| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Tea Party snubs GOP leaders |
| 2010-04-16 |
| The Tea Party is hosting a Tax Day rally on Thursday in Washington, but the Republicans leaders in the House and Senate are not invited. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) were not asked to speak at the April 15 rally in front of the Washington Monument. According to officials with Freedom Works, the organization coordinating the event, the leaders haven't redeemed themselves since backing the 2008 Wall Street bailout bill. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), who chairs Freedom Works, told The Hill, "What [Tea Party activists] are saying to the officeholders and office-seekers is, 'Earn your spurs and you can get on our stage.' There's an old line: 'We don't call you a cowboy until we can see you ride.' "How did McConnell and Boehner vote on [the Troubled Asset Relief Program]? TARP has been the acid test," Armey said. Though the four Republican leaders won't partake in the Thursday festivities, a handful of their colleagues were invited to fire up a crowd of possibly thousands, including third-ranking House GOP Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), who voted against the Wall Street rescue measure. Pence, however, will not be able to attend because he is introducing former President George W. Bush at an event in Indianapolis. Republicans Reps. Tom Price (Ga.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Steve King (Iowa) and Ron Paul (Texas) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) are scheduled to address the crowd. Price and Blackburn spoke at the Tea Party march on Washington last fall, an event organized by Armey's advocacy group as well as a coalition of fiscally conservative issues groups and Tea Party Patriots. Even though no Democratic lawmakers are scheduled to speak, organizers of Thursday's event contend it is nonpartisan. Mike Gaske, one of the national coordinators for the Tea Party Patriots, said, "This is the people's event. This is not a Republican event. It is a time for the Tea Party movement to get up and represent what the Tea Party is all about." A recent poll showed that four of every 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats (13 percent) or independents (28 percent). Politicians who voted for TARP hoping to crash the Tea Party gathering should think twice, said Max Pappas of Freedom Works. "The Bush Wall Street bailout was the tipping point, and things kept getting worse from there and we have seen Republicans booed off a stage who voted for the bailout and then suddenly talking about how fiscally responsible they wanted to be," Pappas said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Hey -- John Boehner ("Bay'-ner") has been doing a good job leading Republican opposition in the House to all the Democratic efforts. Remember back when the Democrats actually turned off the lights in the House, and Rep. Boehner led the discussion by the Republicans in the dark, twittering events to the outside world? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-04-16 22:56 |
| #8 Funny that the best, straightest reporting on this phenom is coming from TheHill.com, maybe also Politico.com. The reporters are drawn from the same milieu that NYT-WaPo-ABC-CNN etc are, but thehill.com and politico.com have a lot fewer editors looking over their backs. IOW, the problem may be the editorial hierarchy and the need for reporters to kiss the arses of those in power to advance up the ranks at the old media organizations. Eliminate the hierarchy, give reporters more freedom, and shift to the online model of politico.com and thehill.com, and perhaps we'll see fairer, more insightful coverage.... |
| Posted by: lex 2010-04-16 15:38 |
| #7 Oh hell yeah! There are problems within both parties. Rino's aren't really much better than liberal Democrats. The more of them kicked to the curb the better. |
| Posted by: Jefferson 2010-04-16 12:41 |
| #6 Top down has failed. Time for grass roots to take over. What were those famous first three words. larger than all others, written with a pride that is palpable more than 2 centuries later...? WE THE PEOPLE |
| Posted by: No I am the other Beldar 2010-04-16 12:25 |
| #5 Good for the organizers. The tea party is about smaller government and less taxes. If the RINOs can't get that through their pointy heads, they should expect to be given the cold shoulder. Then voted out. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-04-16 10:15 |
| #4 'Earn your spurs and you can get on our stage.' There's an old line: 'We don't call you a cowboy until we can see you ride.' There are good conservatives out there. The rest have failed the trust of the American people just as the Donks. Time to clean house [and Senate], and the White House in 2012. We need to get some honest people in office who don't consider office another form of long-term government welfare. Get rid of the elitists who think they are entitled. We don't need more of the same of what we've been getting for a long time. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-16 09:08 |
| #3 I like this...the Tea Party ought to be the mechanism by which that watch-dogs and scares politicians into staying true to fiscal conservatism and core Constitutional principles - the Tea Party should never become a wing of the GOP...I almost always vote GOP at the national level but am sick of so many of them being Dem-lite or feeling this pathetic need to be liked by the D.C. cocktail party circuit... |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2010-04-16 09:05 |
| #2 a RINO is just as bad as a donk... at least with the donk, you know up front you are gonna get screwed. |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2010-04-16 01:25 |
| #1 McConnell is a mush, not much better than McCain or Graham - basic Beltway insiders. Part of the problem, and in the way of the solution. They better get it into their pointed little heads _ the top of the GOP has failed, and we are just as likely to vote them out in a primary. Ask Bennett of Utah how that's working. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-04-16 01:22 |