Ned & Jim Ryun ATTACKING the Tea Party for news coverage: “Defective” Tea Party Leaders?

Red State ^ | November 30, 2010 | Jon Moseley

[Moseley]

Jim and Ned Ryun are now presuming to be leaders of the tea party movement through their organization "American Majority." Their marketing strategy is to sell their souls pleasing the liberal news media by attacking tea party candidates like Sharon Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. The Ryuns are taking their 30 pieces of silver paid in undeserved, favorable news coverage.

However, the Founder of the Northern Virginia Tea Party -- whose territory covers American Majority's headquarters -- says he has never heard of them. The American Majority website lists Purcellville, Virginia, as their headquarters. Purcellville is in Loudoun County, one of the four main Counties covered by the Northern Virginia Tea party.

NVTP’s founder Ron Wilcox explains: “If the Ryuns had been active in the tea party movement since February 2009, I would have heard of them. The Ryuns are not found anywhere in NVTP’s extensive contact list of tea party supporters. They have never attended any of our numerous events. They have never contacted us about their training or other activities.” The Ryuns’ American Majority project claims to have been training tea party activists at least since the Spring, but somehow never mentioned it to the tea party groups located right next door in Fairfax, Virginia. Ron Wilcox will speak on the record: (703) 939-5896. http://www.NorthernVirginiaTeaParty.com

A search of the Federal Election Commission website shows a total of $0.00 raised and $0.00 spent by the Virginia-based American Majority Action, Inc. in the 2009-2010 election cycle.

Similarly, their website at www.AmericanMajority.com has been inactive until recently. The internet archiving website "Way Back Machine" shows that the Ryuns' American Majority project website had some activity from 2001 to early 2005, but had no content after February 2005, until just recently. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.americanmajority.org. So their website was inactive until late in 2010.

So, the Ryuns were not significant players in the tea party movement or the 2010 elections. They want to tell us what happened in 2010 although they were not there. They are trying to run in front of the parade to tell the tea party movement what the tea party should do, including unfairly attacking Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell. They claim to have engaged in some training in Kansas, but never offered their training to tea parties near their official headquarters in Purcellville, Virginia.

Ned Ryun’s comments to The Politico are offensive to most tea party members: Ryun said: “I don't blame them, since most of these people are so new to the process, and they don't know anything beyond the protests.” http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/09/tea-party-running-out-of-money/

Ron Wilcox, Founder of the Northern Virginia Tea Party, explained: “The tea parties do not need these groups coming along and telling us what we believe in or what candidates we should support. Those in the tea party already know what we believe. That is the very reason why we have gotten out of our living rooms and into the public square. We are tired of elites telling us what to think. The tea party movement believes we remember American values that the elites have cynically forgotten."

The Ryuns’ claim that they will create a ‘more sophisticated’ tea party movement. Yet the Ryuns’ own blunder of attacking leading tea party heroes like Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle showed a lack of sophistication, political skill, and even common manners. Similarly, the Ryuns talking down to tea party members like ignorant children is offensive and lacks the "sophistication" that the Ryuns claim to be offering. While the tea party is diverse, many members know more about politics and elections than the Ryuns do.

Before taking cheap shots at Christine O'Donnell or Sharon Angle, the Ryuns should understand that unfair attacks in politics are no indication of a person's quality or competence. In fact, the greatest 'threats' in politics attract the sharpest and strongest attacks.

The Ryuns themselves come under such attacks, yet don't appreciate that this is a normal part of politics. For example, the website "Left Brain Kansas" posted: "Ned Ryun...crazier than his dad?" http://leftbrainkansas.blogspot.com/2008/05/ned-ryuncrazier-than-his-dad.html

The Ryuns were (unfairly) featured in a website "Crooks and Liars": "What do you do when you live in Kansas, are the twin sons of disgraced Kansas Congressman Jim Ryun and you have access to a whole lot of money? What else? Start a non-profit organization to raise up a 'grassroots army'." http://crooksandliars.com/taxonomy/term/4803,13060

The Ryuns have themselves attracted the same kind of attacks from the Left as Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell. Yet, the Ryuns' hypocrisy in judging others for the same kind of issues proves the Ryuns are simply cashing in on the tea party. They are not sincere.

Are we to call the Ryuns' "defective tea party leaders" because of their weaknesses -- because they have been attacked by the Left?

Will the Ryuns teach their candidates and activists that the personal attacks against O'Donnell and Angle have been a staple of the Left for decades? Will they teach the party to join forces behind their candidate the way Democrats do? Will the Ryuns teach candidates and campaign leaders that a party cannot be succeed by forming a circular firing squad?

For example, Barack Obama has said an amazing number of crazy things: He visited 57 States. The US Constitution is 20 centuries old. He wants to put more inefficiencies in the health care system. Obama said "The time has changed to come." On and on.

SEE: http://www.ObamaGaffes.org (NOT .com)

And yet the Democrats and the mainstream media close ranks and defend their man. The Democrats know how to defend their candidates against attacks. Moderate Republicans join in the attacks to sink Republican candidates.

We obviously agree that training future candidates is a great idea. But what kind of training will it be?

The Ryuns will need to train candidates that the same old attacks and themes used against Christine O'Donnell and Sharon Angle have been used against almost every conservative since Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Goldwater, of course, was not a social conservative, and yet the personal attacks were the same.

To train a future crop of candidates, the Ryuns must learn what the founder of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln, taught us:

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND.

Teaching candidates to attack each other within their own party is not going to be a recipe for success. We expect that the Ryuns would be toast if they ran for political office against both their own party and the Democrat party like Christine O'Donnell did.. I am not sure what the Ryuns actually know about running a campaign worth teaching to a future crop of tea party candidates.

The Ryuns start their enterprise by selling their souls to the liberal news media for a little favorable news coverage. Will they really stand up to the political insiders and elites with the same courage as Christine O"Donnell and Sharon Angle? Having begun by selling themselves for favorable news coverage, where will they end up?

[albie]

Ned and Jim Ryun!? Are they married?

[Doc Savage]

This is why God gave us fists.

[stevem]

attacking Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell.

No one with Tea Party empathy would attack these two.

[Moseley]

This is why God gave us fists.

I am still laughing. You say so much in so few words

[Marie Antoinette]

I went to one of their seminars in... September? It was pretty informal. I knew a lot of what was covered already, but I did learn a little about targeting different areas for individual candidates. Probably common knowledge to those well versed in campaign strategies, which many of the tea partiers I know *are not* (well versed). Our trainer did state the AM was a non-partisan organization, FWIW.

[healy61]

According to the article they are the twin sons of Jim Ryun from Kansas.

[albie]

“According to the article they are the twin sons of Jim Ryun from Kansas”.

...Thanks! Missed that.

[Drawsing]

Jim Ryun held the world record, 3:51.1 in the mile run for many years and ran the 1500 meters in the Olympics. My younger brother attended his running camp one summer in the 1980s.

[JaguarXKE]

I saw one of these posers on (I think) Fox. These guys are NOT the Tea Party.

[Crichton]

So in the same breath that he viciously attacks the Ryun sons, Jon Moseley claims that conservatives should not be attacking each other, and pits multiple wannabe tea party leaders against each other.

Brilliant.

[Moseley]

I went to one of their seminars in... September? It was pretty informal.

I have no doubt that *NOW* they are in fact running training seminars... to cash in.

But they are pretending to be leaders in the tea party movement and pretending to speak for the tea party movement.

There are lots of people who provide candidate training and political training. More power to them. But they are not tea party leaders and have not played any significant role in the tea party movement. So they cannot pretend to speak for tea party protestors.

[Moseley]

So in the same breath that he viciously attacks the Ryun sons, Jon Moseley claims that conservatives should not be attacking each other, and pits multiple wannabe tea party leaders against each other.

It is unfortuante that when poseurs attack conservatives, they have to be stopped. Those who have no shame have to be called on the carpet. RESPONDING to their attacks is necessary and unavoidable. You cannot equate the two.

Your logic is like liberal logic creating moral equivalence between a criminal who robs a store with a gun and a police officer who also uses a gun to arrest the criminal. That's liberal thinking.

John McCain made his career on attacking conservatives. His entire career was built on: "Will attack conservatives in exchange for face time on TV."

The Ryuns are doing the same thing. They are trying to market their seminar training business by getting news coverage PRETENDING to be tea party leaders who are attacking conservative leaders.

[Crichton]

It is unfortuante that when poseurs attack conservatives, they have to be stopped.

The Ryuns are "poseurs" because you've decided they are and defined them as the enemy. That's the same behavior as those altruistic McCain-Romney surrogates who have defined Palin as the enemy and continually attack her.

Polite disagreement is plenty.

This epic of demonization that you've joined up with is counter-productive.

[Crichton]

.... epic -> epidemic

[Moseley]

The Ryuns are "poseurs" because you've decided they are and defined them as the enemy

No, they are poseurs because the tea party groups right next to their official address on their website have never heard of them.

They claim to be doing all this training for tea party groups. Yet they never contacted the regional tea party that includes their headquarters? You believe that?

The NVTP did have training -- from someone else!

The leader, John Grigsby, who arranged the training lives about 2 miles from the official address listed on American Majority's website. He never heard of them. He is one of the organizers of the tea party in Northern VIrginia. Yet when he went looking for training, he had never heard of American Majority 2 miles from where he lives.

The NVTP has gotten tremendous news coverage in Virginia. Yet American Majority is so totally uninvolved in the tea party movement that they never noticed. We went to the statewide tea party convention. Didn't hear about them there, either.

[Crichton]

No, they are poseurs because the tea party groups right next to their official address on their website have never heard of them.

Admitting you have no clue about a group in your own back yard is not a great selling point.

They claim to be doing all this training for tea party groups. Yet they never contacted the regional tea party that includes their headquarters? You believe that?

Why not? It seems that they're a group with national focus, headquartered in VA but with most of their activity coming in middle America, from Texas to Minnesota.

You've seen Erick Erickson's response, where he called you out for your ill-founded attacks on this conservative activist group.

So what if they didn't stroke your ego by kow-towing to some regional self-appointed tea party leaders?

Get over it. Conservative groups don't have to get your personal blessing to have a HQ in northern VA.

[Gondring]

Jon Moseley is always good for some laughs.

[Moseley]

No, Crichton, they are *LYING*

I saw Erick cut and paste from their press release. The problem is that the Ryuns’ press release ISN’T TRUE. You can cut and paste all you want from their promotional materials. The question is... is it TRUE?

If they were actually involved in the tea party movement, they would be involved in the tea party in their own backyard.

NOTE: We are not talking about whether they are VENDORS (which is what they actually are).

They are running a BUSINESS providing (bad) training.

They are NOT tea party leaders.

I do not dispute that the Ryuns are profiteering by running a training / seminar business.

But they could not be tea party leaders without EAGERLY getting to know the tea party groups in their own bakcyard. They could not be truly interested in the tea party movement and NOT reach out to the tea party group in their area.

When someone truly cares about and is part of the tea party movement, they would be showing up at events right in their backyard, calling up the NVTP on the phone, getting on the mailing list... and suggesting training.

When the NVTP held campaign training, the guy who lives 2 miles from American Majority’s official address in Purcellville never heard of them and used a DIFFERENT company to provide campaign training to the NVTP.

THey may be cash-hungry profiteers seeking to be vendors.

But tea party leaders, they ain’t.

[redhead]

More people who haven’t the foggiest idea of what tea parties are all about. Of course, that COULD work in our favor, but to my knowledge, tea parties are EVENTS, not organizations. That’s the reason the left hasn’t been able to pin us down and undermine us. It might be one of the reasons they attack Sarah Palin like they do: they perceive her as the “leader” of the tea parties. A leader, she most certainly is, but she is not the “head” of any organization that I know of.