Posted on 01/08/2013 5:21:44 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Tea Party Re-Flexes Its Muscle
By Janie Lorber Roll Call Staff Jan. 7, 2013, 6:55 p.m.
The state of the tea party evokes Mark Twain: Reports of its death were an exaggeration.
Tea party activists who say they deliberately sat out the fiscal cliff debate are ready to reassert themselves as Congress and the Obama administration take up the debt ceiling and automatic spending cuts under the sequester.
The Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella organization that claims 15 million supporters, is urging its members to confront lawmakers in their districts. They want Congress to let the $109 billion in cuts stand and not increase the government’s borrowing power. And with an eye toward 2014, the nonprofit is soliciting donations and identifying targets for its newly formed political action committee.
“We have six or seven weeks to be influential here,” said Bill Pascoe, a Washington-based conservative strategist who provides weekly legislative updates to the Patriots.
“Get on their schedules, so that they understand that we are not going away, that the movement is growing up a bit,” added Jenny Beth Martin, the Patriots’ co-founder, in a conference call with supporters Sunday night.
Activists such as Martin are warning followers not to openly advocate a government shutdown as a way of resolving the debt limit talks.
During the fiscal cliff showdown, tea party activists were silent, only going public after a deal was struck to chastise those who voted for the package. They say that was all part of a plan to highlight what they see as Speaker John A. Boehner’s political weaknesses — and then deny him another term as speaker.
That plan failed, but as CQ Roll Call has reported, the attempted coup highlights a widespread and sustained opposition to the leadership of the Republican Party.
(Excerpt) Read more at cdn.rollcall.com ...
Tea Partiers need to stop backing weak and lame candidates just because they are the most conservative. How about picking the most conservative who can win? We need winners, not ideologically pure losers.
I have yet to see the Tea Party flex any muscle on a federal level.
The census bureau estimates there are 14 million registered black voters in America. Some of them are conservative. With an estimated 15 million Tea Party supporters out there we should quit getting stomped into the mud.
No. Principles are more important than victory.
I believe the Tea Party backed candidates scored a number of impressive wins in the last election.
So far there has been as much impurity as a cat house chamber pot, and they are still losers.
Kapo-conservatives, always urging surrender before the fight.
And that is what the Libs fear most (because they are willing to die for nothing).
That said, the TP needs to get organized.
This country is being overthrown...and real Americans are standing on the sidelines watching.
If we love this country and this Constitution...we need to get organized and get a plan...we need to fight for the country we love!
As long as conservative efforts are wasted on the GOP, conservatives will lose.
The Tea Party needs to recapture the spirit of 2010. What Obama has planned in the near future is a total affront to the U.S. Constitution.
Start getting Allen West going as the next presidential candidate and no more milqutoast , just n more I’ll go to the townhalls and back them because there’s no one else but they have to start going for the carotids or we’re ...hell, , just hell.
Jenny Beth Martin, the Patriots’ co-founder... warning followers not to openly advocate a government shutdown as a way of resolving the debt limit talks.
“Tea Partiers need to stop backing weak and lame candidates just because they are the most conservative. How about picking the most conservative who can win? We need winners, not ideologically pure losers”
Holy Crap! This is exactly the thinking that has gotten us the sorry lot of republican “conservatives” we have now.
Thanks for saying it.
The Tea Party needs a leader. Our movement needs leadership. And he/she needs to be tough enough to stand up to the left and their Alinsky tactics. And for the love of God, we need to push the milquetoast mush in the middle with us and stop quaking in our boots at the thought of offending them. Enough is enough, it is time to lead the sheep because as you can clearly see they are FOLLOWING the HARD, RADICAL left right of a cliff.
That is what they have been doing. Now we need to stop losers at the top of the ticket, like Romney.
Sarah Palin.
Wake up.
The Tea Party was instrumental in opposing Obamacare. However, an important test is coming up for many of them. Will they support cuts to Social Security and Medicare, two of the "big three" entitlement programs?
Each day, the number of SS and Medicare recipients increases. And, believe me, those folks vote.
If we don't cut current SS and Medicare benefits, we can't begin to solve our spending problems. I saw what happened when Ryan suggested that we cut spending on Medicare not now, but 10 years from now. The seniors are going to completely flip out when they learn that some folks are talking about cutting current benefits. But, that's what we need to do, at a minimum.
I don't know if she is the one but she is the model to follow.
Someone needs to come forward soon. There is raw power just laying there waiting for someone to come along and scoop it up. Millions of Americans without representation, hope or a place in the current system.
Principals gave us an historic victory in the 2010 sweeps, and helped us win victories this time.
The lack of principals led the GOP to a history making disaster with Mitt Romney having a face off with Jimmy Carter the second and not even being able to win the home states of the ticket.
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