Tea Partiers and the Angry Left

by Emmett Tyrrell at Townhall.com

WASHINGTON — Whatever happened to the mainstream media’s high regard for “anger” in politics? From roughly the midterm elections of 2006 through the presidential election of 2008, the “Angry Left” seemed to grow in stature with the media. Liberal pundits spoke of it with a hush of awe. By the election of the Prophet Obama, the Angry Left had acquired a hallowed public status similar to that of the “muckraker” or the “consumerist,” though no consumerist whom I ever have known has been agreeable company. Would you want to sit down to tea with, say, Ralph Nader? Certainly Ralph never has been known for his hearty laugh or elegant manners.

Yes, I said “tea.” The word has become something of a red flag among the bien-pensants. Tea brings to mind Tea Parties, which for the bien-pensants means angry political activists, not angry political activists of the noble variety but angry political activists of the alarming variety. That is to say, activists variously inveighed against as members of the “extreme right,” the “far right,” the Reagan administration. The Tea Partiers supposedly are crazed and provincial — or, as a recent chronicler of the Tea Party movement, John Avlon, puts it, “wingnuts.”

…More

Arkansas Gov–Lincoln needs to “educate” voters to win

from the Tea Party of Lonoke County

The folks at Politico caught up with Arkansas’ Governor Mike Beebe on Monday and peppered him with questions on health care and Senator Blanche Lincoln. The popular governor ducked and bobbed on several questions, but when asked if he thinks the embattled Lincoln’s seat is still winnable he replied, “Yes, I think it’s winnable and yes, I think she can win.”

Lincoln’s pitiful polling of late recently led conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer to remark, “Poor Blanche Lincoln couldn’t even compete with Mussolini” on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor. The last several polls by Rasmussen have shown Lincoln trailing at least four potential Republican opponents, and the latest had all four ahead by at least 8 points.

Beebe believes Lincoln’s campaign cash will be enough to overcome her lack of popularity in Arkansas by November. “She’s got a lot of money, she needs to spend it wisely to educate,” said the governor.

But we would argue the electorate is educated on Lincoln, and her money won’t be enough to “reeducate” us.

The Senator’s popularity has consistently collapsed with virtually every vote she cast in support of President Barack Obama’s Socialist platform. On TARP, the auto industry bailout, budgets that created record deficits, increasing the federal debt limit, and Obamacare, Lincoln has stood with Obama and against the will of a large majority of Arkansas voters. Each time her “Yea” was heard by Arkansans, her poll numbers plummeted.

Lincoln’s willingness to abandon the clear will of the Arkansas electorate and walk arm-in-arm with Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to support their proposed government takeover of the US health care system was likely the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Because passage in the Senate required 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, Reid and Obama needed every single Democrat. Lincoln’s status as one of the final two holdouts indicates she understood the tightrope she was walking. She understood the people of Arkansas were strongly opposed to Obamacare, but she succumbed to the pressure of Reid and Obama.

She could have chosen to represent the clear will of Arkansas voters, and cast the vote that would have killed Obama’s dream of socialized medicine in America. But instead she chose to stand with her liberal buddies from Chicago and Las Vegas, against her constituents in Arkansas.

Governor Beebe and Blanche Lincoln may think voters in Arkansas can be “educated”, but we’ve been educating ourselves on Lincoln ever since she began marching in lockstep with Reid and Obama.

Krauthammer was right, and Arkansas voters are already educated on the upcoming Senate race.

Senator Lincoln should start packing.

Democrats to Americans–“We don’t give a damn what you want!”

After a year of ignoring the growing grassroots protest movement that sprung up last year, after crashing in polls across the nation for months, and after stinging election losses in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, Democrats undoubtedly understand the message being communicated by a disillusioned but indefatigable electorate. But it has never been more clear they don’t care what We the People want, they have no intention of bending to our will.

“This isn’t the change America wanted!” is the clear message that only those who never watch or read the news don’t understand. The Tea Party, the 9-12 movement, and the overall resurgence of conservatism in the country today would not have metasticized except in opposition to President Barack Obama and the Democrats’ rush to burden the American people with the yoke of Socialism.

But after all the protests, calls and emails to representatives and senators, and even their precipitous drop in polls from coast to coast, Democrats in Washington continue to forge ahead on the path to Obamacare–the plank in Obama’s platform most detested by the American people. The message is clear, and it isn’t going unheard.

The message is being ignored!

Two hundred and thirty four years ago, our forefathers were slaves to their government. They responded with revolution.

The Declaration of Independence enumerates the reasons they chose to abandon their ruler and form their own country, now our own country. Within the preamble to that famous document we find part of the foundation of their decision to revolt is once again suffered by We the People.

…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. *Emphasis added

That a strong majority of the people are opposed to a government takeover of our health care system is undeniable. Obama and his Democrat henchmen in the US House and Senate have tried to put lipstick on their pig several times, but a large majority of Americans still recognize it as a pig and continue to oppose Obamacare.

Everyone thought Democrats had finally learned their lesson last month after they lost the un-losable US Senate seat Ted Kennedy had so long occupied. Obama himself even uttered the words on camera. “The Senate certainly shouldn’t try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated. People in Massachusetts spoke. He’s got to be part of that process,” said the President following the historic GOP victory in Massachusetts.

Most considered the House and Senate bills dead at that point. But Obama didn’t mean the Senate shouldn’t try to jam anything through, he meant to wait until Scott Brown was seated AND THEN jam something through!

Now it appears they’re ready to do just that. Harry Reid (D-NV) said yesterday the Senate will force a bill through within 60 days, in spite of overwhelming opposition by the American people.

Through a process known as reconciliation, designed to be used only for budget bills, the Senate needs only 51 votes and steer clear of a filibuster. Republicans are crying foul because the 2000 + page bill isn’t a budget bill and doesn’t qualify for that process. In a letter to Obama this month, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)told the President “`Bipartisanship’ is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support.”

The President’s calls for, and promises of bipartisanship were nothing but a sham. Designed to bolster his crashing approval ratings and possibly stem the flow of Democrats’ political bleeding across the country, he met with Republicans last month and called for a Health Care Summit with Republicans that will take place on Thursday. But even some Democrats admit it’s all for show.

Buried way down deep in a New York Times article—“There’s hope for a breakthrough here, but the odds of that are not very good,” said a top Democratic aide who has worked for years on health care. “This is a media event.” In the same article, some Democrats expressed doubt the Senate can get even 51 votes to pass the bill in reconciliation. But they also expressed the opinion that Obama may be able to sway enough to cross the hurdle.

Democrats have no intention of compromising, and their leaders in Congress and the White House have no intention of “deriving their powers by the consent of the governed.” Instead they exercise their power in spite of the will of the governed.

If they pass this bill, after all that has transpired these last few months, they will be saying to the American people “We don’t give a damn what you want!”

Tea Party Power to Solve the Debt Problem

by Larry Kudlow at Townhall.com

The New York Times ran a front-page story this week called “Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis.” As usual, they got it wrong. Instead, the headline should have read, “After Scott Brown’s Astonishing Senate Win in Massachusetts, New Political Gridlock in Washington Could Spell the End of the Liberal Crack-Up We Have Witnessed over the Past Year.”

In fact, gridlock in Washington is good, since it will stop the assault of big government until the end of the year when Congress could be overturned by independents, tea partiers, Republicans, and probably some Democrats as well. Just take a look at the high spirits at the CPAC convention, where tea partiers are reinvigorating conservatives and Republicans.

So let’s take this momentum forward by using it to drain any remaining power from the extravagant spending-and-borrowing assault in Democratic Washington. And let’s especially use this tea-party power to stop Democratic plans for another round of broad-based tax increases.

Take, for example, Obama’s new deficit commission. It’s a bad idea. This commission is a fig leaf to cover up President Obama’s out-of-control budget. It’s a Trojan horse for tax hikes, especially a VAT that would engulf the middle class with up to a 15 percent tax rate on the sale of goods and services. Obama is getting ready to move his lips on the pledge not to raise middle-class taxes. Congressional Republicans must not let him do this.

Here’s the real problem: The Obama budget would take federal spending as a fraction of the economy to 25 percent, roughly a $1 trillion additional spending increase in the out-years. Publicly held federal debt would climb about $18.5 trillion by 2020, more than double what Mr. Obama inherited, rising to almost 80 percent of the economy.

Rather than tax hikes, I say stop the spending. Outside of defense and entitlements, why not roll back the discretionary budget to 2008?

…More

Rick Crawford Campaign HQ Open House Saturday

from the Tea Party of Lonoke County, AR

The following invitation was distributed by the Crawford for Congress Campaign.

Greetings! You Are Invited! The Crawford for Congress Campaign would like to cordially invite you to attend the grand opening of the Crawford for Congress Campaign Headquarters this Saturday starting at 10am! This grand opening is yet another chapter in the Crawford for Congress Campaign to take traditional American values back to Washington in a candidate that has the experience, insight, and ability to make a difference in Washington! Rick Crawford is the Statesman that we need to make a difference for the people of the First District! WHEN: Saturday, February 13th WHERE: 1920 South Church Street, Jonesboro WHAT TIME: Begins at 10am, Press Conference by Rick at 1030am, and will go until Noon. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Parking will be available in the adjacent parking lot in front of Gracy’s Cafe & Wells-Fargo Mortgage. Parking will also be available next door at NAPA Auto Parts. DIRECTIONS: The Crawford for Congress H.Q. is located directly across Church Street from Walgreens on Highland and Union and is also across Highland Avenue from McDonalds in Jonesboro. We look forward to you coming out on Saturday to visit with Rick about his campaign! We will also have free campaign materials that you can take with you including new Crawford for Congress bumper stickers. This will be a great opportunity for you to visit with other campaign supporters as together we work to send an experienced leader to Washington who will be a trusted voice for his constituents! For more information or directions please call the campaign headquarters at 870-203-0540.

Why is the mainstream media ignoring Rick Crawford?

Arkansans joined the nationwide protest movement last year as conservative voters found their collective voice and stood against the Obamanation of our country. From Tea Parties to Health Care Town Halls, these voters calls for responsibility and accountability from their elected officials went largely unheeded. But several candidates for office were paying attention, even when our Representatives and Senators weren’t.

Rick Crawford, GOP candidate for Arkansas’ 1st Congressional district seat in the US House of Representatives was one of these. He’s well known and recognized by 1st district voters who are actively involved in their local Republican Committees or Tea Parties. He’s been working to spread his message since last spring, not only at protests, but local festivals and events across the 1st District.

Crawford appears to have a real shot at becoming the first Republican to represent the 1st Congressional District since 1875. And his campaign is gaining momentum.

But if you were counting on the mainstream media to inform you of Rick’s candidacy, you may not yet know he exists. That’s because television stations and newspapers, statewide and local to the 1st District, have largely ignored his campaign.

Traditional news sources across the state have failed to cover several major developments in what could be an historic campaign. In the past month, Crawford has received three major endorsements from influential Republicans in the state. Mike Huckabee, Ed Bethune, and Asa Hutchinson have thrown their support to this Jonesboro veteran with strong ties to the 1st District’s large agricultural community.

Even the television station from his hometown of Jonesboro doesn’t seem to think his candidacy deserves more than a casual mention every once in a while. Searching their site you’ll see one article devoted to Rick–the August 27, 2009 article on his official announcement that he was entering the race. Those search results do include two articles covering Rep. Marion Berry’s (D) announcement that he won’t seek reelection and Crawford is mentioned almost as an aside in these.

Search results of the archives of the Jonesboro Sun reveal a similar dearth of articles on Crawford’s campaign. The obligatory August announcement that he’s running, then a couple of mentions in articles about Berry. The Sun did mention Crawford in a late January article titled “1st District Race Far from Settled” in late January, but only toward the end and after a long list of potential Democrat contenders.

Arkansas’ statewide newspaper, The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, also mentions Crawford in several Berry articles, but nothing devoted entirely to Rick’s campaign. But the Democrat Gazette did consider it newsworthy that Princella Smith, a potential GOP challenger to Crawford, is thinking about throwing her hat in the ring following Berry’s announcement that he won’t run again.

Of the four major television stations in Little Rock, only KTHV 11 has an article on their website about Crawford. That’s an AP article from May of last year announcing Rick’s intent to challenge Berry.

Last May, on the influential conservative blog Redstate.com, Moe Lane speculated “We will no doubt see more [Crawford] campaign-related items as time goes on.” But we haven’t…at least not from traditional media sources.

Luckily, Crawford embraced new media and social networking sites early on. His Facebook page sports over 1300 fans now and almost 800 follow him on Twitter. Many of these supporters depend on the blog posts on his website to keep them informed since the mainstream media refuses to.

Several Facebook fans recently wondered about the lack of coverage by the mainstream media and one even speculated the media’s liberal bias is to blame.

Shelley asked, “Why is it that we aren’t seeing any articles on you in the papers? I keep waiting to see you mentioned and they talk about all the other candidates and you are never mentioned!” Grace responded, “I agree, I never see anything about you in the papers. What is up with that?” And Kelly replied, “I think the main reason that the papers around here are not picking up Rick is because they are controlled by a liberal bias. They are afraid to give Rick the time of day because he is the most creditable [sic] threat to eliminate Nancy Pelosi’s liberal agenda in Washington…”

Whatever the reason, it’s pretty obvious the mainstream media has chosen to ignore Rick Crawford.

But you can spread the word about his campaign by becoming a fan of his Facebook page, following him on Twitter, and passing along his updates to your 1st District friends and families.

Sweet Tea for Convention Attendees

by Jillian Bandes at Townhall.com

If you read any of the extensive coverage of the Tea Party Convention going on this weekend in Nashville, TN, be prepared for dramatic stories of rampant grassroots infighting, questionable convention finances, and radical convention-goers flocking after polarizing demagogues.

The real story? Much different.

Attendees are wildly enthusiastic, not just about speakers, but about ideas. Those ideas are focused almost exclusively on basic conservative principles like limited government and fiscal responsibility (not the Obama birther conspiracy). And attendees are barely aware of the criticism that has been launched at the Tea Party Convention by mainstream media outlets.

“It’s a good idea,” said one attendee, pithily, when asked why he drove in from Ohio to participate.

Attendees are mainly being informed about the manufactured scandals through convention speakers, who have taken every opportunity to punch back — like Mark Skoda, head of the Memphis tea party group.

“We’ve come so far in the world of socialist values that we’re now criticizing a for-profit event,” he said, during a morning briefing on Friday. “We’ve put six hundred thousand of our dollars into the Gaylord Hotel (where the event is being hosted). We didn’t ask for a tax benefit, a subsidy, or a stimulus.”

…More

Curtis Coleman: Money Bomb Today!

Earlier this month, we helped stop the Obama-Pelosi-Reid fast train to a government takeover of the US health care system. The battle that ground the Democrat engine to a halt took place in Massachusetts, but patriots from across America sacrificed their valuable time and hard-earned money to help make the victory possible. We can now expect more candidates to try to tap the cooperation and corroboration of Americans from coast-to-coast that helped MA Republican Scott Brown win the seat Democrats never thought they could lose.

Donate $10 for 10 Now

One of Brown’s most successful tactics came in the form of an online “Money Bomb” that raised over $1.3 million in just one day! Thousands of individuals donated as little as $5 to help Brown become the Senator-elect who will soon take the seat so long occupied by the iconic liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy. Now, Arkansas Republican candidate for US Senate Curtis Coleman hopes to boost his campaign coffers utilizing the Brown model.

Coleman is one of four GOP candidates Rasmussen shows leading Senator Blanche Lincoln in this year’s race to represent Arkansas in the US Senate. But the conservative business owner lags behind the GOP establishment favorite in raising campaign cash for the race, and has announced he will be holding his own “Money Bomb” tomorrow.

Calling his event “10 for ’10“, Coleman has set a goal of 1,000 Facebook friends contributing $10 each to raise $10,000 on Saturday. His slogan, “Change America for $10“, implies that anyone (everyone?) in America can do a little to accomplish dramatic, real change for these United States.

Coleman was one of the first to commit to challenge the incumbent Lincoln, and he’s been working hard to establish an impressive grassroots network of supporters across the state. He’s been present at numerous Tea Party events across the state, working the crowd when he wasn’t addressing them. He’s used social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to a much greater extent than his competition. We’ve heard supporters state this extraordinary level of interaction during the campaign and his promise to continue to engage his constituents once elected are the reasons they’ve chosen to support Coleman.

Tomorrow we’ll find out just how effective his efforts have been. If his Money Bomb proves successful, Coleman’s grassroots efforts and extensive use of the internet and social networking may prove to be the tactic that turns the establishment GOP on its head. Members of the Republican hierarchy that call on Coleman and others to drop out and let their candidate run unopposed just might be silenced. And a real Republican primary, where the people of Arkansas choose their nominee, just might occur.

Can the GOP and ‘tea party’ activists get along?

by Suzi Parker at The Christian Science Monitor

They’ve clashed in some places. But in Arkansas the old guard GOP and the tea party are united, so far, in a bid to oust Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

Little Rock, Ark.

Dani Martin makes light of her Facebook group “Bye Bye Blanche.”

“It’s something we’re doing to poke fun at her,” Ms. Martin, a “tea party” activist, says of Arkansas’s senior senator, Democrat Blanche Lincoln. “Blanche likes to use her femininity in defense of what she does. We’re feminine conservative girls; she doesn’t represent us.”

With Senator Lincoln up for reelection in November – and besieged on many sides for, among other things, her hesitant support for national healthcare reform – the contest here will test not only the clout of the energetic but unfocused tea party movement but also how effectively the Republican establishment taps it.

So far, the desire to oust Lincoln appears to be uniting tea party and Republican forces here. If that pattern holds, Arkansas could become the altar for a pivotal political marriage that refashions conservatism in America.

But it may also prove to be the exception rather than the rule. Elsewhere, tea party activists and the Republican old guard have clashed. In Florida, for one, tea partyers recently helped oust the Republican Party state chairman, and the two sides back different GOP candidates for the open US Senate seat there.

Moreover, though the two enjoy jolly relations in Arkansas now, anything could happen by the November election, and state conservatives have a lot of sorting out to do if they are to unseat Lincoln.

No fewer than nine candidates have so far thrown their hats into the Republican ring. Two, businessman Tom Cox, and University of Arkansas official Randy Alexander, have tea party credentials, but tea partyers say members are still weighing their choices. The National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington, for its part, has not endorsed a candidate.

But in a state where the Republican Party lacks strong leadership, the energy is with the tea partyers. That’s as clear to conservative activist John Allison as the nose on his face.

“We are aggressively pursuing Blanche Lincoln to get her out of office, and that is our common goal” with the GOP, says the tea party member from rural Arkansas. “The most effective thing is to move into the Republican Party instead of splitting a conservative vote. We need to get involved with them and guide them back.”

…More

Can the GOP and ‘tea party’ activists get along?

by Suzi Parker at Christian Science Monitor

Little Rock, Ark.

Dani Martin makes light of her Facebook group “Bye Bye Blanche.”

“It’s something we’re doing to poke fun at her,” Ms. Martin, a “tea party” activist, says of Arkansas’s senior senator, Democrat Blanche Lincoln. “Blanche likes to use her femininity in defense of what she does. We’re feminine conservative girls; she doesn’t represent us.”

With Senator Lincoln up for reelection in November – and besieged on many sides for, among other things, her hesitant support for national healthcare reform – the contest here will test not only the clout of the energetic but unfocused tea party movement but also how effectively the Republican establishment taps it.

So far, the desire to oust Lincoln appears to be uniting tea party and Republican forces here. If that pattern holds, Arkansas could become the altar for a pivotal political marriage that refashions conservatism in America.

But it may also prove to be the exception rather than the rule. Elsewhere, tea party activists and the Republican old guard have clashed. In Florida, for one, tea partyers recently helped oust the Republican Party state chairman, and the two sides back different GOP candidates for the open US Senate seat there.

Moreover, though the two enjoy jolly relations in Arkansas now, anything could happen by the November election, and state conservatives have a lot of sorting out to do if they are to unseat Lincoln.

No fewer than nine candidates have so far thrown their hats into the Republican ring. Two, businessman Tom Cox, and University of Arkansas official Randy Alexander, have tea party credentials, but tea partyers say members are still weighing their choices. The National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington, for its part, has not endorsed a candidate.

But in a state where the Republican Party lacks strong leadership, the energy is with the tea partyers. That’s as clear to conservative activist John Allison as the nose on his face.

“We are aggressively pursuing Blanche Lincoln to get her out of office, and that is our common goal” with the GOP, says the tea party member from rural Arkansas. “The most effective thing is to move into the Republican Party instead of splitting a conservative vote. We need to get involved with them and guide them back.”

…More