Tea Party Weekend Roundup

It was another 'Say what?' moment as some New York City TPers protested the Super Congress:

"For tea party activists, the super committee smacks of everything they railed against in the last election cycle: Concentrated power in the hands of a few lawmakers who might be inclined to make closed door deals involving trillions of dollars.

In the New Dorp section of Staten Island in New York City, roughly 15 tea party activists gathered in the rain outside of Rep. Michael Grimm's district office to hand the republican congressman a letter asking him to draft legislation to repeal the panel.

..."The super Congress is antithetical to what America is supposed to be," said Danny Panzella, a 35-year-old Staten Island tea party leader who organized a Wednesday rally at Grimm's office in New York. "Small elite groups having override powers for the rest of Congress ... is anti democracy. It's anti-American."

Kind of like a handful of extremists in the House who hold a debt ceiling increase hostage and force their will on the majority, eh Mr. Panzella?

Speaking of hostages, here's the next one:

"The famed tax activist Grover Norquist, whose alliance with the Tea Party faithful during the debt debate helped kill off any talk of tax hikes, has already set his sights on harnessing the Tea Party for another big, and until recently unexpected, tax battle. The annual federal excise tax on gasoline--which funds road and bridge construction--is set to expire Sept. 30.

Normally its extension is automatic, but Norquist hopes to unleash the Tea Party's fury to block its renewal, betting that the appeal of shaving the price of $4-a-gallon gas will have populist appeal. It's an idea that rarely got much traction until the Tea Party appeared."

Normally automatic and rarely got much traction until the Tea Party appeared? That sounds familiar.

Ross Douthat has an op-ed in the New York Times in which he writes that in light of the S&P credit rating downgrade...

"...our leaders have a responsibility that transcends their ideological differences: the responsibility to work with one another to keep the country solvent."

Tell me how we work with one another when one side holds to this:

"THIENSVILLE, Wis. -- The founder of Tea Party Nation claimed liberal ideology is responsible for "a billion" deaths over the past century during a raucous rally here Saturday in support of one of the six Republican state senators facing a recall election Tuesday.

"I will tell you ladies and gentlemen, I detest and despise everything the left stands for. How anybody can endorse and embrace an ideology that has killed a billion people in the last century is beyond me," said Tea Party Nation CEO Judson Phillips.

Phillips, who a day prior likened protesters of Gov. Scott Walker to Nazi storm troopers, urged a few hundred tea party supporters to turn out for state Sen. Alberta Darling, who is in a ferocious battle with state Rep. Sandy Pasch to hold onto her suburban Milwaukee seat.

But he wasn't the only speaker to use loaded language to gin up the crowd.

Vince Schmuki, a leader of the Ozaukee Patriot tea party group compared the recall effort to a terrorist attack.

"This is ground zero," said Schmuki.  "You remember what the term ground zero means? We have been attacked."

I don't see much chance for middle ground there. And last but by no means least there was Governor Swaggart's Perry's revival meetin' at Reliant Stadium on Saturday.

"Perry played pastor to an estimated crowd of more than 30,000 people at what was billed as an "apolitical [snicker] Christian prayer meeting" that he helped convene here. The event, dubbed "The Response," was billed as an appeal for divine intervention to help the nation address a host of problems.

..."Father, our heart breaks for America," he said, leading the crowd in a prayer. "We see discord at home, we see fear in the marketplace, we see anger in the halls of government. As a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness. We pray for our nation's leaders, for parents, for pastors, for generals, for governors, that you would inspire them."

I agree, Rick. I see discord at home-caused by the people to whom you are speaking. I see fear in the marketplace--caused by the people to whom you are speaking. I see anger in the halls of government--mostly from those put there by the people to whom you are speaking. They don't need divine intervention, just a mirror.