jct74
01-27-2011, 10:26 AM
I'm in the Hart office building of Senate offices, where the Senate's Tea Party caucus is holding its inaugural meeting. There are around 100 activists here, and at least 25 members of the media -- two Washington Post reporters, CNN, Politico, the LA Times, and so on. There are, coincidentally, 25 versions of the same question: Why do this?
"Senator [Rand] Paul and I have been discussing this since the election," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to me. "We want to have a way for the movement to stay in touch with us. If we can hold meetings like this once a month, that would be great."
Variations of that question went to Paul and to Jim DeMint. There was a patina of controversy because Marco Rubio, the man the media chose to exemplify the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010, has not joined the caucus. So Paul got asked about Rubio's objection, that the movement was about outsiders.
Read more:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/01/27/the-senate-s-tea-party-caucus-launches.aspx
"Senator [Rand] Paul and I have been discussing this since the election," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to me. "We want to have a way for the movement to stay in touch with us. If we can hold meetings like this once a month, that would be great."
Variations of that question went to Paul and to Jim DeMint. There was a patina of controversy because Marco Rubio, the man the media chose to exemplify the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010, has not joined the caucus. So Paul got asked about Rubio's objection, that the movement was about outsiders.
Read more:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/01/27/the-senate-s-tea-party-caucus-launches.aspx