[Kevin R. Kosar is a political scientist in Washington who blogs at www.kevinrkosar.com.]

Sharron Angle's Senate primary victory Tuesday in Nevada was the latest in a string of high-profile tea party movement victories. Last week, the insurgency also helped Nikki Haley finish first in South Carolina's GOP gubernatorial primary.

Tea party voters helped Rand Paul defeat an establishment GOP Senate candidate in Kentucky last month, drove Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter out of GOP primary races, and sank the reelection bid of Utah Republican Sen. Robert Bennett.

According to a Harris poll in late May, the tea party movement is growing in prominence. About 85 percent of Americans have heard of it, and almost 40 percent of Americans say they support it.

Yet, the movement remains little understood by much of the media. Stories tend to focus on the movement's most colorful characters - the folks who dress up in Revolutionary-era garb, the Second Amendment advocates who go to rallies toting guns, and the birthers who insist that President Obama is the tool of international socialist forces. To readers, the message often is: These folks are weird....