DeMint slaps down tea party nonsense
By Norman Leahy | Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 | Catch-All, PoliticsThe tea party can be a baffling thing. What started as a loose aggregation of local activists and others who decided to become active back in 2009 has since spawned self-appointed national groups, complete with spokesmen, PACs, agendas and all the other trappings of semi-permanence. One of those national spokesbeings has decided that the GOP will be primaried within an inch of its life in 2012 for what he sees as the congressional leadership’s unbending fealty to compromise:
“Everybody knows that the debt ceiling deal was a completely fraudulent deal,” Mark Meckler, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, told The Daily Caller. “We were told that if we passed this deal we wouldn’t be downgraded, but we were still downgraded.”
Meckler warns that Republicans and Democrats could both face an electoral bloodbath in the 2012 primaries if they do not do more to hold the line on taxes and spending.
“What we have here in Washington, D.C. is, one, people who are just stupid, or two, they are lying,” Meckler said. “I think it’s both. They don’t understand economics, and they’re lying.”
Meckler criticized House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for throwing away bargaining chips with the White House in successive partisan fights going back to the spring tussle over a government shutdown.
There’s much more of this at the link. It’s all quite familiar territory and rhetoric. But what was refreshing was to see one Republican who has long fought the good fight against the overweening state say “enough”:
…South Carolina GOP Senator Jim DeMint, also a significant player in tea party movement, dismissed Meckler’s cautions.
“I think ‘bloodbath’ is the wrong term,” DeMint said. “There will be some healthy debate in the primaries, but there are a lot of tea parties. I’m getting tired of one person saying they speak for the tea parties.”
Amen to that.
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Post contributor.
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7 Responses to "DeMint slaps down tea party nonsense"
It’s semantically unfortunate that Tea Party already contains the word “party”. People can’t distinguish anymore between a birthday party and political party I guess. The correct term would be Tea Party movement. A party would be the Tea Party Party.
The original Tea Party movement of 2009 perhaps inspired by Santelli’s rant was a beautiful thing in many ways. The energy from it still lives on although the Republican Party wants their votes far more than the principles. It’s inevitable that fringe players and self-important people would latch on to such a loosely organized movement.
Having said that, blame should be equally apportioned between the Republican party and people associated with the Tea Party movement for the squabbles and mistrust. The Republican Party was ready to roll over for the Dems and has very inconsistently applied its principles to its governance in stark contrast to the Democratic party. I realize that its not easy for politicians to say No but they can say Yes with 5 digit numbers just as well as 10 (or 13) digit numbers. Bill Clinton raised that to an art form if anyone remembers. Let the Republicans learn that small lesson from His Slickness.
When Jim DeMint starts smacking around the self-appointed “Tea Party leaders” — you know it’s good news.
Long overdue, IMO.
@Valentinus –
Glad I’m not the only fella who recognizes Santelli as the spark that ignited the powder keg! Hacks and consultants have done everything in their power to make money off of it ever since… and in doing so, they have whittled down the movement to nothing.
This is why I take the Richard Viguerie approach to the Tea Party as “third force” rather than third party or political movement. It should be the same force in the conservative movement as pro-life, IMO.
Speaking of Mr. Viguerie.. ConservativeHQ.com Chairman Richard A. Viguerie will be appearing on FOX Business’s Lou Dobbs show tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern
Meckler seemed to be engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole. Republicans AND Democrats will face Tea Party primary challenges? Where would a Tea Party challenge be anything but laughable in a Democratic primary?
Where would a Tea Party challenge be anything but laughable in a Democratic primary?
That’s not what he said. BTW, how ARE the Dem party Congress critters polling these days?
In most cases a leadership vacuum is filled by the most undesirable of the undesirables. Meckler is an agitator rather than a uniter. Many figured that out long ago.
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