Posted on 01/28/2011 9:11:17 AM PST by Mozilla
WASHINGTON — Although dozens of Republicans sailed into office with the help of the tea party movement last year, finding a self-identified "Tea Party Republican" on Capitol Hill is harder than you'd think.
The first meeting of the Senate tea party caucus on Thursday attracted just four senators — out of a possible 47 GOP members — willing to describe themselves as members. The event was as notable for who wasn't there, than who was.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), once a tea party darling, has for now declined to join the caucus, whose first meeting was organized by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican whose campaign sprung from the small government movement, has passed for now. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) showed up to address the group of activists Thursday, but then hustled out of the room, ignoring reporters' questions about whether he was in or out.
The reluctance shows how the purposefully disjointed movement and its crop of outspoken and controversial leaders, although a powerful force in a campaign known as the "year of the tea party," are still viewed as risky allies even for conservative politicians.
(snip)
More than 50 Republicans joined the House tea party caucus in July, during the campaign season. A membership list for the new Congress will be released in February, according to the office of caucus chairwoman Rep. Michele Bachmann.
But several new Republicans have said they're uncertain whether they'll join the House tea party caucus, citing worries about demands on their time and an early focus on constituent services.
Bachmann and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who along with Paul, DeMint and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined the Senate caucus, have sought to answers such concerns by billing meetings as listening sessions rather than strategy sessions.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Liars and cowards, all of them.
Sounds like rhinos in the ranks.
Let me paraphrase the article.
“Ha-ha, the fascists are falling apart!”
Challenge them in the primaries if they don’t do what you want.
Senator Toomey, disparage the Pennsylvania Tea party and you won’t be re-elected. We won’t forget.
Yet another example of an unintended consequence of the 17th Amendment with the direct election of Senators without reducing the term of office from the original 6 years. The Progressive movement began tearing down the Republic over 100 years ago and continues apace yet today.
That, to the lamestream media, is the biggest sin of all. I hope Toomey embraces the Tea Party and the ideals it represents, but he nonetheless scored points with me by blowing off the meat-picking press vultures.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Sometimes, you just gotta flush twice.
Keep your eye on Rubio - he’s the biggest RINO/opportunist of them all.
He’s got the blessing of Rove, the Bushes, etc.
Establishment, Amnesty-loving, RINO or the worst variety.
According to this article, Rubio questions the need for a Tea Party Caucus saying it should stay grass-roots. But he is joining the Republican Steering Committee, a conservative group that has been long established and meets to talk policy.
Freepers and Tea Partiers need to go to their repub Congressman’s and Senator’s local meetings, speak to their staffs directly on the phone, etc., and calmly but completely clearly let them know to forget about business as usual.
People whose families have been Republican for 150 years are turning their backs on them in favor of a Conservative / Tea Party perspective.
The Repub party the past few decades has become part of the problem with gov’t spending, expanding control and the movement away from Judeo-Christian values.
If a Repub wants any support from the Conservative base, they will have zero wiggle room on all conservative issues. Conservatives have woken up and realized that it’s better for a campaign loss to a left-winger Democrat here and there to get the old wannabee Repubs out, then keep coming back every election cycle with grassroots voter enlightenment and putting a real conservative on our ticket. Then when a conservative is elected, they are not a faker and part of the problem, but part of the solution.
Castle in DE was a great example of this; his voting record would not advance conservative changes, so he would be zero help to conservatism - good riddance.
As the U.S. continues its downward spiral, more and more people will shift to the right. Exactly like Britain under Chamberlain; the bombs had to literally be falling on them before they got busy and put Churchill into power and went to war in earnest.
Us conservative / tea party people are simply admitting to ourselves right now that the U.S. has fundamental problems, where liberals keep thinking things are normal and we will bounce back automatically even with our behemoth government on our backs.
Perfect.
Well, most of the tea-party-backed senate candidates lost, so is this really so surprising? O’Donnell, Miller, Buck, Angle, Raese, — none of them actually won, so they can’t join the caucus. You certainly weren’t expecting Murkowski or Mark Kirk to join when the Tea Party ran primaries against them, or the sitting senators who already have been told they are getting a tea party challenge in 2012.
About the only real surprise is Rubio, although he explained that he thinks the tea party should stay a grass-root movement, and not be coopted by elected representatives. I tend to agree with him, plus I hate the idea of “caucus” divisions in the house and senate anyway.
It's simple, the Tea Party needs to emerge during elections to oust those politicians who do not keep campaign promises and to support those who do and candidates who support the Constitution.
The GOP establishment detests the tea party movement. Why?
I’d like to see Sarah Palin’s take on this issue. IMO, if she is to run for president, it’ll be the tea party folks that win it for her.
I hereby nominte this for Post of the Day.
Thanks...
OC
Fair enough. But what I hate is having a team on the field wearing our jerseys but not defending our goal.
We're watching what they do, and the SRM can't cover for them any more.
Early days for a caucus. After the next election they’ll be beating down the doors to get in.
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