Posted on 04/15/2010 6:24:41 AM PDT by Brookhaven
Just days after the first widespread tea party demonstrators hit the streets a year ago Thursday, Joe Wierzbicki, a Republican political consultant with the Sacramento firm Russo Marsh + Rogers, made a proposal to his colleagues that he said could give a boost to our PAC and position us as a growing force/leading force as the 2010 elections come into focus.
The proposal, obtained by POLITICO, was for a nationwide tea party bus tour, to be called the Tea Party Express, which over the past seven months has become among the most identifiable brands of the tea party movement. Buses emblazoned with the Tea Party Express logo have brought speakers and entertainers to rallies in dozens of small towns and big cities, including one in Boston on Wednesday that will feature former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The left is trying to cause dissention within the Tea Party movement, so they are going to jump on everything they can find and spin it to their benefit. I have no problem with someone involed in the Tea Party movement making money. Even the Bible says "the laborer deserves his wages." It takes at least some full time staff to run any organization.
The other big criticism in this story is that the Tea Party Express actually had a plan. That's a bad thing?
On the other hand, we need to be vigilant. There is no doubt there are people that would love to co-opt the Tea Party movement for their own purposes. And I'm not just talking about the GOP. There are also plenty of 3rd parties and movements built around a single person (Ron Paul supporters, for example) that are trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement for their own purposes.
What is there to discuss. Telling people that have organizing skills and understand the political landscape to take a hike.
As long as they have shared values and goals ofcourse they should be welcomed.
You never turn away talent.
The only way to defuse this tripe is to attack liberal GOPers just as vigorously as we attack the Socialist Democrats.
I saw this was the lead story on Olberman last night. He is pushing it as some evil plot.
PS
I occasionally flip to Olberman bacause (1) I have an uncle that watches MSNBC religiously, and gets no news from anywhere else; and (2) I feel like I need to know what the spin comming from the hard left is.
Nothing ever written in Politico is reliable. They have no credibility as they are a wholly owned entity of the far far left.
" Before its tea party days, however,
the PAC aired ads praising Palin,
both during and after her unsuccessful GOP vice presidential campaign,
for serving the people of America with a servants heart,
standing up to the liberal media and teaching her son
about the honor and valor of serving in our nations armed forces.
ping
Politicio (sic) is proRINO proROMNEY anti Gov.Palin.
I agree with you, but the left is pushing this story as though it is some evil plot. Not everyone is that politically astute. We need to counter the idea the left is putting out that there isn’t anyplace in the Tea Party movement for professionals.
You saw this same type of story popping up with that Tea Party convention that happened in Nashville. The press was critical of the organizers because (gasp) they were charging admission and might actually (gasp) end up making a slight profit.
Is that the way it happened?
Politico prints nothing that isn’t directly from the WH fax machine.
on fox and friends today they had a story about the counter tea party where the rats plan to join the tea party but then make stupid signs with misspelled words and to cause fights and shout racial slurs at people.
So they are trying to devalue the tea party brand from within. It’s an all out attack from the liberal power base from each party.
True words!
LLS
Sad to say, you are right on about the “Obama” communications organ known as “Politico”. “Politico” founders, Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen are nothing but major spinners for Barack Hussein Obama and the Democrat Party. Those two gentlemen would not know political objectivity and fairness if it struck them in the face.
When I attended the Tea Party Express event in Jackson, Michigan last summer, I wondered how they could afford the big, plush, custom-painted buses. Who was bankrolling them?
The bottom line, though, is I showed up. Nobody paid me, nobody offered me kickbacks, bribes or freebies to be there. I did the research for the event myself using my own time and computer. I wasn’t given a sign paid for by a group or union, and I even bought a “NOBAMA” button from an enterprising young man selling them.
These events are dependent on people SHOWING UP. The only buses I saw were the two belonging to the Tea Party Express, and I’m sure nobody was “organized” with promises of a day off work if they went.
So the argument is that we shouldn’t link up with and use the talents of people who are good at organization?
I don’t think I’m buying that.
>>You saw this same type of story popping up with that Tea Party convention that happened in Nashville. The press was critical of the organizers because (gasp) they were charging admission and might actually (gasp) end up making a slight profit.
Bingo!
And as someone who was there, I can say this was discussed at length among many of the attendees. No one I talked to had a problem with it, and people generally thought that the pricing was reasonable. And these are people who had typically been to similar events for professional society conventions, continuing education and the like.
You don’t like the price of admission? Don’t go! How hard is that?
Sometimes, when they attack like this, the correct answer is, “So what?” or, “What’s wrong with that?” instead of people getting defensive.
Actually, a lot of the criticism of the Nashville event came from the leadership of many local tea party leaders who were leery of an outside group canniblizing the tea party name. Turned out that those concerns were mostly unfounded but the profit issue does undermine the grassroots format somewhat.
It’s hard to present yourself as a non-profit group that welcomes all when somebody else presents their self as part of your movement, and seeks to turn a profit while doing so.
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