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I could have sworn people claimed that the Tea Parties were not Republican."The Republican Party left its principles," Wall said. "And these Tea Parties are filled with people who want to take back our party."
Even GOP conservative Ron Paul draws Tea Party opposition
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 7, 2010
By TOM BENNING / The Dallas Morning News
tbenning@dallasnews .com
WASHINGTON – Even anti-government icon Ron Paul can't escape the conservative "Tea Party" fervor stretching across the county.
Paul, the Gulf Coast congressman whose 2008 presidential run excited libertarians nationwide, even though he didn't get much traction overall, is considered by many to be the "father of the Tea Parties." But he has three opponents in the March Republican primary – more than he has faced in his past six primary campaigns combined.
All three have ties to the anti-tax Tea Party movement. And while Paul remains the odds-on favorite to win re-election in his district, the crowded primary highlights the potential conflict between Tea Party activists and a GOP hoping to ride their wave to electoral success this fall.
"The Tea Parties have awakened a lot of everyday people here and across America," said Tim Graney, one of Paul's opponents. "And Ron Paul is worried about getting swept up in the anti-in bent wave as if he is some exception."
Not in lockstep
It is hard to know where Paul fits into the Tea Party landscape. Paul supporters say he launched the movement in 2007 when he raised $6 million in a one-day, Web-based fundraiser on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. His call for limited government and ending the Federal Reserve also resonates loudly in the Tea Party movement.
"Dr. Paul is proud to play a small role in getting this phenomenon going," said his campaign spokesman, Jesse Benton.
That phenomenon has also propelled Paul's protégés – including his son Rand, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, and former Paul campaign volunteer Debra Medina, who is surging in the Texas GOP primary race for governor.
But the movement has clearly moved beyond Paul's dedicated core of supporters, a fact the congressman has seemingly acknowledged. He plans to attend a Tea Party-sponsored candidate forum in Katy this month, but he has distanced himself from the Tea Parties in recent interviews because of the antagonistic tone of some rallies.
"He has a very good relationship with the Tea Parties," Benton said. "But it is very important that these rallies maintain a certain level of decorum and respect."
Paul's opponents don't dispute that last point. But both Graney and Gerald Wall said they were inspired to run by their Tea Party involvement, and all three challengers are trying to tap into the movement's passion and enthusiasm.
"The Republican Party left its principles," Wall said. "And these Tea Parties are filled with people who want to take back our party."
John Gay, Paul's third opponent, said he has attended several Tea Parties and related meetings. Both Wall, a machine supervisor, and Graney, a former small-business owner, have helped organize local rallies.
Tea Party associations aside, many of the challengers' criticisms echo concerns of Paul's past opponents: that he is too focused on his national ambitions; that his views are too extreme; that he doesn't support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; that he votes "no" on everything, including federal aid for his district after Hurricane Ike.
"The word I keep hearing is 'ineffective, ' " said Gay, a school business administrator. "This district is not really being represented as it could be."
'Attack dogs'
Paul's campaign aides scoffed at those charges. Benton, Paul's spokesman, acknowledged that the vote against hurricane aid was difficult, but he said Paul couldn't set aside his belief in fiscal conservatism.
But Paul is buoyed by the advantages of longtime in bency and an ability to raise significant campaign cash, and Benton said the campaign wasn't worried about the compe ion. Paul has more than $1.9 million in the bank, while none of his opponents has more than a few thousand dollars, according to their most recent campaign finance disclosures. Three Democrats are vying to take on the Republican winner in the fall, but the district is overwhelmingly Republican.
"We are not taking these challengers very seriously," Benton said. "But we would never take any votes of the 14th District for granted."
And Paul – who understands a thing or two about grass-roots politics – took a more defensive stance last month in a letter to his supporters. Paul wrote that his opponents had "turned their attack dogs loose on me" and cautioned that the anti-Washington sentiment could take him out as well.
"While I think this development is a good thing," he wrote, "I am going to have to work hard to ensure I am not caught up in the same wave and swept out of office before our job is done."
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I could have sworn people claimed that the Tea Parties were not Republican."The Republican Party left its principles," Wall said. "And these Tea Parties are filled with people who want to take back our party."
Some Repug mucky-muck, Boner? Armey? ??, said last week that the teabaggers ARE the Repug party.
They are anti republican's already in Congress, for the most part. They would be stupid to start a 3rd party, when they have so much potential to change one of the big 2 now.
No way they can change the leftists in the Democrat party, democrat party hates the Tea bag movement anyway. So, they'll go after the GOP where they hopefully can get traction.
They're pissed at leftist republicans now, but the GOP is/should be their more natural home.
I think they'll succeed in some part...how big a part they'll play is yet to be seen.
Thing is, Ron Paul is far more a libertarian who believes in protectionism and isolation over having conservative viewpoints. Just because he's anti-many left things, doesn't mean he has enough values shared by those who like Tea Parties.
who believes in protectionism and isolation over having conservative viewpoints.Just because he's anti-many left things, doesn't mean he has enough values
Taking people out of context might make the re s think you are intelligent, but it make you look really stupid to intelligent people.
I agree with much of what you say, but personally I wouldn't label Paul as a libertarian - I don't have nothing against that classification, but he belongs to a very peculiar brand of libertarians - or as a protectionist - although the practical effect of his approach to free-trade is a chilling effect on the people's right to engage in commerce.
Paul, is essentially, an inconsistent ideologist in the realm of ideas and and a hypocrite in the realm of practice.
Another way to phrase that would be to say that Paul is someone who isn't afraid to develop his own unique set of beliefs as opposed to merely picking a label like "conservative", "liberal" or "libertarian" and ensuring that his views on every possible issue conform to that single label. But maybe that's just me.
It may be his unique set of beliefs, but they're still inconsistent and ideological.
In any case, I believe it's more than fair to call Paul a Rothbardian.
It is.
Maybe the Tea Baggers will succeed where Paul failed: fracturing the Republican party enough to be noticed...
freak. are they turning into neo-cons now? This turn of events is really disheartening. I say fine, end the empire, who gives a crap anymore.
You think that would be a bad thing for the GOP? That's what Goldwater, Russell Kirk, William Buckley and others did - they ran the Randians, the Birchers and the Rothbardians away from the GOP/conservatism mainstream. The consequence was the birth of a respectable conservative movement, purged of those lunatics.
Last edited by mogrovejo; 02-10-2010 at 04:33 PM.
I would argue our country is worse off for their "contributions" to the political will and intelligence of our country.
Doesnt make what you wrote less true, quite the contrary.
Whose contributions?
Russel, Kirk and Buckley.
Trad cons are the wave of the past.
The neocon body snatchers have already gotten to most of their epigones, and at any rate the conservative movement has already left them on the shelf, where theirs busts can be readily admired and their articles and books left mostly undisturbed.
Russell and Kirk aren't separate iden ies. It's the same person, named Russell Kirk. In my view, the US and the world would be far worse without their contributions.
I think they already have.
Let the Republicans be divided. They need a serious shake-up to get the neocons and RINO's out. If they ever return to representing the republic, I may consider joining them.
Yes, it would be a good day when your neocon ass is run out of the GOP.
Conservatism today is nothing more than a muscular progressivism, heavy on the warfare and a daddy view of domestic intervention while liberalism offers up a dovish progressivism, lighter on the warfare (though perhaps more in tone than in practice) and a maternal view of domestic intervention. Paul essentially offers the classical liberal view of a Bob Taft and is tarred by neocons such as Cobra Commander as a leftist.
In many respects, the two major competing political orthodoxies are more similar than different. Cons utional liberties cannot be tolerated due to whatever pressing external or internal threat to the Republic, and no right thinking American would be caught in polite company on the side of greater individual liberty and a smaller federal state.
No, I think it's bad for the country. Even if the difference betwen the two parties nowadays is basically very minor, I still want them alternating power, both in Congress and the Executive. A fractured GOP only empowers the Democrats more, and I think that's a disservice to the country.
Palin stuck it to 'Big Oil' when she was governor of Alaska. I'm not sure why a great corporatist like Cobra Commander is singing her praises.
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