Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. We want to find the best candidate and the best vehicle for us to reclaim our republic says Jerry DeLemus a Tea Party leader from Rochester N.H. The Republican Party is a vehicle that we can use to effect positive change. As the Tea Party turns 2 the still-gelling field of Republican presidential contenders is the first class of White House hopefuls to try to figure out how to tap the movements energy without alienating voters elsewhere on the political spectrum.
Weve changed the political landscape in Washington and in statehouses across the country says Amy Kremer chairwoman of the Tea Party Express. We have to keep going and keep beating the drum.
No candidate can afford to ignore these anti-establishment anti-tax conservative-libertarian rabble-rousers whose enthusiasm fired up the GOP base and helped Republicans win control of the House in November. But wrapping themselves in the Tea Party mantle carries risks for candidates.
Its a tricky time of courtship.
Look no further than this weekends events marking the Tea Partys second anniversary to see how the candidates are employing different strategies. Some will be out front as the Tea Party stages tax day rallies across the country. Others not so much.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty an establishment Republican making a play for Tea Party support and clamoring to be heard over bigger names is among those jumping in with both feet. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is being more coy.
Pawlenty joined a gathering on Boston Common -- in the city where colonists staged the 1773 Tea Party revolt against the British government -- and earlier in neighboring New Hampshire. And hes headed for Iowa a day later for similar appearances that are likely to include Dont Tread on Me banners and tirades against Washington spending.
Pawlenty led a crowd here in chanting Yes he did! -- a negative take on Obamas Yes we can! campaign slogan -- as he listed what he called Obamas broken promises to halve the federal deficit contain health care costs with GOP aid and prevent 8 percent unemployment.
Thank you for being modern-day Paul Reveres sounding the alarm and being the patriots who are going to lead the effort to take back our country he said echoing an earlier appearance in Concord.
For his part Obama said he welcomed the activists work to force some questions to the surface about who we are as a people and what can we afford
and what kind of government do we want.
Obviously I have very different views than many in the Tea Party and certainly they would say they have very different views from me in terms of the proper role of government in our society Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press but my general view is that the more engaged the American people are the more focused they are then the better off our democracy will be over the long term.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin perhaps the Republican most closely identified with the Tea Party is slated to attend a weekend Tea Party rally at the Wisconsin Capitol the site of recent protests over legislation that would strip union rights for most public workers.
Tea Party darling Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann all but drafted into the race by Tea Partyers plans to share the steps of the South Carolina Statehouse with another of the movements favorite daughters Gov. Nikki Haley.
And little-known businessman
Herman Cain who is hoping Tea Party backing can make him more than a longshot planned to hit rallies in New Hampshire Iowa Michigan and Texas.
A sleeping giant -- we the people -- has awakened and its not going back to sleep Cain said. We the people are still in charge of this country no matter what you decide to call us.
Real estate magnate Donald Trump who says hes serious about running picked a Tea Party rally in Boca Raton Fla. to make his stand.
And former Pennsylvania Sen.
Rick Santorum told a crowd on the New Hampshire Statehouses lawn that the 2012 election is a choice between the nations founding fathers or Obama.
Are we a country that is again going to believe in ourselves in free people in limited government so we can transform the world and leave our country better than we found it?
Other contenders are proceeding with more caution.
Its the same approach that former Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney has been taking. He talks about lower taxes and reduced government. He decries the Internal Revenue Service a top target of Tea Partyers. And in his defense of the
Massachusetts health care overhaul that he pushed through he invokes the 10th Amendment that guarantees states rights.
In an opinion piece published Friday in the Orlando Sentinel Romney praised the Tea Party-style activists: Thanks to the Tea Party theres real hope that we can rein in our profligate federal government.
But he spends the bulk of the column -- and his Friday appearance at an accounting office in Orlando -- criticizing
President Obama on policy not invoking the Founding Fathers.
This is the time when the American people recognize that the government is taking too big a bite and what we really need to do is allow individuals in the private sector to grow and thrive so we can get people to work and folks can plan for a bright and prosperous future Romney told reporters in Florida.
Indiana Gov.
Mitch Daniels has followed a similar model. He had no public events scheduled for anti-tax rallies but has proved eager to criticize Washington spending.
The tentativeness toward becoming a Tea Party candidate is understandable.
They could get pushed too far to the right during the primaries if they embrace the Tea Partys conservative platform. Theres also the potential stain of being linked to a group that Democratic critics have labeled extremist if not racist.
On the expansive Boston Common protestors hoisted a sign that called for union jobs and health care for all in a banner directly in front of the stage. Several times the protesters interrupted speakers with chants of Tea Party bigots.
Even so the Republicans must compete in early primary states where Tea Party activists have made inroads in the GOP establishment and made clear that they intend to have a say in the presidential race.
Iowas Tea Party leaders meanwhile have mapped out a strategy to engage supporters and road-test presidential candidates with hopes of influencing the leadoff nominating caucuses. They are planning a bus tour through the state this summer featuring at least four GOP presidential prospects as well as a series of caucus training sessions.
New Hampshires Tea Party activists made gains within the states central GOP committee and elected Jack Kimball as the state GOP chairman over the establishments pick in January. And the Tea Party footprint in South Carolina also has expanded with activists becoming more influential inside GOP county
organizations.
The Tea Partys birth can be traced to spring 2009 when libertarians and conservatives rose up in small towns and big cities alike to oppose Obamas policies on such issues as the $787 billion economic stimulus measure Wall Street bailouts and his health care plan.
Some activists point to a CNBC anchors televised tirade about taxes as the launching point. Others dispute that.
Whatever its origin theres no doubt about the Tea Partys power.
organizations.
The Tea Partys birth can be traced to spring 2009 when libertarians and conservatives rose up in small towns and big cities alike to oppose Obamas policies on such issues as the $787 billion economic stimulus measure Wall Street bailouts and his health care plan.
Some activists point to a CNBC anchors televised tirade about taxes as the launching point. Others dispute that.
Whatever its origin theres no doubt about the Tea Partys power.
