1 Infiltrate, and take no prisoners.

2 Ah!  Finally.  We are agreed.

3 Good stuff - late for Brown, but good stuff.  This is where elections are won & lost.

4 i always agreed with this. I just didn't want people to do the lazy thing, which is to not do the work of taking over the party, but then vote against it to punish it, because voting only takes three seconds.

5 Just curious, are the tea partiers' fiscal conservatives?  I know there are a great many people dissatisfied with our government right now, but some of them think the government isn't stealing enough from the workers, so are these tea party people fiscal conservatives or part of that other group of people?

6 Ace - I believe there is to be a huge tea party on tax day April 15th this year at the White House (@ the "elliptical" area). I was at the tea party last 9/12 & the hotels were busting at the seams w/no vacancies - if anyone is going to the tax day protest on 4/15 we need to urge everyone to book hotel rooms now - FYI & thanks!!

7 >>>Just curious, are the tea partiers' fiscal conservatives? most... and others are populist/conservatives, and some are populist/libertarians... except for leftish populists, pretty much all of them are close enough to what center right fiscal conservative agenda that differences can be papered over.

8 Yes!!  I agree!

9

Good news. New life for the tired old GOP.

10 AP sources: Obama will visit Massachusetts to help endangered Democratic Senate candidate. Jan 15 01:40 PM US/Eastern

11 So when do the Bush tax cuts expire again?

12 You know who this benefits?

That's right.  Mitt... oh, wait....

13

Wow, Intrade odds have moved 10 points today in Brown's favor.  He is now at 40%.  That might not seem great but at the end of last week he was in single-digits.  This is people actually putting money on him winning.

14 >>But we do need apparatchiks, and we need Indians, and we need Chiefs.<<

And sometimes we need Mau Mau's.

15

@10

Lets hope he continues his string of FAIL. What Croaker needs is a personal appearance by Kos and his ringing endorsement.

16 This is the way it should be - from the ground up and making sense to local voters. Precinct, town, city, county, state. Way to go.

17 So when do the Bush tax cuts expire again? Jan 1, 2011, but look for Dems to try to change and make it retroactive to Jan 1 2010.....

18 rush just said o is going up to stump for croaklley.

19 Watch out for Ronulans.

20 I'm 100% for the Tea Party Movement unless they lose their minds and try to run their own 3rd party candidates.  Taking over the Republican Party so that we actually grow a set for a change?  Hurrah!

21

I have always hoped that the GOP could be changed rather than replaced.  I know that it has not happened yet but I like the way the wind is blowing. 

Thanks for the post Ace.

22

I contend that all the Tea Party needs to do is be the Tea Party. Becoming a full-fledged 'nother party guarantees Dims a victory, what with the dilution of votes and all. Promote conservative ideas and endorse candidates.

Better to just hold protests, especially in DC where reps can look out their office windows from time to time and see average Americans displaying their contempt for unresponsive government.

23

I was shat on in 2008 by the RNC when I was a poll observer. Was in the roughest neighborhood in the city, called a cracker, got pushed on numerous occasions and I was begging for them to send someone out to take over or at least come and sit outside.

Their response: Can't you suck it up for the day?

 

24 Of late, both Republican and Democrat party officials are significantly to the left of their voting base - so this is badly needed.

Republicans tend to win elections when they can draw a significant difference between themselves and the Democrats - on the presidential level see 80, 84, 88, 00, 04; and they tend to lose when they cannot see 76, 92, 96, and 08.

So, if we can pull the Rep party back to the right a few degrees I think we will see significant electoral gains to go along with it. Hopefully this can be a self-reinforcing process. So a somewhat more conservative party nets big wins in congress in 2010 and we can compare to the 08 debacle. And then we can run as a truly conservative party against the leftwing extremists in 12 and win back all the elected branches.

25

Does this mean that Boston will get the Olympics?

 

26

I was shat on in 2008 by the RNC when I was a poll observer. Was in the roughest neighborhood in the city, called a cracker, got pushed on numerous occasions and I was begging for them to send someone out to take over or at least come and sit outside.

Sounds like you needed an official Tea Party Security detail assigned to you.  Sounds like they should haave had better judgement in the first place but leave you there....geez.

27 When the assimilation is complete, and the base is building gallows for the RINO's maybe they can leave and start their own party. The Milquetoast party. Or maybe Demolite Party. Donno.

28 Sorry for all teh typo/gramm - trying to eat and type!

29 Fucking Bravo!

I have thought for years that the Libertarian party needs to do the same thing. Don't fucking wallow in obscurity, use the machine that exists, take that motherfucker over from the ground up.

I wonder if it is too late to recruit libertarians to the cause across the nation?

Since they mentioned Nevada and Arizona as active, I wouldn't doubt it if many Tea Party folks are libertarians.

I am liking this.

Solid B+, Nobel Prize worthy cause of action.

30
Oh, dear, I wonder what Peggy Noonan will do if Tea Partiers take over the GOP. Mayhaps she'll just have to form a third party.

31 About effing time.  It gets lonely being the only guy in the precinct voting to oust the gun grabbing RINO twats that run the local republican party.

32 No. 27 beat me to the punch.

33 Krauthammer will look down his long snoot in disapproval and disdain. May his wheelchair develop an annoying flat spot.

34

Moral of the story: ask to be in the burbs unless you can carry and conceal.

Okay, crackers?

35 On one wheel, that is.

36 Would the tri-corner-hat Tea Party babe be an apparat-chick?

37 Free speech is a bitch.

38 I can vouch for the fact that Tea Partiers are actively infiltrating the Republican Party from the bottom -- my wife is doing it.

39 When will you uneducated rubes learn, we know what we're doing. We know what's best for you. Sit back and take it like Andrew Sullivan does, in the butt.

40 Free speech is a bitch.

Posted by: TexasJew at January 15, 2010 02:04 PM (dcKUM)

I'm trying to fix that loophole with my mop.

41 30
Oh, dear, I wonder what Peggy Noonan will do if Tea Partiers take over the GOP. Mayhaps she'll just have to form a third party.

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at January 15, 2010 02:01 PM (PiZiK)

How about the "Old Dried-up Cootch" Party.

42 Great! Let me lead the parade!

43 My wife is involved in the tea party movement. Has gone to one of their rallies and gotten her picture in the paper with a sign I made for her (Ted Nugent would have been proud of her). She has also worked for the local GOP in going door to door and making calls. So it should not be surprising.

44 Yes, yes, yes, I want the tea partiers to eat the Repubs from the inside out.  3rd parties are for losers.

I also have always thought the t-party should call themselves federalists.

45 The day the pant crease cried.

46 Doesn't Noonan sleep with Snakehead Carville?

47 This IS the way to go and I support it all the way.

48 47 Doesn't Noonan sleep with Snakehead Carville?

Posted by: maddogg at January 15, 2010 02:18 PM (OlN4e)

That's Mary Matalin.

Peggy Noonan sleeps with a rolled-up copy of Good Housekeeping.

49 My confidential sources at the Federal Reserve told me that they are hiding in the broom closet next to the break room.

50 "Its mantra is this: take the precinct, take the state, take the party — and force it to nominate conservatives rather than people they see as liberals in Republican clothing."


I like that mantra very much.

51 Who put that habanero sauce in my denture adhesive?

52 I have thought for years that the Libertarian party needs to do the same thing. Don't fucking wallow in obscurity, use the machine that exists, take that motherfucker over from the ground up.

The existing machine is too deeply unlibertarian (structurally anti-libertarian, now) to be put to libertarian ends. They need a re-revolution to get anywhere, and even that wouldn't work. Their helplessness is true.

I think the GOP apparatus is too deeply unconservative (and anti-libertarian) for tea party types to make anything useful of it, too, but...good luck.

(Don't gimme no "That's not helping!" I'm only sayin' things. I'm not a conservative or a libertarian (or lefty). I just don't hate you guys (but I really hate those guys). I'm not even "concerned." I think politics is wrong.)

53 #49 pics?

54 In the latest to come out of D.C.Â’s backroom health care deals, President Obama yesterday cut a doozy of a deal with labor union bosses. The fedÂ’s health care plan must be so bad that even union bosses had to go to D.C. to say they wanted out. So... to keep their support for a flawed plan they got an exemption to provisions in the deal that others did not. Small business owners, our families running AmericaÂ’s mom & pops, did not get this deal. Ask yourself: why did union bosses get special treatment? And when did our countryÂ’s unions get on the wrong track with moves like this that hurt their good members and put them in such a bad light?

Good hard-working, pro-free-market, pro-America union members should join in opposition to their union bosses’ sweetheart deal. Coming from a union background and living in a world with many union memberships among my family and friends, I know that average members will be embarrassed by their bosses’ deal, which basically only delays the heavy tax on their health care plans until 2018 and in the meantime unfairly leaves many fellow Americans in a much less “enviable” position.

Union members donÂ’t want to stick it to non-union colleagues in the private and public sector. Their union leadership is not helping them in the long run, theyÂ’re certainly not helping the rest of America, and unfortunately some union bosses are making all union members look bad, selfish, and anti-business with this Big Government backroom deal.

I know that ordinary union members don’t want to hurt their fellow Americans, just as ordinary Nebraskans didn’t want to stick it to the rest of the country with a sweetheart deal on Medicaid subsidies. I urge union members to make their voices heard. Please, call your leadership – don’t put up with these special-interest politics – tell them to fight for all Americans who want common sense health care reform, not this flawed boondoggle.

- Sarah Palin

55

I think politics is wrong.

Posted by: oblig. at January 15, 2010 02:25 PM (FWvuv)

Well, I think oxygen is wrong. Stop breathing.

56 NO NO NO!!! This is a sure way to lose! This kind of thing makes me hate the GOP base and gives me the warm willie for my Democrat friends. I didn't leave the GOP, they left mee!!

I have it all on my newmajority.com frumforum.com website about trying to convince my friends in the media that we're nice team players who will lose with grace and not be divisive rabble rousers.

Losing with dignity, that's the ticket!

57 Those teabaggers don't iron their pants. The hell with them

58

Posted by: David Frum at January 15, 2010 02:28 PM (sYxEE)

Sorry, David, but the Dims have already hired their cockring for the year.

They'll keep your application on file, however.

59 Can anyone vouch for National Precinct Alliance, or is this a We Report You Decide deal?  I checked my state and no one was listed as a coordinator.  So I checked Virginia, and it has no coordinator either.  That can't be right?

Are they real?

60 Anyone in the Southeast Wisconsin / Northern Illinois area can attend a Tea Party Bonfire Rally with JOE THE PLUMBER tomorrow, here:

Date  January 16th, 2010  Time  3:00 PM - 4:30 PM  Sponsor  Racine Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity  Location  4505 Highway H
Franksville, WI  Notes  

Joe the Plumber

Google "Fight Back Wisconsin dot com" for more details .  Ace says my link is too long and I don't know how to do the tiny thing.

61 I hope those teabaggers don't plan on winning anything. I don't

62 Know who else is white and burns things? The KKK

I rest my case, and I know cases because I'm a legal expert too.

63 Or contact me thru my website if you need more details on the Joe the Plumber Tea Party Bonfire tomorrow.  I'll be glad to help you get  directions.

64 I wrote a few speeches for Reagan and Bush, and I even showed how nice I can be to those whose politics aren't the same as mine by doing mushrooms with Aaron Sorkin

I'm the voice of the GOP, and don't you forget it rubes!

65 19 Watch out for Ronulans.

Posted by: Zimriel at January 15, 2010 01:51 PM (9Sbz+)

Shouldn't be an issue.  Since this would require them to do more than just vote constantly in online polls and shout ron paul talking points.  God forbid they really do anything

66 Know who else is white and burns things? The KKK

I rest my case, and I know cases because I'm a legal expert too.

Posted by: Charles Johnson at January 15, 2010 02:33 PM (sYxEE)

We have such great bonfires.

67 Come to my bonfire and meet Pat Robertson's soul.

68 Please, call your leadership – don’t put up with these special-interest politics – tell them to fight for all Americans who want common sense health care reform, not this flawed boondoggle.

- Sarah Palin

Once I get me and my submarine shrunk down to microscopic size like Fantastic Voyage, I'll finally have my proof that I need. Please fill out my medical questionnaire, especially the one about menstrual cycles. I'd hate to be flushed out in such a horrible way

69

The existing machine is too deeply unlibertarian (structurally anti-libertarian, now) to be put to libertarian ends. They need a re-revolution to get anywhere, and even that wouldn't work. Their helplessness is true.

Posted by: oblig. at January 15, 2010 02:25 PM (FWvuv)

The reason the Reps moved away from libertarianism is that there weren't many votes to be won with it.

The LP and its allies refused any compromise, purposely picked fights with religious conservatives,  focused on the dopetarian segment of the electorate, and overall libertarians did a piss poor job of selling their philosophy.

What libertarians should be focusing on now is dumping the LP and trying to re-tailor their message. Libertarianism can be a popular philosophy again, but focus more on what worked in the 80s and early 90s and stop trying to become liberalitarians. 

I really hope they do this too, as now is a golden opportunity to point out the failures of leftist authoritarianism...

70 Ace says my link is too long and I don't know how to do the tiny thing.

Tiny thing : 1) Highlight then copy the long url from the page you want to link, 2) Go to this site and paste the long link you copied to the box under where it says Enter a long URL to make tiny, 3) Click on Make tinyURL! 4) The shorter url will the 2nd bolded link down, shown. That's the link you copy and insert here.

71

Perhaps not Tea Party set per se, but insurgent conservatives in county RECs seem to have run off Jim Greer (former Republic Party of Florida Chair) and pretty much killed Charlie Crist's Senate campaign (he's lost every county straw poll).

I've joined my county REC, after starting out with a local Tea Party-type club. Most of the tea partiers I've come in contact with are fiscal conservatives. We have our Ronulans, but they are willing to roll up their sleeves and aid in the common cause.

72 I have it on good authority that some of these "Tea Party" people do not drive hybrid cars or take public transportation.  Some even drive SUVs.  Can we really afford to associate with such manner of extremists?

73

but focus more on what worked in the 80s and early 90s and stop trying to become liberalitarians

I call them libertinians, ala Bill "hookers and blow for me, autocracy for thee" Maher.  The obsessive focus on drug legalization at the expense of much, much more serious curtailments on our liberties and prosperity is akin to Ron Paul's deranged hyper-fixation on "fiat currency".

They have an appealing gameplan, but they've botched it badly on the field.

74

We have our Ronulans, but they are willing to roll up their sleeves and aid in the common cause.

Posted by: niclun at January 15, 2010 02:48 PM (qypmI)

Those Ronulans (Libertarians/Fiscal Conservatives) are a very motivated bunch.  Those are the type of foot soldiers that can be very helpful in taking and holding ground.  

I would rather see a takeover of the RNC than a third party run.  This is a good omen.   

75

Oh, dear, I wonder what Peggy Noonan will do if Tea Partiers take over the GOP. Mayhaps she'll just have to form a third party.

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at January 15, 2010 02:01 PM (PiZiK)

How about the "Old Dried-up Cootch" Party.

***

Perfect. Because that would apply to David Brooks, who is such a woman.

76 Bill Maher is no libertarian. He may say he is, or even be registered as one, but that is like saying Andrew Sullivan is a conservative.

77 So much venom in the comments that accompany the article........but I'm not surprised at all by that. So do mostly asshats read the NY Slimes?

78 77 Bill Maher is no libertarian. He may say he is, or even be registered as one, but that is like saying Andrew Sullivan is a conservative.

Posted by: Uniball at January 15, 2010 03:03 PM (27iEn)

I don't know.  I think he's the perfect example of most libertarians.  Actually a full on liberal but wants to make some claim to be outside of the "establishment."  Its always how things go with that type of people.  They make a claim that they would consider voting Republican if only ______ fill in the blank.  But when there is a Republican with that fill in the blank there for them they still vote democrat.

79 we tried in Lancaster City.  Failed, but was the closest election since 94 with only 313 votes deciding in a City that dems out number repubs 2-1.  What did we get for our efforts, 25% property tax increase and police and fire cut by 43 members.  Latin America has taken over our city btw. 

80 If this is true, then we should start seeing hysterical, panicked articles about this take-over in the NY Times and other Democrat media outlets. I remember 15-20 years ago they were writing similar scare pieces about Christian conservatives supposedly taking over the GOP and turning it into a theocrat party, but that apparently didn't happen. So I'm a little skeptical about this, too.

81 Whoops, I meant in addition to the NY Times

82 ace: I just didn't want people to do the lazy thing, which is to not do the work of taking over the party, but then vote against it to punish it, because voting only takes three seconds.


This.

You can do the right thing, or the easy thing. Choose.

83 I do not want to see any third party candidates either. But when the chiefs are promoting RINOs, I would rather a third party candidate be there. I will not Vote RINO, either there is a conservative on the ballot or I stay home/write in.

84
If this is true, then we should start seeing hysterical, panicked articles about this take-over in the NY Times and other Democrat media outlets.

Well, the Wall Street Journal isn't a Democrat media outlet, but it has Peggy Noonan writing for it, and she's a Democrat outlet. Or inlet. Or something. Anyway, in her column she expressed a sort of frosty disapproval of Obama, explaining that he was "disconnected" from the American people. Like, duh. Without mentioning, of course, that us clodhoppers in fly-over country were saying this before the election.

Is it just me, or do others get a Tracy Flick vibe from Noonan--like she's that insufferable little twit-ette who's running for student council president?

85 I'm now a precinct chairman and have been to some local tea party riots (I love calling them riots). But I don't plan on traveling to riots. That money goes to Rubio or DeVore or Blunt.

86 The only problem I have is that a lot of you have problems distinguishing between the RINOs and people who just happen not to agree with you 100%.

Here's my definition:
There are varying levels of the do-something disease. I can fully understand arguments over precise allocation amounts, and even what exactly is 'infrastructure' or what deserves consideration.

But. The key question for any of them is: "What is the minimum possible long term governmental involvement to bring this about?"

Spurring development? There's the NASA way and the X-Prize way. One is a hell of a lot more efficient long term. The other had a laudable goal, but is now a high-tech jobs program.

87 #89, you haven't driven through PG county Maryland if you think NASA is a high-tech jobs program.  NASA headquarters is a union-jobs program.

88 The people are taking back their government.

"...government of the people by the people for the people.." Someone should write an 'address' about that. Oh, wait!...

You mean he didn't mean 'buy' the people?

89 I think the leftists were in the process of deliberately, methodically infiltrating the Republican Party in the same way they did the Democrat Party decades ago.  The "long march through the institutions" didn't advise stopping at any point that I recall.

I see what's happening here not so much as a rebellion as a counter-infiltration.  I'm actually glad to see that conservatives are taking back their party rather than trying to create a new one, because if they just give up and move elsewhere every time the infiltration happens, then it's just a matter of time before -that- party gets infiltrated too.

Qwinn

90

and we need Indians, and we need Chiefs

Racist!

91

Very interesting, I like this idea. I've been looking for a way to help but every time I contact a local campaign, all they want is money and that's something I can't really spare nowadays.

Thanks for the heads up!

92 I just have a hard time telling the difference between tea partyers and paulbots and larouchians.  (I actually like Ron Paul for the most part, so no disrespect...  but I don't know that his ideas would work for an economy as big as ours.)  And with the tea party crowd...  too many of them don't seem to know what they want except they are angry. 

Going to tea party events is like being stuck inside a blog comments section with all the smartest comments edited out.  I mean, jeez, I suppose it's good if they change things and maybe 10 years from now things are somehow going to be better.  But I just can't hang with people who get belligerent over modest disagreements (worse yet, imagined ones) and who don't feel comfortable justifying their opinions.  Tea partiers could never write a Constitution.  They might feel sympathetically towards the Founding Fathers....  but the Founding Fathers were incredibly literate, open-minded, and nuanced thinkers. 

Maybe people are just too damned stupid (With all our education, literacy rates today are far below what they were in the 1800s, when people were self-educated)..  In any case, populism of any variety freaks me out.  I just don't trust people's emotions.  I don't even trust my own emotions when it comes to important things.

93

is like being stuck inside a blog comments section with all the smartest comments edited out. 

Sounds like you're a fucking expert on that.

94

"I just don't want a power struggle or third-party spoliers."

Amen, my brother.

I also don't want to support the status quo, so hurray for the tea party training and execution of a successful strategy.

95 Blip,
1) visit a Code Pink rally.
2) "(With all our education, literacy rates today are far below what they were in the 1800s, when people were self-educated)"

The definition of literacy has also always changed. At one point it was "The ability to sign your name." Even the Founders themselves - highly educated, as you note - are quite flexible in how many variant spellings they're willing to employ.

96  Anyone who can win the Precinct Chairman will automatically be the Election Judge if the precinct went for the Republican Candidate in the last Presidential election, if the precinct went for the Donk (s)he will be the judge alternate.

 As a Precinct Chair you will also be invited to a whole passel of parties, the food is often quite good. I was invited into homes I would have normally had to use the service entrance. Anyone who drinks, well, it ain't ValuRite Vodka but it's often free.

 I had to go to several training sessions for election  judges and alternates, the wealthy Donks always, always, looked down their noses at anyone not driving at least a new Buick or not wearing Armani or one of theose other foreign sissies. Republicans, OTH, cared not about what was in my pocket but only what was in my heart. I then became proud to be a Republican. My wife wasn't so sure, since I was a (election) Judge I tried to make her call me The Honorable Peter.

97

Sweet...conservative types work hard to get back in power, and the Republican Main Street/Big Tent types will immediately busy themselves wrapping the foundations of the new power base with dynamite and "reaching out" to the Left.

Old hat, sadly.

98 I love it when a plan comes together...

99

I am less concerned about the detailed particulars of what platform we unite behind than that we do in fact unite behind one.

Welcome, brother!

100 My major concern is that too many of these folks don't have a clue as to what they are supposed to do if elected, and that they might be unwilling to do the job once they have it.  What's more, I've seen a number of them file against solid Reagan Republicans simply because those long-time precinct chairs have not affiliated with the TP movement or have dared to publicly question whether the methods adopted by some TP activists is helpful or harmful to the conservative movement and the GOP.

101 I'm with you on that Ace.  Not a conservative myself, but it is absolutely essential we get a huge conservative win this November and in 2012.  If we don't get back the house in November or at least come close, this country is doomed.

102 Tea Party activists are trying to take over the establishment, ground up...  
Maybe not as difficult as it sounds.  Especially with a minority party.  A few years ago, after retiring from the US Army in a lovely Army Town in Coastal Georgia, I decided to go to the county Republican Convention. It was scheduled a Saturday morning. I got there a little before the start. It was me and the county Republican Chairman. An hour later, still just the two of us. Finally, about a half-hour/45 minutes prior to the scheduled end, some folks drifted in. We barely met quorum (not that would've really mattered, I think), and we finally wound up with 10 of us. Just enough to be delegates to the district Republican convention in Savannah. All of us. Whether we were currently registered Republicans or not (one fellow didnÂ’t even live in the county, but was “moving there soon”). I was really suprised at how we selected our delegates (pretty much “anyone not wanting to be a delegate raise your hand”). And the thought that if I had collected a half-dozen of my buddies, I couldÂ’ve taken over the Republican Party in our county.

103 Excellent.

I want to be a precinct head for the GOP here in the northeast Cincinnati area.

This is the right strategy, at least at the bottom of the pyramid.

Sarah, Michael, the 168 working with TPM heads at higher level can do their thing too.

104 Our county has something like 18 precincts. When I attended my first meeting, there were only 6 spots filled - about 2 of them with fiscal conservatives, the other 4 with party hacks. Me and 4 other "we are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" types now fill 5 of those open slots. So we now have a 7-4 majority on our executive board. It can be done pretty easily folks.

105 Every Democratic precinct claimed by the Tea Party is a two 'fer; Democrats have been doing it to Republicans for years.

106

Jordan 23 Fusion