paulitician
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- Oct 7, 2011
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This should send the usual suspect Anti-Tea Party nutters into a tizzy.
In case youre keeping track, the supposedly sleepy and deflated tea party has been racking up the score against liberal foes and establishment Republicans over the past couple of months.
For more than a year, as the tea partiers reorganized and regrouped following the 2010 elections, an evolution has been taking place. The hundreds of local groups that still exist across America are becoming more substantive, more strategic and more organized. The tea party is growing up and as a result it remains a potent political force not just against liberal forces but as an accountability mechanism for a GOP that has too often underwhelmed the conservative grassroots. Just ask the soon-to-be former senator from Indiana.
Dick Lugar had a long and storied career in public service, rising from school board to one of the longest-serving members of the Senate. He won re-election time and time again despite continuously distancing himself from his constituents. Why? Because he could get away with it until he went head to head with the tea party.
Lugars disconnect from Indiana voters was punctuated by his increasingly Beltway-centric lifestyle and worldview. He co-sponsored the DREAM Act and helped lead the fight for the New START treaty, just to name a few of the egregious cases. Lugars Ruling Class sense of entitlement caused him to understand the threats too late. While he had a sizable war chest, he started campaigning late, resorting to thin character attacks on his opponent. More importantly, over the past several years, he virtually ignored the local grassroots and tea party members, though he did take the time to tell the tea party to get real about START. They did get real with Lugar when they came out in force and sent a message not just to Lugar, but to every Republican who takes their support for granted. The score in the GOP Senate primary race: roughly 60%-40% for the tea party-supported candidate, Richard Mourdock.
In Nebraska, Attorney General Jon Bruning was supposed to win his Senate primary in a walk. But...
Read more: Tea party 4, everyone else 0 | The Daily Caller
In case youre keeping track, the supposedly sleepy and deflated tea party has been racking up the score against liberal foes and establishment Republicans over the past couple of months.
For more than a year, as the tea partiers reorganized and regrouped following the 2010 elections, an evolution has been taking place. The hundreds of local groups that still exist across America are becoming more substantive, more strategic and more organized. The tea party is growing up and as a result it remains a potent political force not just against liberal forces but as an accountability mechanism for a GOP that has too often underwhelmed the conservative grassroots. Just ask the soon-to-be former senator from Indiana.
Dick Lugar had a long and storied career in public service, rising from school board to one of the longest-serving members of the Senate. He won re-election time and time again despite continuously distancing himself from his constituents. Why? Because he could get away with it until he went head to head with the tea party.
Lugars disconnect from Indiana voters was punctuated by his increasingly Beltway-centric lifestyle and worldview. He co-sponsored the DREAM Act and helped lead the fight for the New START treaty, just to name a few of the egregious cases. Lugars Ruling Class sense of entitlement caused him to understand the threats too late. While he had a sizable war chest, he started campaigning late, resorting to thin character attacks on his opponent. More importantly, over the past several years, he virtually ignored the local grassroots and tea party members, though he did take the time to tell the tea party to get real about START. They did get real with Lugar when they came out in force and sent a message not just to Lugar, but to every Republican who takes their support for granted. The score in the GOP Senate primary race: roughly 60%-40% for the tea party-supported candidate, Richard Mourdock.
In Nebraska, Attorney General Jon Bruning was supposed to win his Senate primary in a walk. But...
Read more: Tea party 4, everyone else 0 | The Daily Caller