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 ...
.....................
It's not like the GOP-e has a spotless record in this regard...
There is room for a massive opposition party in America right now.
Pro-American in trade, and pro-American in everything else.
Neither party has lived up to that job. We are exporting our industry, and our future.
America please rise once again. Stop exporting our jobs, and start building stuff in America again.
Now.
Palin had a great 2012, giving us Cruz and Fischer.
What do you mean? Democrats have locked in there vote with your money. I’m sure they are thinking Obama has done a fine job.
We must fling off the broken “conservative” meme which is really just outsourcing.
Outsourcing sucks. Sorry but it doesn’t help anyone in America.
Make stuff here. Stop importing so much. Stop it.
:)
(that’s a disarming smile, for a completely-serious post)
TABLE Muscle?........
Tea Partiers seem to be hiding under Glen Becks porch..
Afraid “some one” will sik their dog on them..
How do you propose we get these principled individuals that act with conviction in response to personal and local concerns to act as a compromised national collective?
Maybe we could push for a central planning body?
/s
What Sarah Palin needs to do is take on and defeat the Dem who stole the 2008 election from Ted Stevens after the media, corrupt prosecutors and the GOP threw him under the bus. We need Sarah’s voice in Washington on a regular basis, where she can work with Senators like Cruz to change the defeatist attitude that has been fostered by McConnell and McCain. Rudy Giuliani should have done the same thing in the past two elections, when he could have taken out the junior Dem Senator, instead of wasting time dabbling in presidential politics.
Correct! If you don't have any core principles then what do you have? You end up with compromises that harm conservatism in the end. We already have to many spineless Pubbies all too willing to sell out conservatism in order to get their cuts of the pie for themselves and their corrupt cronies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.