Thread: Tea Party Protests, Texas Style

Tea Party protesters were out in full force on April 15, 2010.


On the first anniversary of the founding of the Tea Party movement, protests and rallies were held across the country. In North Texas the tea party faithful gathered at QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie to have their voices heard in Austin and Washington.

Organizers estimate about 10,000 people came to the Grand Prairie baseballl park to voice their concern with how the country is going.

Some people say 'TEA' stands for 'Taxed Enough Already,' and that's certainly the sentiment locally. A sign just inside the ballpark says "Go Green, Recycle Congress."

A dozen tea party groups from across North Texas merged their efforts for a bigger rally that they hope will send their message.

Organizers claim theirs is a grassroots movement of people fed up with big, expensive government.

Lance King is selling framed copies of items like the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. He brought his daughters too, but not just to sell stuff. "It's important that they get involved because it's our country and they're going to have to pay for it eventually."

Detractors have painted the tea party as a movement of republicans. But the party claims it crosses all lines.

In Austin flag-waving tea party activists gathered at the state capitol Thursday, denouncing big government while cheering on former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other politicians.

Gov. Rick Perry wasn't set to address any of the rallies where thousands were expected from El Paso to Tyler, but he did warn organizers to watch their backs for liberals trying to make them look bad.

About 300 turned out to hear Gingrich and watch him sign a tea party pledge at an Austin hotel -- chanting "Newt!" when a moderator asked about his political plans. Gingrich dodged the moderator's question but later told reporters he didn't know if he'd run for president 2012.

Gingrich, well-known for his support of the Contract With America that helped Republicans recapture Congress in 1994, drew loud applause and hoots when he signed a pledge called the Contract From America, in which tea partyists ask those seeking elected office to adhere to 10 core conservative principles.

Gingrich praised the movement as crucial to conservatives' chances of taking back Congress and the White House.

"I would be very concerned if the tea party movement drifted into a third party because if we split our side, we re-elect Pelosi and Obama," he said to cheers. He drew applause from the crowd when he predicted a balanced budget amendment would emerge as a major issue this summer and when he repeatedly called for the repeal of President Barack Obama's health care legislation.

Gingrich got a rock star greeting at the event, drawing a prolonged standing ovation and repeated applause throughout his speech. As the event concluded, throngs of people followed him out of the room, seeking his autograph and snapping pictures.

Although Republicans are ideological allies of many tea partiers -- and GOP operatives are involved in some of the organizations -- they are also part of the establishment that many in the movement want to upend.

At other tea party rallies across the country, Republican participation drew opposition. In Wisconsin, a half dozen tea party groups from around the state decided to boycott Thursday's rally in Madison because former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was among the speakers.

Organizers of the Grand Prairie event tell CBS 11 no one running for office will be able to address the crowd, leaving political aspirations of individual candidates out while the party focuses on the movement as a whole.

In an invitation-only call with tea party organizers on Wednesday, Governor Perry said that they need to "continue looking over your shoulder ... for people trying to make the tea party into something that it's not."

Perry, a frequent Washington basher who capitalized on the tea party movement to defeat Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the March primary elections, said the movement was certain to be mischaracterized.

"You can bet that every dirty trick is going to get played on tea parties, trying to marginalize them, trying to make them into something that they're not," said Perry, who faces Democrat Bill White in November's gubernatorial election.

There was plenty of flag waving and shouts opposing the federal government and health care at a lunchtime rally Thursday on the south steps of the Capitol in Austin. One woman held an anti-tax sign that said, "Even my God only asks for 10 percent." Others held flags showing a picture of a cannon and the Texas Revolution slogan "Come and Take It."

One man at the rally, Jim Dillon, approached the crowd carrying an AK-47 on his shoulder that he said was unloaded and legal. A state trooper stopped the man, examined the weapon and then left him alone.

"Our rights are hanging by a thread already as it is," Dillon said, referencing the constitutional right to bear arms. "If we don't exercise our rights frequently, we'll lose them."

Barry Walker, leader of a tea party group called New Revolution Now, roused the crowd with his speech about the movement.

"There is a revolution under way in America today," he said. "We're at the very beginning of it, but make no mistake, it is happening."

Before any speakers addressed the rally, a man who identified himself as a former Baptist minister gave a fiery prayer that said the nation is under siege "by enemies abroad and domestic." Republican state Reps. Leo Berman of Tyler and Wayne Christian of Center also spoke to the crowd about resisting federal overreach.

State Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, leader of the House Democrats, said tea party activists are being duped by Texas Republicans who are criticizing the very federal largesse they relied to keep the state afloat financially.

"All of the Republicans who are banging the drums at these tea party rallies all voted to receive and spend the stimulus -- if they voted for the state budget, they did," Dunnam said. "It's rank hypocrisy ... I think ultimately people are going to figure it out."

Locally, Texas Democratic Party member Michael Ogulnick told CBS 11 "We understand why people are angry and frustrated with government. But we think that anger should be funneled toward Rick Perry and the Texas Republicans who have taken special favors from special interest groups and friends of theirs. And frankly the Republican Party in Washington D.C. who have hijacked the tea party movement for their own political gains."

In the Houston area, tea party organizers made extra security arrangements and asked their crowds to be "vigilant to make sure no one tries to misrepresent us," said Suzanne Guggenheim, president of the North Houston Tea Party Patriots.

Speakers at rallies there include conservative radio talk show hosts, state lawmakers and Rick Green, an evangelical former state lawmaker who was defeated in the GOP runoff election Tuesday night for a seat on the state Supreme Court.

In the year since the movement took off, hostility over Wall Street bailouts, the national debt and government spending helped Texas tea party candidates beat two longtime House Republicans in recent elections.


http://cbs11tv.com/politics/tea.party.n ... 36136.html
WITH VIDEO

Houston Tea Party Video

http://www.khou.com/news/Tea-party-acti ... 06359.html