Tag: tea party

Mike Doyle (D, PA-14) backtracks on ‘terrorist’ comments.

Alternate title: Politically flabby Democrat (in comfortably Democratic seat) suddenly remembers that home state is losing a Congressional District; and that the redistricting process is fully in the hands of the other party*.

Which is probably too long a title, at that.  Anyway, Mikey Doyle is very, very sorry that the Tea Party thought that he was talking about them when he started spouting off about terrorists:

U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, said he wasn’t comparing Tea Party members with terrorists when he used the word during a closed-door caucus meeting Monday, but was expressing frustration at President Obama’s negotiating tactics, which he said gave in too quickly to GOP demands in the debt ceiling debate.

“Had I simply said hostage-taker, there wouldn’t be this reaction. I certainly wasn’t out to defame anybody,” said Doyle, who couldn’t recall the exact statement he made. Continue reading Mike Doyle (D, PA-14) backtracks on ‘terrorist’ comments.

#rsrh Harry Reid calls Tea Partiers not real Americans.

Gateway Pundit has a screenshot of the Tweet in question, just in case somebody with a triple-digit IQ wrests control of Harry Reid’s Twitter account from him:

Boehner’s plan is not a compromise. It was written for the tea party, not the American people. Ds will not vote for it…

With regard to the second sentence: the voters of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin could not be reached for comment.

Via Instapundit.

Tim Pawlenty and the Tea Party.

Interesting post here about Tim Pawlenty and the Tea Party:

A two-term governor who typically emphasizes substance over style, Pawlenty has long been setting the groundwork to run a conventional campaign. He carries many of the calling cards of the kind of “safe” GOP candidates who have, in every presidential election of the modern era, beaten back challenges from grassroots favorites who eventually fizzled out in the end.

Though he may lack the rhetorical sizzle of some of the more fiery White House aspirants, including Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain and Pawlenty’s fellow Minnesotan Rep. Michele Bachmann, Pawlenty has been increasingly aggressive in his efforts to court the insurgent wing of the GOP and has fully embraced the language of the tea party.

Some interesting speculation in there on Iowa, South Carolina, and (especially) New Hampshire.  When it comes to South Carolina, I do wonder whether Pawlenty’s commitment to the Thursday debate will help make up Governor Nikki Haley’s mind on an endorsement, now that Gov. Haley Barbour’s out of the race and Gov. Mitch Daniels looks increasingly unlikely to run. I guess we’ll see.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Q&A Time with the Huffington Post.

Question:

Why does the Tea Party seem to be so much more effective than the left as a movement?

Answer:

Because you guys suck.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)

Moe Lane

PS: …What? The guy doesn’t want the real answer: he’s too busy babbling about Koch Brothers conspiracy theories to make me believe that he would. He just wants somebody to validate his existence by linking to him and laughing – because, you know, this shows that somebody cares – and I’m cruising off of a good mood this morning because the French toast I made was spot-on. Cast iron and butter, and real maple syrup (because I can learn from my mistakes) to complement… where was I?

Yes, anyway, I’m not feeling particularly sadistic right now, so why not give this guy what he wants?

Jack Davis (FAKE-CAND, NY-26) thinks Tea Partiers are idiots.

Jack Davis is, of course, the former Democrat trying to run in NY-26, which is up for a special election this spring (the Republican/Conservative Party candidate, equally of course, is Jane Corwin).  Davis, having been completely unable to get any traction in getting elected thus far, has decided to go one step further than such Democratic party luminaries such as Michael McGuinness and Alan Grayson; instead of putting up a phony Tea Party candidate, Davis is running as a phony Tea Party candidate himself.  Fortunately, Davis is apparently not particularly bright, because his campaign manager (one Curtis Ellis) is on the record as writing things like this:

The [Tea Partiers] are essentially replaying the ’60s protest paradigm. (We’re aging boomers ourselves, so we know it when we see it.) They fancy themselves the vanguard of a revolution, when in fact they are typical self-absorbed, privileged children used to having their way — now — and uninhibited about complaining loudly when they don’t. It’s the same demographic Spiro Agnew called “an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”

Spiro. Agnew. Continue reading Jack Davis (FAKE-CAND, NY-26) thinks Tea Partiers are idiots.

QotD, excellent advice edition.

From a New Hampshire Union Leader editorial crediting the Tea Party with ensuring that Senate Minority Leader McConnell would refuse to play ball on the Omnibus:

The truth is that without the constant vigilance currently provided by what can loosely be called the Tea Party movement, Republicans would be just as happy as Democrats to squander taxpayer money. They are only acting frugal now because they know they’re being closely watched, so keep watching.

For the rest of your lives, in fact: civic duty never ends.  Just in case nobody’s ever mentioned that.

(H/T: Real Clear Politics)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Omnibus/Tea Party/Schoolhouse Rock.

(Via Glenn Reynolds) The Foundry’s Conn Connell notes an interesting coincidence: yesterday’s abandonment of the Democrats’ last-gasp omnibus bill was also the anniversary of the original Boston Tea Party*.  Which has no real deeper meaning, in the greater scheme of things: except that it’s giving me an excuse to put up the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0LmYEjXNIg

Especially since I know that a certain category of my political opponents absolutely hates that video, usually with a certain amount of baffled bewilderment mixed in.

Moe Lane

*Which, by the way, took place in 1773.  I mention this because, well, we’ve had occasions where some folks on the Other Side had a little trouble with getting the date right.

Freshmen House assignments.

The Hill reports that the following House freshmen will be given slots on the following committees:

  • Appropriations: Alan Nunnelee, Steve Womack, Kevin Yoder, & Tom Graves on Appropriations.
  • Energy: Cory Gardner, Morgan Griffith, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, Mike Pompeo, and Charlie Bass.
  • Financial Services: Quico Canseco, Bob Dold, Sean Duffy, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Bill Huizenga, Robert Hurt, Steve Stivers, Steve Pearce, and Michael Fitzpatrick.
  • Ways and Means: Rick Berg and Diane Black on Ways (four more members out of the ten total were elected in 2008).

There are a good number of Tea Party members in that list (and a bunch who are not; I expect that my respected colleague, friend, and RS boss Erick Erickson is going to be annoyed at the Appropriations lineup); it looks like about a third of the freshman class were put on these four important domestic committees.  As Ed Morrissey notes, we have to keep an eye on who Boehner puts on in Rules (whose membership is pretty much the Speaker’s personal prerogative), and which freshmen (if any) get Armed Services/Foreign Affairs.  I personally would like to see Allen West get a spot on the latter – if only because having him on that committee would ensure that there was never a dull moment around there.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Good Tea Party documentary.

Glenn Reynolds is a commenter in this documentary by the Knoxville News-Sentinel about the Tea Party  (The Tea Party: Brewing up a movement), and both he and it comes off well:

Short version: it concentrates on why people think that the Tea Partiers are participating and where it will end up going, and – very refreshingly – manages to do so without once regurgitating Democratic / liberal hate speech.  If you’re the sort who enjoys being told that a bunch of older folks worried about their grandkids’ future are actually secretly racist bigots, by all means, watch this video: the utter lack of such prog-porn will no doubt pop a vein.  In other words, it’s a legitimate documentary.  in fact, tt’s interesting that even the Official Voice of Dissent for this one is generally careful not to be as rude as, say, Ted Strickland* was.  Tells you a bit about how the movement is being seen in the battleground states…

Moe Lane [crosspost]

*Example picked because the fool actually thought that he could scream about them last week and still seek their support – something that even the newspapers aren’t buying, and for good reason. Of course, Ted Strickland is used to dealing with the Activist Left; I understand that this sort of thing works all the time on them.

‘Revolt of the Bourgeois.’

See Glenn Reynolds and Rich Lowry; my only contribution to this is a bit of confusion that this is somehow surprising.  After all, we are talking about a movement that, when it throws tea into a harbor as part of a protest, does so with ropes attached so that they can fish the tea out afterward.

Because otherwise somebody will have to clean that up, of course.  And it’d be the taxpayers who will have to pay to have it cleaned up.