Virginia Tea Party Patriots leader Jamie Radtke went after the Republican establishment Thursday during an address to the Senate Tea Party caucus.
During her address to the caucus, National Journal reports Radtke said, "The Tea Party movement would not exist today if the Republicans had not failed under the Bush years."
Radtke was among a number of speakers at the first caucus meeting. She was joined by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah) and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe.
Radtke was the first Republican to enter the Virginia Senate race, and will be competing against former senator George Allen (R) for the opportunity to face Sen. Jim Webb (D). Radtke has already established that she will be running to Allen's right, calling Allen a member of the "Washington establishment." Radtke worked for Allen briefly after college.
Radtke has said that, if elected, she would join the Senate tea party caucus formed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and that she would support a bill proposed by Paul to cut $500 billion in federal spending.
So The Tea Party is rejecting Bush's policies? Which Bush? The one of the First Gulf War or the one who started the second two?
This is probably a bad sign for both the GOP and the Tea Party, though. If the Tea Party is going to expect people to read their lips on "no new taxes," at least in some cases, they're going to disappoint. It's happened before. Worse, their also going to face the demand of blue-collar people and small business owners for welfare, unemployment benefits and government loans and entitlements to pay for their children's college or to keep their business' afloat.
The issue may not be about government expenditure though. The issue may be the resentment of people in "the fly-over states" for paying to a government without benefits. In a sense, they may really just resent getting flown over.
To solve the problems of either Bush administration, or any other one, the government would just have to put an ear back to the ground. When it doesn't, side groups of the far right, the far left, or the narrow center, can simply exploit a few large issues to ride into office.
Just a few thoughts....
