaction with the current crop of presidential candidates to perceived failures by the freshman GOP class of 2010 to consistently live up to their promises. The liberal leaning Daily Beast offers up the latest dissection of the Tea Party’s corpse this week, with the following bits of “insight.”

But after months of wondering how the Tea Party would change the primary game, leaders inside the movement admit they never came in off the sidelines. For the Tea Party movement, the 2012 presidential primaries have been a bust. “The Tea Party movement is dead. It’s gone,” says Chris Littleton, the cofounder of the Ohio Liberty Council, a statewide coalition of Tea Party groups in Ohio. “I think largely the Tea Party is irrelevant in the primaries. They aren’t passionate about any of the candidates, and if they are passionate, they’re for Ron Paul.” Littleton is one of the many who have endorsed the Texas congressman; he blames the other GOP candidates for the lackluster energy they have generated in the grassroots that hosted a revolution two years ago.

Perhaps a different view from a more conservative viewpoint is in order. Does the Tea Party have organizational problems when facing down more entrenched, establishment forces in the Republican Party? It’s certainly a common argument we’ve been hearing. But to put it all in context, let’s take a look at the latest video from Ben Shapiro. In it, he calls on each of you to adopt a far older model and become Minutemen for the cause. (The text of the comments follow the video and you are invited to comment.)