Posted on 04/21/2011 12:19:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
....A West Palm Beach-based group called Tea Party in Action is being criticized by other tea party groups who allege the organization is a front for the Republican Party of Florida and a hired gun for special interest groups in Tallahassee. The group’s executive director, Marianne Moran, dismisses the allegations.
The issue came to a head last week when Moran testified before a Senate committee on behalf of a bill to ban unions from using payroll deduction to collect dues.
“What does this bill have to do with Tea Party principle of limited government?’’ asked Henry Kelley, president of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party, in a letter to senators. “I can’t see why a legislature focused on limited government in a right-to-work state wants to tell union people what to do with their paychecks.’’
Other tea party critics complain that while Moran appears in front of lawmakers promoting her organization and an alliance of 130 other conservative groups, she doesn’t speak for all tea party activists.
“Marianne Moran seems to be a tea party of one,’’ said Apryl Marie Fogel of Americans For Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers. “I don’t know anyone who has ever been to a meeting. She is one person who tries to sound like she is the spokesperson for the group.
[snip]
Everett Wilkinson, of the South Florida Tea Party Patriots worked with Moran in founding the South Florida Tea Party but has since parted ways. He said that Moran’s organization is not the only one that attempts to present themselves as a grass-roots group.
“I want to make sure we stay legitimate and these other organizations are political consultants based in D.C. and don’t represent the tea party,” he said. “Unfortunately, no one owns the name Tea Party.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
““Unfortunately, no one owns the name Tea Party.’’
Unfortunately?
[excerpt] ...............“For many of us, we’ve gone to so many rallies over three years that our sentiment toward large-scale gatherings is, ‘Been there, done that,’” said Dallas tea party leader Lorie Medina. “The movement has evolved so that all the individuals that stood on the street corner with a sign are now fighting to restore America in much more substantive ways.”
In her hometown, she said, the tea party is working on a municipal ballot proposition to revoke bonds on a taxpayer-funded arts hall. A few miles north, tea partyers are fighting with the state transportation department on eminent-domain issues. And all the tea parties in her county are working with local and state elected officials on redistricting, she said. “This is real change,” she said. “Liberals, beware.”
Tea party activists — ordinary people who poured out of the woodwork on Sept. 12, 2009, not to protest taxation without representation but to speak out against spending without restraint — say they’ve learned that revolution is real work.
“What we are seeing is a maturation of our movement. When it has come to generating pressure on legislators to cut government or vote, the activists are fully engaged,” said media strategist Soren Dayton, who worked on the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain. “A year or two ago, it was about getting the public aware of the issues. Now it is about making sure that the politicians that they helped elect make the right choices in office.”
Even if the tea party and its allies turn out to be less than what met the eye a year or so ago, the underlying force, like a subterranean river, is there...... [end excerpt]
Problem is that the Tea Party movement in Florida has been really corrupted with RINO and other groups
In Orlando, it was a big problem. Many were upset that the Tea Party pushed Dan Webster to replace Alan Grayson....Webster is no real conservative.
And neither is Marco Rubio. Do not know why people fell for his phony conservatism. He is Open Borders and Global Warming
Boston Tea Party=MA Republican Party
The way Hannity pushes Marco Rubio, you’d think Sean has a man crush.
I have been thinking the reason the establishment GOP wants to quash the Obama BC issue because they plan to put Rubio on the ticket to please hispanic voters.
I am not sure Rubio is eligible either.
Sorry to be the contrarian, but it looks to me like Moran is the one who is looking out for limited government, and Kelley is a useful idiot shilling for the unions.
There is NO WAY you can have limited government if government-employee unions have dues withheld from their state-issued checks. Those monies feed directly to the party in power, who interest is to grow government to increase their power, thus increasing dues receipts. It's a positive feedback loop, and the only constraint on it is how much money the union can extort from the state.
Why would ANY Tea Party type take up for government unions?
Nailed it.
Local tea party here in Venice, FL gets it. Sarah gets it. Like the man said, "Anyone can say they are tea party."
The proof is in the pudding and the pudding is the work being done in local government all over the country by patriots who are restoring government by the people.
The revolution is upon us. Are you fully engaged?
Orlando was lucky that someone of Webster's stature was willing to take on and defeat that mudslinger Grayson before he got a real foothold in Congress.
Not surprised considering Sean Hannity is a lukewarm mushy around the middle conservative at best and that is being rather charitable.
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