In a surprising development that sets the stage for a dramatic political showdown, tea party and grass-roots conservatives tell Newsmax they have seized control of Utah's GOP delegate system, and are now in a position to select which candidates will represent the party in the midterm elections.
"Our feeling is that the majority of the Republican Party delegates are now tea party people," Brian Halladay, one of the founders of the grass-roots Utah Rising organization, tells Newsmax.
Utah GOP leaders say they can't be sure, but concede the activists' assessment may be accurate.
For as long as the Utah Tea Party is on the side of the angels (us!), that is good news, and what I think most local and state Tea Parties should aim for. Third party bids are not viable, and the best way forward that I can see is to take over the GOP machinery and return the GOP to its republican roots.
The next item is a little more disturbing:
When the Tea Party Express last week endorsed Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick — the only Democrat to receive the backing of the conservative grassroots group — one of his Republican challengers said he was simply baffled to learn the news, considering Minnick’s past votes that line up with Democrats on bailouts, the estate tax and Guantanamo Bay.
“He voted for Nancy Pelosi. I mean all these things — I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. This is the guy you guys want to get behind nationally?’” said Republican Vaughn Ward, an active Marine Corps reserve officer whose candidacy for Minnick’s seat was endorsed by Sarah Palin.
The Tea Party Express caused some stir a year ago when it attempted to hijack the Sacramento Tea Party. From what I remember of the issue, the TPE is not an organic member of the Tea Party but rather an entity of Our Country Deserves Better PAC which explicitly raises funds for Republicans. The Tea Party Patriots, which is a loose "organization" (if you can call it that) of Tea Party groups around the country, had tried to maintain nonpartisanship and distanced itself from the TPE.
Unfortunately, the TPE is much more media savvy and has portrayed itself as the voice of the Tea Party.
I guess that comes from not having an actual leader to the movement: anyone can just step up and claim the mantle.
Anyway, knowing the background of the TPE and the actual Tea Party and the fact that the TPE's name is misleading, TPE's endorsements shouldn't really count for much, especially not in the context of the Tea Party.
TPE does not have a grassroots movement under it. From what I can tell, all it has are shiny buses and media connections. The Idaho Tea Partiers have every right to tell the TPE to buzz off.
Finally, this bad turn in a Tea Party event in South Carolina:
Over the weekend, an even-crazier-than-usual Tea Party event was held in Greenville, South Carolina, and it was, by one account, "probably the craziest, most violence-strewn Tea Party event so far."
Put it this way: former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) was the keynote speaker, and he called on Americans to send President Obama "back" to Kenya. He was preceded by a Baptist preacher who said he's prepared to "suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what [the military] trained me to do."
But it was William Gheen, the head of a right-wing, anti-immigrant effort called Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, whose remarks were especially ugly. Lindsey Graham wasn't on hand for the event, but Gheen addressed the senator directly: "I'm a tolerant person. I don't care about your private life, Lindsey, but as our U.S. Senator I need to figure out why you're trying to sell out your own countrymen, and I need to make sure you being gay isn't it."
Granted that this was made through the filter of TPM's glasses, but still. We don't need this kind of rhetoric in the Tea Party. It validates every feverish left-wing paranoid delusion that we'll never hear the end of now.
We should be about ideas and principles, and those are about fiscal conservatism and a constitutionally-limited government. Immigration and birther talk should not be a key part of the Tea Party platform.
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