Tea Party moves in on Conaway, threatens to divide GOP base

[Dover]

By Lynsi Burton
Hearst Newspapers
Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 9:26 PM CST


WASHINGTON — Canyon Clowdus thinks Americans “have less freedom and pay more taxes than ever.”

“We need more John Wayne and Jesus in Washington,” the Marble Falls rancher and businessman declares.

Clowdus is just the kind of grass-roots activist that national Republican leaders sought to fire up in the Tea Party movement that has spread across Texas in energetic rallies and heated town hall confrontations. Now, the 40-year-old Army veteran is seeking to unseat an incumbent congressman whom he calls a profligate spender.

Just one problem: Clowdus, an avid Tea Party loyalist, is running in the Republican primary against a conservative incumbent, Rep. Mike Conaway of Midland.

Across Texas, at least five Tea Party activists have announced their candidacies for U.S. House and Senate seats.

The grassroots Tea Party movement is comprised of conservative anti-government anti-tax activists. They take their name from the 1773 Boston tea party conducted by rebellious colonists against the British crown...cont'd

Read more: http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2009/11/17/news/top_stories/doc4b0233b1e0123397853869.txt#ixzz0XBjL25EM



"Canyon Clowdus" - boy, if that's not a classic good ol' boy name. Sounds like someone who would put John Wayne and Jesus in the same sentence...lol!

[sonias]

1. Texas Tea is stronger

"The Tea Party movement is stronger in Texas than in many other places," Jillson said. "It’s a presence throughout the country, but in the conservative parts of the country with a strong populist tradition, it seems to play a stronger role."

Some are beginning to wonder if the national GOP has given its blessing to something it can’t control.

"The thing that the Republican incumbent fears the most is a challenge from the right," Jillson said. "If you look anything like a moderate Republican, the talk-radio right could come out against you."

While it’s too early to determine if the Tea Party movement will prove a durable political force, its candidates could prove a costly and unwanted distraction for establishment Republicans who would rather be aiming their fire at Democrats. Case in point: the GOP race for governor, where Tea Party ally Debra Medina of Wharton, Texas, has announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination against incumbent Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whom she dismisses derisively as "get-along-style politicians." Perry and Hutchinson are card-carrying Republicans.

Oh please make it so! More Tea Party candidates in the R's primary.

:kick:

Sonia

[Dover]

2. I've been wondering if the class split in the Republican Party would

take the form of some independent movement by the 'have nots'. Don't know if Tea baggers fall into that category, but as the economy continues to sink and jobs become more scarce, the portion of the Republican Party that was coralled by the wealthy right into doing their bidding (ironically at the expense of those 'have nots') are bound to lose faith in politics as usual. The same is true of those in the Democratic Party (workers and those further to the left in values), who have HAD IT with the charade and see the depth of corruption as having infected all of government and no longer representing them. I think it will be these shifts at the grassroots level, driven by frustration with a broken system of government, that will ultimately be the cause of real change. And it will be less about parties and politics than about urgent necessity, common sense and shifting values.

[sonias]

3. It can't hurt

Some of these people who consider themselves "Independents" but always seem to vote republican, have got to wake up for change to happen. Some of them have got to be catching on that the Texas brand of republican is not representing them at all. Some of them fell for the false promise of "no new taxes" and all of the hype about "tort reform". None of that did the average Texan any good. Insurance costs continue to rise and republicans are just fooling them by calling things "fees" instead of taxes. Either way people are paying more of that too.

Let the Texas Republican party continue to split. Fine by me.

Sonia