Kenosha TEA Party Movement

Tea party Groups to Join Forces in Wisconsin via CNN

Two of the nation's prominent tea party groups will merge for a Wisconsin bus tour in support of six Republican state senators facing recall elections.

Tea Party Nation and Tea Party Express will kick off their four-day "Restoring Common Sense" tour Friday, holding rallies in multiple cities and defending Republicans who supported Gov. Scott Walker's controversial bill that curbed collective bargaining rights for state employees earlier this year.

"The tea party stands for fiscal responsibility, and Republican Senators in Wisconsin stood firm for those principles," said Amy Kremer, chair of Tea Party Express. "Now they are under attack for doing the job they were elected to do. It is critical that we support and defend them from these undeserved attacks and in that effort we are proud to be joined by our friends at Tea Party Nation." The next round of recalls, scheduled for Aug. 9, is part of a summer long series of elections pitting six Republicans and three Democrats against challengers. An incumbent Democrat already won the first election in July.

If three Republicans can't keep their seats, then the GOP will lose control of the state legislature and Democrats could be poised to overturn Walker's budget reforms.

The Wisconsin budget bill, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court in June, caused sharp division in the state earlier this year. Republicans insisted the measure was needed to control the skyrocketing costs of public employee benefits and close the budget shortfall. Democrats argued that it was an attempt to gut public-sector labor unions, one of their core constituencies.

Under the new law, all public workers, except police and firefighters, would be expected to cover more of their retirement plan contributions and health care premiums on their own

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Proud to be a Hobbit

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The “Lord of the Rings” metaphors crept into the debt-limit fight on Thursday, as tea-party heroes fired back at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who mocked members of the conservative grassroots movement as “tea-party hobbits.”


“I’d rather be a hobbit than a troll,” freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on a conference call when asked by POLITICO about McCain’s remarks. “I think in reading the books, the hobbits were the heroes. They overcame great obstacles, and I think I’d rather be a hobbit than a troll.”


Added fellow freshman Sen. Mike Lee, who co-founded the chamber’s tea party caucus with Paul and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.): “It’s stunning to me that some people have resorted to name calling rather than simply addressing the issue.”
McCain, his party’s presidential nominee in 2008, took to the Senate floor a day earlier, blasting tea-party “As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land,” she added. “This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the TEA Party, not criticize it.”
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More liberal Democrats are calling for the President to rule like a dictator on the debt ceiling.

On Thursday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) gave President Obama the green light to bypass Congress and unilaterally rule on the debt ceiling invoking the 14th Amendment.


"It's arguably his power to do so," Hoyer said, according to a report at The Hill.
"Very frankly, if it came down to his looking default in the eye on Tuesday or taking this action, as President Clinton said, better to take the action and find out later that perhaps he went beyond his authority but at least protected the credibility of the United States of America," he added.


A number of Democrats, including Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, have called on the President to commit what Rep. Tim Scott called an "impeachable act" - that is, usurping the Congress to rule on fiscal policy.


James Clyburn (D-SC) and John Larson (D-CT), Chair of the Democratic Caucus, have also said the President should use the 14th Amendment to effectively rule on the debt like a dictator.


"The Republicans, through their failure, have given you license to do whatever it takes to not let the American family go down into [the] abyss," Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday.


On Friday, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) added his voice to those calling for Obama to don the mantle of dictator on the debt ceiling.
According to The Hill:

Harkin, attacking the Tea Party as "nuts," told liberal talk show host Bill Press the country would applaud a President for taking dictatorial action to get things done:

"I think the American people would stand up and applaud a president who had the guts and the courage to stand up and make sure the political battles don't tear this country apart,” he said. “I think the Tea Party will probably go nuts, but what the heck, they're already nuts anyway."