The Tea Party and Republicans are Already Linked
Going through my morning news I read this article on the Huffington Post. – “Democrats are planning to link the tea party and Republicans, overlapping the two groups to paint the GOP as a party of extremists and the grassroots activists as tools of the establishment.” How is this a strategy? The Tea Party is Republican. How many Democrat candidates have they endorsed or campaigned for? None. The Tea Party Express, which was famously kicked out of “the movement” last week, had endorsed one Dem candidate in Idaho, but who really cares about Idaho? Also, the candidate denounced the endorsement after the incident in question. But I’m not sure how you could argue the the Tea Party isn’t a Republican movement. First off, there is no formal Tea Party organization. There’s like 15 different groups. Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Federation, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Confederation, Tea Party Movement, Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, ect. But their champions are Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Fox News and they are Republican. And again, none of the people they endorse are Democrats and they don’t openly promote an agenda that would suggest they would be in line with Democratic principles. Even the most casual observer know that the Tea Party is a Republican movement. Period.
Two other articles of interest:
#1 - This article is by conservative columnist Michael Medved, who I read on occasion, it’s a different take from my article from earlier this month but still the message is the same. The Republicans have a strong message, but I’m not sure the messenger or the message is particularly compelling or substantive.
#2 - Democrats are firing back. They’ve claimed that there are more house seats in play for them than the polls are initially letting on. I’ll reserve judgement until I see some Karl Rove polling because I trust his polling and take on the scene. Again the biggest thing for me is when the Dems do decide to punch back, which is going to happen,what do the Republicans have to come back with? I’m not a party official so I don’t know the full story, but if there is a strategy, they aren’t testing it or sharing it. Let’s take the deficit for example. In the last two days I’ve seen two different Republicans give two different budget strategies. Paul Ryan and John Thune both have been on television recently to let the world know they have a plan. Why can’t these guys call each other, get together and work it into something of substance? It’s a tragedy really, but we’ll see what happens.
