The tea party isnt dead. Its just looking down ballot. While fiscal conservatives remain split over the GOP presidential candidates grassroots activists are coalescing around a stellar slate of limited-government candidates looking to reinforce and reenergize the right in Washington.
And in the spirit of the modern-day tea party movement no entrenched incumbent -- Democrat or Republican -- is safe.
Utah was Ground Zero for the movements first major electoral upset. In April 2009 this column first reported on a Salt Lake City tea party protest of 2000 Utahans who repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch for supporting the $700 billion TARP bank bailout. In May 2010 the three-term 76-year-old Bennett got the boot at the GOP state convention. Young conservative lawyer Mike Lee who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito went on to win the seat.
Now young conservative entrepreneur and renowned state pension reformer Dan Liljenquist is taking on Utahs other big government Republican barnacle 77-year-old Hatch. Liljenquist excelled in the private sector as a global management consultant and business strategist; he also helmed a privately owned call center company that grew from two to 1500 employees since its 1995 founding. Liljenquist was elected to the Utah Senate in 2008 where he spearheaded state pension and Medicaid reforms that earned him the non-partisan Governing magazines 2011 Public Official of the Year award.
The 36-year six-term Hatch was first elected in 1976 on an anti-entrenched incumbent platform. Hatchs campaign line then against his opponent Frank Moss: What do you call a Senator whos served in office for 18 years? You call him home. Now Hatch is clinging to power after almost four decades in government -- and vainly attempting to claim the tea party mantle to stave off Liljenquists David vs. Goliath primary challenge.
Hatch co-sponsored the $6 billion national service boondoggle and dedicated it to his good friend Teddy Kennedy with whom he also joined hands to create the ever-expanding SCHIP health care entitlement. He slobbered over corruptocrat Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd supported tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner from Day One lavished praise on Joe Bidens manhood and embraced and defended Attorney General Eric Holders nomination because he said I like Barack Obama and I want to help him if I can.
In Indiana another aging liberal Republican dinosaur is fighting for his political life by masquerading as a tea party standard-bearer. The six-term 79-year-old Sen. Dick Lugar -- who prides himself on being Obamas favorite Republican -- hasnt lived in his home state since 1977. He supported the Obama stimulus law job-killing environmental mandates and the taxpayer bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the auto and banking industry bailouts.
Richard Mourdock Indianas former state treasurer offers a fresh alternative with widespread support from both grassroots activists and local and state GOP officials. While others hedged their bets Mourdock took the federal auto bailout head on lodging a court complaint against the Chrysler bailout to expose its illegal abuse of shareholders and punitive impact on Indiana citizens. He was elected to the treasurers office in 2006 a tough year for Republicans and was re-elected handily in 2010. Before politics he worked in the private sector for 30 years managing businesses in the energy environmental and construction industries. Hes never had a Beltway zip code.
In Texas young attorney Ted Cruz is making waves in the GOP race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The former Texas solicitor general is a 10th Amendment scholar who doesnt just speak the tea partys language. Cruz has put constitutional conservatism into action winning many of the 40 cases he has argued in front of the Supreme Court. Cruz isnt afraid to challenge the GOP establishment. In 2008 he successfully battled the Bush administration and meddling globalists all the way to the high court to prevent international law from superseding American sovereignty.
The GOP needs just four seats to take control of the Senate. With inspired and inspiring free-market candidates like Dan Liljenquist Richard Mourdock and Ted Cruz 2012 bodes well for the tea party footprint on Capitol Hill. Remember: Entrenched incumbency is the disease. Fresh blood is the cure.
Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats Crooks & Cronies (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
The tea party isnt dead. Its just looking down ballot. While fiscal conservatives remain split over the GOP presidential candidates grassroots activists are coalescing around a stellar slate of limited-government candidates looking to reinforce and reenergize the right in Washington.
And in the spirit of the modern-day tea party movement no entrenched incumbent -- Democrat or Republican -- is safe.
Utah was Ground Zero for the movements first major electoral upset. In April 2009 this column first reported on a Salt Lake City tea party protest of 2000 Utahans who repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch for supporting the $700 billion TARP bank bailout. In May 2010 the three-term 76-year-old Bennett got the boot at the GOP state convention. Young conservative lawyer Mike Lee who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito went on to win the seat.
Now young conservative entrepreneur and renowned state pension reformer Dan Liljenquist is taking on Utahs other big government Republican barnacle 77-year-old Hatch. Liljenquist excelled in the private sector as a global management consultant and business strategist; he also helmed a privately owned call center company that grew from two to 1500 employees since its 1995 founding. Liljenquist was elected to the Utah Senate in 2008 where he spearheaded state pension and Medicaid reforms that earned him the non-partisan Governing magazines 2011 Public Official of the Year award.
The 36-year six-term Hatch was first elected in 1976 on an anti-entrenched incumbent platform. Hatchs campaign line then against his opponent Frank Moss: What do you call a Senator whos served in office for 18 years? You call him home. Now Hatch is clinging to power after almost four decades in government -- and vainly attempting to claim the tea party mantle to stave off Liljenquists David vs. Goliath primary challenge.
Hatch co-sponsored the $6 billion national service boondoggle and dedicated it to his good friend Teddy Kennedy with whom he also joined hands to create the ever-expanding SCHIP health care entitlement. He slobbered over corruptocrat Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd supported tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner from Day One lavished praise on Joe Bidens manhood and embraced and defended Attorney General Eric Holders nomination because he said I like Barack Obama and I want to help him if I can.
In Indiana another aging liberal Republican dinosaur is fighting for his political life by masquerading as a tea party standard-bearer. The six-term 79-year-old Sen. Dick Lugar -- who prides himself on being Obamas favorite Republican -- hasnt lived in his home state since 1977. He supported the Obama stimulus law job-killing environmental mandates and the taxpayer bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the auto and banking industry bailouts.
Richard Mourdock Indianas former state treasurer offers a fresh alternative with widespread support from both grassroots activists and local and state GOP officials. While others hedged their bets Mourdock took the federal auto bailout head on lodging a court complaint against the Chrysler bailout to expose its illegal abuse of shareholders and punitive impact on Indiana citizens. He was elected to the treasurers office in 2006 a tough year for Republicans and was re-elected handily in 2010. Before politics he worked in the private sector for 30 years managing businesses in the energy environmental and construction industries. Hes never had a Beltway zip code.
In Texas young attorney Ted Cruz is making waves in the GOP race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The former Texas solicitor general is a 10th Amendment scholar who doesnt just speak the tea partys language. Cruz has put constitutional conservatism into action winning many of the 40 cases he has argued in front of the Supreme Court. Cruz isnt afraid to challenge the GOP establishment. In 2008 he successfully battled the Bush administration and meddling globalists all the way to the high court to prevent international law from superseding American sovereignty.
The GOP needs just four seats to take control of the Senate. With inspired and inspiring free-market candidates like Dan Liljenquist Richard Mourdock and Ted Cruz 2012 bodes well for the tea party footprint on Capitol Hill. Remember: Entrenched incumbency is the disease. Fresh blood is the cure.
Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats Crooks & Cronies (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
