Are tea partiers wasting their time with recall petitions against senators?

“There’s two trains of thought,” said RoseAnn Salanitri, a 60-year-old, stay-at-home mom who said she came to the idea of pushing for the Menendez recall after doing months of research on the law. “It can be [a loss] if we were inclined to roll over and play dead if they don’t agree with our position.”

But “we’re prepared to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if need be. Sure, [that would] stall the petition drive in New Jersey, but should it go to the U.S. Supreme Court, it literally opens the door to the entire country to do this. This is not Vegas — what happens in Jersey won’t stay in Jersey.”

Not everyone agrees.

“A recall effort of a U.S. senator is a massive waste of time; it’s a legal impossibility,” said Dan Gerstein, a strategist who’s worked for Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — another frequent target of recall activism, albeit from the left.

“Courts have ruled, it’s a settled matter, and the only thing the tea partiers will do by pursuing it is show how naive and ineffectual they are,” Gerstein added.