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Brewing tensions between the Tea Party and GOP ("The giant has been awakened")
Reuters ^ | 2010-03-18 | Nick Carey, Ed Stoddard, & David Morgan

Posted on 03/19/2010 7:27:00 AM PDT by rabscuttle385

MANISTEE, Mich./WACO, Texas/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some Tea Partiers say they can pinpoint the precise moment when they made it clear to the Republican Party they had no intention of being its lapdog.

On a bright, brisk afternoon in mid-February, with snow still thick on the ground from storms that had battered Washington the week before, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele met with more than 50 members of the Tea Party, the Twitter Age conservative movement that is reshaping the U.S. political landscape.

Steele, RNC chairman since January 2009, had invited them to the plush Capitol Hill Club, built as a clubhouse for the party's top brass next door to RNC headquarters.

According to several accounts, not long into the meeting JoAnn Abbott, an activist from Virginia who calls herself the 'Tea Party Grandma,' raised her hand to ask a question.

She asked about a web page on the RNC site where visitors could send their member of Congress a postcard with a tea bag. On the tag at the end of the string were the letters 'RNC.'

"Respectfully, sir, while we do not have a trademark on the tea bag, you are well aware that people associate it with the Tea Party movement," Abbott, 50, recalls saying to Steele. "If you co-opt that image, you damage our brand and weaken our movement."

Lest there was any confusion, she added: "It does not belong to you, it belongs to us as an independent movement."

Abbott said within an hour of the end of the meeting the page (www.teaparty.gop.com) was gone -- and the Grand Old Party was finally aware of conservative frustrations she and others felt with Republican leadership.

"The GOP now knows we're not asleep anymore," Abbott told Reuters. "The giant has been awakened."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: allenwest4prez; godblessteaparty; mclamesrinoparty; rinodinosaurs; rinomccain; rinoparty; rinopukesteele; rinoromney; rinos4obama; rinosdontgetit; rinosteele; rnc; steele; teaparty; teapartyrebellion
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1 posted on 03/19/2010 7:27:00 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
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To: rabscuttle385

“Some Tea Partiers say they can pinpoint the precise moment when they made it clear to the Republican Party they had no intention of being its lapdog”

Like the man said:

“Lead, follow or get out of the way!”


2 posted on 03/19/2010 7:28:50 AM PDT by SMARTY ("What luck for rulers that men do not think. " Adolph Hitler)
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To: rabscuttle385
This is a Reuters story. They are friends of neither Republicans nor the Tea Party Movement.

Frankly I've read more than one story that some of Reuter's reporters are literally in bed with Democrat members of Congress.

3 posted on 03/19/2010 7:31:28 AM PDT by muawiyah ("Git Out The Way")
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To: rabscuttle385
ROTFLMAO

Nothing worse than a sheep stampede!! 2010 is going to be interesting, to say the least. Throw ALL of them out.

4 posted on 03/19/2010 7:32:28 AM PDT by ASOC (In case of attack, tune to 640 kilocycles or 1240 kilocycles on your AM dial.)
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To: rabscuttle385
Rasmussen uses crap like this too. He says: in a 3 way choice it's Dems 34 GOP 27 TEA 21, but THERE IS NO TEA Party Party and contrary to what these geniuses think Americans are too smart to let the Democrats off the hook with a third party vote.
5 posted on 03/19/2010 7:34:58 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: SMARTY

Good! The GOP has no business usurping the Tea Party organization or convoluting their message. No one needs to come (Dick Armey included) and derail this train!!!!!


6 posted on 03/19/2010 7:35:01 AM PDT by K-oneTexas (I'm not a judge and there ain't enough of me to be a jury. (Zell Miller, A National Party No More))
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To: rabscuttle385
I've noticed many stories lately trying to foment trouble between the Tea Party and the Republican Party, like they want Tea Partiers to go out and form a true third party. The MSM and the Dems would LOVE that, because that means the Dems would be in a permanent majority.

Let's continue to ignore the MSM on this issue, and work hard to reform the Republican Party from WITHIN, while still doing our Tea Party thing. The more we are visible, speaking our message of smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes, the more pressure the Republicans will feel. The Democrats will continue to put us down in derogatory terms, but we can just continue to ignore them.

7 posted on 03/19/2010 7:35:05 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: rabscuttle385
Such tension is natural and healthy.

Such tension is ALWAYS there, when the GOP is gaining power, VS the Democrats.

I have been politically active for 30 years. This is easy to understand:

Political Parties, at the County level, are often dominated by the Municipal Bond and Road Construction types, the Court House folks.

Issues, of ANY kind, tend to gum up the works for them.

I would urge the Tea Party folks to run for local precinct offices, fight the “old guard” Party hacks, in the primary, and WIN -—

But I would also encourage you, after the Primary, to reach out to the SAME “old guard” and convince them that we can be honest and competent on local issues, as well!

8 posted on 03/19/2010 7:35:07 AM PDT by Kansas58
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To: rabscuttle385

“Steele, RNC chairman since January 2009, had invited them to the plush Capitol Hill Club, built as a clubhouse for the party’s top brass next door to RNC headquarters.”

The invisible man speaks...screw him.


9 posted on 03/19/2010 7:35:36 AM PDT by jessduntno (A third party has risen; we have the Republicans, the Tea Party and the Deemocrats.)
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To: rabscuttle385

The GOP is getting too Old. Hopefully the Tea Party will mean death to the GOP, to be replaced by a party that cares about the Constitution.


10 posted on 03/19/2010 7:37:14 AM PDT by IntolerantOfTreason (The AMERICAN President should be an AMERICAN, NOT an AFRICAN-American)
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To: SMARTY
The Republicans proved they can't be trusted.
The liberal republicans like mccain and spector are more vile than 0bama and his crew.
I hope the Tea Partiers don't become the useful idiots of the liberal Republican Elites.
11 posted on 03/19/2010 7:37:53 AM PDT by trickyricky
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To: jessduntno

Hey Steele how’s that book tour going A$$ Hole


12 posted on 03/19/2010 7:39:23 AM PDT by 70th Division (I love my country but fear my government!)
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To: rabscuttle385

The RNC is a corrupt entity that has no interest in the reforms necessary to get America back on the correct path. Micheal Steele (who I supported after Blackwell conceded) has turned the RNC into a personal slush fund for himself and the rest of the Country Club Republicans.

Until there is real change from the top all the way down to the people that answer the phones the RNC should be considered as much an enemy of the state as Barack Obama...

(And to think that I was a proud RNC contributor only 2 short years ago.)


13 posted on 03/19/2010 7:39:35 AM PDT by MNlurker
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To: rabscuttle385

good, Lindsay Graham in particular needs to feel a little tea party tension


14 posted on 03/19/2010 7:41:10 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: K-oneTexas

The Republican Party has not had an original thought in well over 30 years. They are the MINORITY PARTY for a reason.


15 posted on 03/19/2010 7:42:28 AM PDT by A_Tradition_Continues (formerly known as Politicalwit ...05/28/98 Class of '98)
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To: K-oneTexas

“Good! The GOP has no business usurping the Tea Party organization or convoluting their message. No one needs to come (Dick Armey included) and derail this train!!!!!”

Indeed! Armey, Steele, and too many GOP are opportunists and the problem. We can’t clean out the democrats until we have the courage and honesty to clean the scum out of the republican party.


16 posted on 03/19/2010 7:44:41 AM PDT by AuntB (WE are NOT a nation of immigrants! We're a nation of Americans! http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/)
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To: trickyricky
The liberal republicans like mccain and spector are more vile than 0bama and his crew.

No, they're not.

17 posted on 03/19/2010 7:46:18 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: muawiyah
Frankly I've read more than one story that some of Reuter's reporters are literally in bed with Democrat members of Congress.

They are. The only way the Dems can beat back the potential butt kicking next November is to drive a large wedge between the Tea Party movement and the Republican party.

The government media will do anything to help them. Watch for a big push for a third party by supposed tea party members.

18 posted on 03/19/2010 7:46:28 AM PDT by painter (No wonder democrats don't mind taxes.THEY DON'T PAY THEM !)
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To: IntolerantOfTreason

The GOP will be taken over by the Tea Party ideology, but will remain the GOP in name.


19 posted on 03/19/2010 7:48:02 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: trickyricky

I don’t think McCain and Specter hate the country as it was founded like the 0bamites do.


20 posted on 03/19/2010 7:49:05 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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