The past year was certainly an interesting one in politics - the growth of the tea party movement, the "shellacking" Republicans handed Democrats in November's congressional elections, and the refusal of Connecticut voters to go with the flow.

How it all plays out in 2011 should be fascinating, setting the stage for a 2012 presidential election that will determine whether Democrats, and President Obama, recover from their recent drubbing or if Republicans recapture control of Washington.

While the emergence of the tea-party faithful as a political force may have cost Republicans a couple of Senate seats when candidates with some bizarre views won primaries - see Nevada and Delaware - on balance the movement clearly benefited the Grand Old Party.

This sea of colonial-garb wearing, sign-carrying Americans helped renew the party after it lost control of the White House and saw its congressional ranks dwindle in the 2008 election.

Republicans found their fiscal-conservative voice. An economic stimulus package and complex health care bill forced through Congress by the Democratic majority was the perfect fuel to fire the anti-government, anti-spending rhetoric.

Now, however, Republicans have a large majority in the House and will have to govern. As conservative as they may be, the Republican leaders - incoming House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - are also political pragmatists. You don't rise to that leadership level without making deals and compromises.

But the goals of many in the tea party movement and the new lawmakers they helped elect are radical. While veteran Republicans in Washington talk of eliminating waste and stopping government growth, a new breed of fiscal conservatives demand dismantling agencies and ending the "nanny state" of human services supporting the needy.

How the Republican leadership manages tea-party expectations will be one of the interesting Washington stories in 2011. If the tea party faithful are disappointed with the Republican commitment to reducing government, and they almost certainly will be, a new party could emerge.

For Democrats and the Obama administration, meanwhile, the challenge will be winning back those in the political center, voters turned off by the sluggish recovery and high unemployment and alarmed by the massive deficits. Yet at the same time many Democrats who see a need to re-energe the liberal wing are upset with the tax deal, the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the economic divide between rich and poor.

It may prove impossible for the president to keep both camps happy. He has already signaled a move to the political center with his tax deal. Whether President Obama can capture those middle-of-the-road voters who swing back-and-forth from one election to the next will determine whether he gets a second term. Yet if he alienates the left in the process, those voters may just stay home.

In Connecticut, the dynamics are far different. While most of the nation was electing Republicans, Nutmeggers re-elected all five Democratic congressmen in 2010, elected Democrat Richard Blumenthal to replace the retiring Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, and seated the first Democratic governor in 20 years, Dan Malloy, who will preside over large Democratic majorities in the legislature.

Watch out what you wish for. Solving the $3.5 billion state deficit now rests entirely with the Democrats. There will be no Republican foil in the governor's office to blame. It won't take too long to learn whether the governor-elect is ready to demand spending cuts or turns largely to tax hikes.

Politics - it may be the best participatory sport.