A Tea Party Caucus - TAC TV

When Kentucky US Senate candidate Rand Paul said that if elected he would seek to join forces with Tea Party-minded senators like Jim DeMint (SC), and possibly current senate candidates like Mike Lee of Utah and Sharron Angle of Nevada, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS) told the Washington Post, “We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples.” Warning of any such possible bloc of rogue Republican senators, Lott added “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.” You have to give Lott credit for his honesty. The long established process of becoming a respected Republican on Capitol Hill is for politicians to mouth conservative rhetoric in order to get elected, and then to advance their careers by supporting every bit of big government legislation favored by their party. If some honest conservative dared to criticize such behavior, talk radio and the right-wing media would always have that Republican’s back, pointing out that the Democrats were always worse, helping to insure that politician’s re-election. This scenario describes Lott’s entire career and it should be no surprise that he now works as a Capitol Hill lobbyist. Lott’s common brand of Republicanism, always masquerading as “conservatism,” reached new heights during the George W. Bush years and survives today as the rump of the Republican Party—members of which still offer no apologies for their past behavior. When Tea Partiers now go after Republicans like Senator Bob Bennett, or give Senator Lindsey Graham holy hell at a town hall, mainstream pundits like to call the movement too “extreme” while scratching their heads and asking, “but aren’t these ‘conservative Republicans ?” Answer: No. They never were, and this is a truth grassroots conservatives finally seem to be waking up to...more