June 2010 feature article from Newsmax Magazine

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A LREADY
Meet the key personalities
who are building the tea party
movement into the most
dynamic and influential
political force in modern times.
By David A. Patten
R
ick Santelli had no due he
was about to deliver "the
rant heard 'round the world,"
In retrospect, the events of Feb, 19,
2009,
were surreal, the CNBC business
editor says,
"It was very similar to a lot of my
early-morning hits going back for years
, , , so no, I would have never expected
I
that one would have been the type of
~
JUNE 1010 J N[ WSMAX
41
!
lightning rod it turned out to be. Not in
my wildest dreams," he tells Newsmax
in an exclusive interview.
Santelli, a m eat-and-potatoes guy
who has ridden the same commuter
train into the Windy City for 3' years to
do the job he loves, reporting from the
Chicago mercantile exchange trading
floor, was ready at 8:35 Eastern time that
morning when history's little red tally
light flickered on.
He unleashed a jeremiad that sparked
a political grassfire that continues to
alter the landscape of national politics.
For starters, he decried the Obama
administration's
plan to modify mort,
gages. Bailing people out of mortgages
they couldn't afford in the first place just
promoted more "bad behavior," he said.
Behind him on the exchange floor,
staffers began cheering. Santelli asked
whether they wanted to help pay their
neighbors' mortgages. In response, they
booed like angry fans at a ballgame.
Then Santelli uttered the words that
will live on in infamy, or honor, depending on your point of view.
"We're thinking of having a Chicago
tea party in July," he said. "All you
capitalists that want to show up to Lake
Michigan, I'm going to start organizing."
After his segment ended, he took a
little walk, as is his custom, "looking at
some of my charts, getting ready for my
next spot, not thinking much of it."
His diatribe had lasted less than five
minutes, but that was enough.
"All of the sudden, my BlackBerry
literally started to go off like a Las Vegas
slot machine," Santelli recalls. "And it
pretty much didn't stop for about 72
hours. I am not kidding. It was the most
unbelievable thing."
CNBC began repeating the clip. Soon
it was posted on YouTube and went viral.
"I would say within about 25 minutes
after I finished the rant," he says, "all of
the sudden I sensed that something had
really happened that was big."
How Santelli's tirade
electrified the grass roots
is just one of many fascinating tea party stories that
largely have gone untold.
In the movement's early
days, there were rallies that
nearly failed to materialize, unlikely
bystanders who became tea party
heroes, and radicals on the left who
converted to join the patriotic grassroots conservatives.
Still, the movement's most interesting
chapters may lie ahead: There are indications it has achieved critical mass and
could deliver a decisive blow in the mid·
term elections. High unemployment and
the legislative maneuvers used to pass
healthcare reform are fueling the fire.
Media Criticism
The Man Who
CNBC BUSINESS EDITOR RICK
Santelli, whose rant inspired the
tea party movement, never sought
the national political limelight. In
an exclusive Newsmax interview,
Santelli says he's very proud of his
inadvertent ~iole.
Newsmax: Could you ever have
imagined the rani's impact
on America?
Rick Santelli: Not in my wildest
dreams. As a matter of fact, if you have
caught a few spots over the years, the
rant on Feb. 19 is very sinrilar to a lot
of my early-moming hits going back
for years, and subsequent to Feb. '9 of
last year.
The White House seemed to sense a
threat immediately, on Feb. '9, reacting
like an amoeba poked with a ,Pin. The
day of the rant, two top officials visited
CNBC to defend administration policies.
Take us back to that extraordinary
morning.
This was right after the mortgage
modification was announced. And
I guess from my perspective, it was
almost the straw that broke the
The next morning, White House press
camel's back. One of the issues
secretary Robert Gibbs used Santelli's
name six times. Politico labeled the
remarks "unusually personal."
"I'm not entirely sure where Mr.
Santelli lives or in what
house he lives," Gibbs
huffed, apparently aiming
to characterize Santelli as a
fat cat. "But the American
people are struggling every
day to meet their mortgag·
es, stay in their jobs, pay
their bills, send their kids to school."
Initially, the media appeared to be
more interested in criticizing the dissent
than covering it. Matt Lauer's on-air
interrogation of Santelli on the Today
show was so one-sided that MSNBC's
Dylan Ratigan came to Santelli's defense,
pointing out that he was really just pro-
misinterpreted by those who
disagree with the movement
is, Why did I make
moting "behavioral economics
10 1. "
By then, BlackBerrys and cell phones
were buzzing all over the place. Hightech conservative sites around the
country with arcane names such as
Continued on page 51
Rick Santelli's
original rant on Feb.
'9, 2009 included
impromptu cheers
from nearby
Jutures
traders.
-Delivered the Rant Heard 'Round The World
such a big deal about the
home modification, the
homeowner bailout so to
speak? Why didn't I make
such a big deal about the
bank bailouts or the other
bailouts? And in fact, I did.
I made quite a bit of noise,
every bit as impassioned as
my Feb. 19 rant. In the fall
of '08, when Ben Bemanke
and Treasury Secretary
Hank Paulson basically cried
fire in the theater, and said,
"Listen, if we don't get this
program, three-quarters of
a trillion dollars" - what is
referred to now as T ARP "that the financial world as
we know it will end."
The traders behind you
broke out in applause.
Did you prepare them
in advance?
Not a word. Not a word, not a
whisper. And I was surprised
... See, i~s easy for everybody
to paint the scenario that
everybody behind me is just
some mega-wealthy traders.
In fact, a lot of the media
called them stock traders, or
Ever worry you're now
said, "These are the people
linked 10 the lea party
that caused the situation that
movement?
ultimately led to the bailouts." The interpretation of my
All untrue and unfair. These
place, in terms of incitiilg
aren't stock traders. They're
the tea party movement, is
futures traders, which is a
something I'm very proud of
regulated
. - - - -......~.~--.''.__, - . .. ·Wha~s going
on with this
derivative
Rick Santelli 's
movement is so
market.
famed rant
It had no
American,
ifs
inspired
failures
tea parties.
so ingrained in
... And
our culture .. .
See video at
the people
They're
trying to
.... www.newsmax.comJ
behind me at
make
discourse
SeeTV/Santelli
that time of
with the
leaders that, for all practical
the morning were
mostly support staff, because
purposes, are subservient to
some of the markets hadn't
the people who voted them
opened yet.
into office. - D.P.
Newsmax.n
NEWSMAX ASKED RICK SANTELLI, WHOSE FEB. '9, 2009, DIATRIBE STARTED IT
all, whal he would ranI about today. His response:
"In many ways, it started with a few minutes ofimpassioned, sponlaneous hon·
esty. That's the part that I applaud on their behalf. I don'l wish to be their leader.
I'm proud that history will say I was a piece of helping the movement get going.
But in the end, I guess my advice to them would be to carry on. And I'm very
- and I underscore very - proud of them.
"I understand there isn't a single voice or leader. There isn't even a
single tea party website or organization - there are many ofthem. I think
that's what makes them so un ique, and I th ink that's what makes me so
thrilled 10 watch it: That this groundswell, this true grass-
roots movement, is getting to the point where it's touching
everybody's lives. And I th ink that t hey should carry on.
"I thi nk everything that's happened so far is terrific.
And I think any time any American gets more involved in
the issues of the day, or the issues of their kids and
their grand kids - as governments tend to make
decisions that transcend time, and they are indeed
spending tax dollars not yet collected - that they
need to keep it up.
"The country needs that kind of interest and involvement. And I think we're just
very lucky in Ihis country to have a segment of the population so inlerested in the tone
of the country, and to try to keep a constant common denominator with our past . ..
that we elect officials to take care of the country, not necessarily make it radically different than it was. And I think that's the cornerstone of the movement." - D.P.
JUNE 20 10
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NEWSMAX
49
",.
_ _ _0- - _ _ _ _
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_ __
-------.
• c·
oC
[Mary and Ron Rakovich]
The Protestors Who Caught the Camera's Eye
BEFORE RICK SANTELLI'S FEBRUARY
rant, cross·country bus
caravans, nationwide rallies, and
long before vendors started hawking
every kind of tea party merchandise
imaginable, there was a 53-year-old
lady with bad hips in Fort Myers, Fla.,
who'd lost her job and felt thorou gh ly
disgusted with Washington.
Mary Rakovich may have needed a
walker to get around, but that didn't
stop her from helping to launch a
movement that February.
~akovich and her husband ,
Ron, were automotive engineers.
After being laid off in 2006 when
Detroit began downsizing, they lost
everything they owned.
In 2006, they moved to Florida
to help ca re for Ron's parents.
They later volunteered to help
the McCain cam paign, and then
watched nervously as the Obama
administration pushed America in a
direction they didn't feel was right.
Not su re what to do about it,
Rakovich sea rched the Internet
and learned that a grass· roots
conservative organization,
FreedomWorks, was hosting an
activist·training session in nearby
Tampa. She attended, and paid
careful attention to the tips that
Brendan Steinhauser was offering as
FreedomWorks' organizer.
Only a few weeks later, the media
announced that President Obama
2009
SO
N EWSIoI AX
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JU NE 20 10
would come to Fort Myers to tout
passage of a $787 billion stimulus bill
that conservatives said had more pork
than a Texas barbecue.
"My husband and I were talking
about it, and it was like, 'Well, you
know, I don't know. Should we do
anything?'" Rakovich tells Newsmax.
"I didn 't really know a whole lot of
people, and how do I get a bunch
of people together? I never
organized anything before in my
life, you know?" That evening,
her phone urang: It was
Steinhauser. He tells Newsmax
that the Rakoviches were "a
bit hesitant."
"I assured her that everything
I'd talked about at the training
seminar a couple of weeks
befo re applied to the situation
at hand," Steinhauser recalls. "I tried
to give her confidence that s he and
her husband - even if it was only the
two of them - could flip the script
on President Obama by using Saul
Alin sky's tactics against him."
The Rakoviches agreed to give it
a try. They spe nt a s leepless night
ma king signs and researchi ng the
stimulus bill, then m et another
activist outside the Harborside
Event Center where the president's
town hall would take place.
There the trio stood, haras sed by
the Secret Service and outnumbered
'by a legion of,Qbama .supporters.
Non e ·of it kept them from waving
signs their signs and expressing
their views. "Stop Selling Our
Children's Future," one sign
declared . "Real Jobs, Not
Po rk," proclaimed another.
Then Fox News got wind
of their protest. It pounced .
Rakovich s udd enly found
herself in front of a camera
with a piece of plastic stuck in
her ear, explaining to Stuart
Varney o f Fox News that no,
s he wasn't there on behalf of
Republicans. Her concerns, she said,
were not partisan "in any way, shape,
or form ."
According to FreedomWorks, that
event on Feb. 10, 2009, marked the
first grass-roots rally in protest of
Obama's policies.
The Rakoviches' protest proved
that, contrary to the image the media
"Were presenting, people who felt
something was seriou sly out of whack
in Washington were not alone. The
cou ple's decision to sta nd up to big
government provided the initial spark
the grass·roots movement needed.
Now all the movemen t needed
was a name.
Nine days later, CNBC editor Rick
Santelli delivered his tirade from
the floor of the Chicago Exchange.
When he declared: "We're thinking of
having a Chicago tea party in July. All
you capitalists that want to show up
to Lake Michigan, I'm going to start
organizing it."
With those words, a grassfire of
small-government dissent began
to sweep the nation. And it all
began wi th an out-of-work couple's
willingness to step forward.
The lesson Mary Rakovich has
learned from it all?
"Know what you believe and
stand up fo r what you believe, and
you can make a difference," she tells
Newsmax. - D.P.
o
,',
TCOT, DontGo, and Grassfire.org were
on fire. "Our networks just went bon·
kers," Matt Kibbe, CEO of the conserva·
tive FreedomWorks organization, tells
Newsmax. "I mean, all of this anger was
out there. There were a lot of organiza·
tions out there, but all of our activists,
they started posting Santelli's rant.
"And within 24 hours, we had put up
a little website, lamWithRick.com. And
it just exploded."
Michael Patrick Leahy, the founder of
Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOl),
tells Newsmax: "literally that very next
morning I had four or five direct mes-
sages from people on Twitter saying,
' Hey, lefs hold another conference call.
Let's do something about this. '"
Leahy, who is also co·founder of the
popular Natiomvide Tea Party Coalition,
is credited widely with being the very
first activist to press for an actual tea
party protest.
But he says that his idea emerged
from a collaborative process among
grass-roots conservatives.
The day after Santelli's verbal fusillade, conservative activists logged onto
a conference call that included Leahy
and other movement leaders such as
Eric Odom, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark
Meckler, and Stacy Matt. They agreed
to organize simultaneous rallies around
the nation. Ordinarily, convening so
many events in such a short time frame
would be impossible.
, eiF. goal was to . host events in
"\ knew if we could pull off a simul- 20 ~iti~s~ drawing 10,000 attendees.
taneous. nationwide event, the
. ~...'
"We e nded up with 51 cities
likelihood that it would catch
r.~N:'.::!=:!t and 30,000 people," Leahy
fire was very high: he says.
says. "\ mean, it just took
[Lloyd Marcus] =~====~-'.:..;
' ==~==
The Singer
WHEN SINGER LLOYD MARCUS PERFO'RMS AT A TEA
party rally these days, he's grateful but not surprised when
tens of thousands offans show up.
Some even wave signs proclaiming, "Lloyd Marcus for
President'" But Marcus, who works up the crowds with
his rousing rendition of the "American Tea Party Anthem,"
remembers a day when discouragement nearly got the
better of him and his tea party compatriots.
It was during the first cross-country tea party tour, Tea
Party Express I. The buses were passing through Texas,
about halfway through their journey. The road ahead
melted into one long patch of highway that seemed to
stretch forever.
"We had a small whistle·stop scheduled at Mount
Vernon, Texas, and it was supposed to be maybe 50 folks,"
Marcus recalls. "Well, we were late and they said,
'Let's just not do the whistle-stop and, you know,
head to our next location.'"
They'd all but made up their minds to do just that
when they received a call from tea party leaders in
Mqunt Vernon, which has an official population of
2,286.
"They said 'You have to come. There are a lot of
"They gave us homemade cookies and handmade
gifts, and they just really embraced us and thanked us
people here,HI Marcus recalls.
for what we were doing."
That moment in Mount Vernon, Marcus says,
So on to Mount Vernon it was.
"When we got there," Marcus remembers, "there
were like 800 people on the side of the highway. The
state police had to lead our buses through the crowd.
"We had no sound system-... somebody pulled up
in a pickup truck, and we used the back of the truck as a
stage. Someone handed us a bullhorn and our Tea Party
Express team - it was about six or seven of us - we
said some encouraging words and then sang 'God Bless
was when the members of the tea party brigade
he was traveling with first realized that they
were doing much more than just protesting a
president's policies. It occurred to them that they
were witnessing the birth of a new political movement.
"That was a pivotal event, because we had been about
10
days into the tour," Marcus tells Newsmax. "We were
all tired and grouchy. But that event just made us say,
'Guys, look, this is not about us.
'''This is about America. We are the voice of these
people. We've got work to do. We've got to put all our
America' using the bullhorn.
"As we led the crowd in 'God Bless America' ... there
were hundreds of people sobbing. These people knew
that there was something seriously wrong happening
tiredness, all of our nonsense behind us. We are doing
with our country.
this for these people.'" -
D.P.
JUHE 2010
f HEW SUAX
Sl
,
;<
off." Clearly, the rant heard 'round the into town hall meetings around the
world had grazed a raw nerve in many country, making their voices heard.
American voters. In the months ahead,
The only thing that expanded as
the response would make life miser- rapidly as the tea parties: misconable for the likes of President Obama, ceptions about them. Some of those
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, myths, debunked with facts, include
the following:
and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Further momentum flowed into
MYTH: The tea party is mostly a
the movement when former Majority bunch of men.
Leader Dick Anney, the chailman of
FACT: A March 2010 Quinnipiac
FreedomWorks, became its de facto poll found that 55 percent are women
spokesman. Armey, a former col- gravely concerned about the future of
lege economics professor who went their families.
on to represent Texas in Congress.
MYTH: Tea party members are
poor and uneducated.
teamed up with
House Speaker Newt
FACT: In an April
2010 CBS/ New York
Gingrich
to lead
WHO ARE
,
the Contract with
Times poll, 20 percent
THESE PEOPLE?
America revolution
of tea party members
reported a household
that swept through
Tea Pa rt y
All U.S.
Suppo rters
Adu lts
income of $100,000
Congress in 1994.
or more, compared
Anney proved to be
SOME COLLEGE
the movement's ideal
with '4 percent of
34%
32%
non-tea party memfigurehead, using his
gift for interesting
bers. Seventy percent
EMPLOYED FULL·TlME
sound bites to proof tea party mefl)bers
49%
47%
mote the tea party's
have at least some
objectives of greater
college-level educaHOMEMAKER
tion, compared with
liberty, lower taxes,
9%
7%
and smaller govern53 percent of non-tea
party members.
ment. Of course, the
18-29 YEARS OLD
MYTH: Tea party
success of the Feb.
16%
17%
people are virtually
27, 2009, tea party
all Republicans.
event was just the
50·64 YEARS OLD
beginning. It led to
FACT: An April
29%
27%
the first Tax Day Tea
2010 Winston Group
Party, on April 15, SO URCE: USA TodIY. Giliup
poll showed that 40
which drew I million
percent of tea party
attendees to events in more than 900 members identify themselves as either
Democrats or independents.
cities across the nation.
Having been unable to stifle the
MYTH: Most Americans don't like
movement's birth, the Obama admin- what the tea parties stand for.
istration's next tactic appeared to be to
FACT: Voters responding to a surignore it, hoping it would just go away. vey said, by a 48 percent to 44 percent
On April 15, 2009, the White House tally, that the average tea party memissued a statement that Obama was ber has views on major issues closer
"unaware" of the rallies - some of to their own than President Obama,
which occurred just a few blocks from according to a Rasmussen Reports
the White House.
analysis in April. Congress fared even
Democrats' awareness level rose worse: 47 percent to 26 percent.
sharply, however, during the
MYTH: Tea partynation's sweltering summer
ers are all white.
of discontent over healthcare
FACT: The April
reform. Activists crowded
Rasmussen poll found
52
NEW SMA)[
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JUNE 20 10
.I,
VICTORIA JACKSON HAS PLAYED
a lot of ro les in her career:
comedian, singer, actress, and
Saturday Night Live performer from
1986 to 1992. But one part she never
expected to land is that of a hit
speaker at tea party rallies.
"In my two-year education
on politics, I just learned that 50
percent of Am erican s are paying
taxes, and 50 percent of Americans
are not paying taxes," she told a
cheering crowd at the Tax Day Tea
Party in Washington, D.C., on April
15. "They're the ones who voted
for him [Barack Obama). And they
don't care if he raises taxes, because
[Victoria Jackson]
The Comedic Actress
ENDURING
STAGE PRESENCE
As she did in her
Satu rd ay Night
live stint (below,
with co-star
Dennis Miller),
Victoria Jackson
still connects with
the crowds as a
popular tea
party speaker
and performer.
they're not paying 'em anyway!"
jackson's endearing cherubic voice,
Jackson says her participation
in the movement just happened.
Her first tea party was at the Santa
comedic timing, and trademark
blond curls bedecked with a cherry-
Monica Pier in March 2009.
red ribbon remain unchanged
from her SNl heyday. The crowd's
enthusiastic response shows she's
She carried one of those signs
that tend to drive the Democrats
crazy: "We Don't Want No
lost none of her ability to connect
Stinkin' Socialism."
with an audience.
"You know, there's nothing like
After word spread of her activism,
she began receiving invitations to
says. "But a lot of
them are in th e
closet because they
might get fired."
As a newcomer
to political
involvement, Jackson
has a heart for those who want
to contribute.
"I didn't know what to do,
this," she tell s Newsmax in response
speak, perform, and fire up even
either," she says. "But NO. 1, join
to the adoring tea party throngs.
more crowds.
"It's not about entertainment. It's
the tea party movement. They're
local and they're everywhere. It's an
not about fame. It's about freedom,
Jackson suspects she's not the
only entertainer sympathetic to
awesome, awesome thing. It's all
which you can't touch or see. It' s
grass-roots conservatism, either.
kinds of people.
invisible. You can feel it, though, and
you can feel when you're losing it."
"I know at least a thousand
conservatives" in Hollywood, she
We all want freedom ." -
"We have one thing in common:
D.P.
JUNE lOIO f NEW SMAX
53
that 20 percent of tea party activists do not identify
themselves as white, and 6 percent identify themselves as African-American. That's approximately the
percentage of blacks in the overall U.S. population.
The prominent roles played by African-Americans in
the movement, including the Rev. c.L. Bryant, entertainer Uoyd Marcus, and Pro ject 21'S Deneen Borelli,
reflect the movement's ongoing effort to diversifY.
More cOlWincing than the polls in debunking the misconception.raretJi.e tea pa:!y activi;ts' accomplishments.
They helped elect Republican governors in New
Jersey and Virginia, and played an important role in
turning Ted Kennedy's seat into Scott Brown's seat in
Massachusetts. They also fell just one Bart Stupak short
of derailing the president's .controversial h ealthcare
reforms. That is an amazing track record for a rnove-
[David Saucedo]
The Christian Rap Artist
Socialist agendas,
they wanted to sign
So the people combined
and said 'et's have a tea party.
Your neighbors and friends,
a mob? Hardly.
What happened is a sleeping
giant chose to wake up.
Have you ever heard 2 million
people shouting "Enough I?"
The walls of the Congre55
and Senate are shaking.
This is tr e result when
you awake a free nation.
- Rap lyrics, Tea Party,
by Polatik (aka David Saucedo)
DAVID SAUCEDO'S LIFE HAS
taken amazing twists and turns
during his 26 yea rs.
Saucedo remembers the first
time he smoked pot, when he
was in third grade. He could
just grab the joint his parents
routi nely left in an ashtray.
School was a stoned blur.
By ninth grade, with drinking
and drug problems, he dropped
out of the Waco, Texas,
school system. He moved to
Fort Worth, was arrested for
burglaries, and served three
years in prison.
Then Saucedo, the child of
Mexican immigrants, made a
remarkable transition. He went
from convict to conservative
community activist. He says he
found Christ, grew up, married,
had a daughter, and became a
youth minister.
Saucedo, now also known
as Polatik, became involved
in th e tea parties after he
visited a rally in downtown
Waco last summer. H e soon
developed a fascination with the ·
Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution.
When Waco's tea party
leaders heard that he was a
Christian rap artist, they invited
him to perform at a rally. Fox
News and CNN covered the
\
event, and Yo uTube vi deos of
his performance soon made
him a tea pa rty celebrity.
Today, Saucedo's lyrics
bring thousands to their feet
at Tea Party Express rallies.
He's also created a Declaration
of Community
Independence on
his website, Polatik.
com. The four-step
program aims to
help municipalities
liberate themselves
from entitlement
programs th at he
says keep people
from becoming
independent.
"It makes me
mad to see that so
many people are
being blinded by
lies," Sau cedo tells News max.
, ".,
"And I aim to do somethin g
about that."
Riding cross-country in a bus
isn 't for th e faint of heart, but
Saucedo is grateful to be part
of the journey. "I thank God for
every day, and for every mile
that we cross," he says. - D.P.
S4
NEWSMA X
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JUNE 201 0
ment the White House had scomed as out of touch
with ordinary Americans.
Improving Perceptions
1ms year's Tax Day Tea Party illustrated how much
the young movement had matured in such a short
time. Suddenly, it seemed, the cable networks couldn't
imbibe enough tea.
They practically welcomed Dick Armey back to town
as returning royalty.
"Oh, it's so good to see you again!" chortled a CNN
field producer who greeted Armey on April 15 as he
stepped out of his car and onto the National Mall.
The producer gushed over a previous Armey interview she &scribed as "one of my most favorite inter-
views my entire life." The effusive CNN producer
stopped short of asking Armey for his autograph, but a
lot of the sign-waving tea party members did just that.
One even asked him to sign the shirt on his back while he was wearing it.
Looking fresh off the ranch in boots, black jeans, a
denim shirt, a black suede jacket, and, of course, his
trademark Stetson, Armey and CNN's John King began
strolling shoulder-to-shoulder, " pra,unnavig~~ng We
Washington monument as twtfcameras t;ped them
having what looked like a cordial chat.
How would Armey define success for the tea party
in the coming midterms, King wonders.
"If in fact, there is a successful coalition between the Republican Party and ' . . '- .
the grass-roots activists towards
.'
\
AY·
1
MEDIA COURTSHIP
eN N's John King
takes an on-camera
stroll with prominent
tea party leader
Dick Armey in
Washington, D. C.
(
JUNE 20 10
I
HEWSMAK
5S
I;;
r== [Tim Curtis]
The Democratic Congressional Candidate
there would be enough representation
in Washington to uphold the
TIM CURTIS HOLDS A UNIQUE
distinction: The 52-year-old is the first
tea partyer to run for office as
Constitution," Curtis tells Newsmax.
a Democrat.
But the legislative process "showed
"Tea party Democrat" may sound
me that's not the case."
but it's not.
Curtis hopes that primary voters
in his district will rise above political
The 2o-year Marine was a chief
warrant officer when he retired
a member of a tea party group,"
like a contradiction in terms to some,
'995. and he later opened a
UPS store near Tampa, Fla_ Now
he's complicating the media's
narrative that all tea party members
in
are Republicans by running as
a Democrat in Tampa's 11th
Congressional District.
Curtis knows that he
faces an uphill battle.
A Tampa Tea Party and
9-12 Project member, Curtis
is challenging incumbent
Rep. Kathy Castor. She's a
strong supporter of President
Obama's healthcare reforms and
a favorite of the Democratic
establishment.
Curtis prefers to call himself
I
'
Curtis tells Newsmax. "I'm running
as a Democrat. I'm running as a
constitutional Democrat. What I see is
a shredding of the Constitution. And
it's been done by Republicans, and
it's being done by Democrats now.
I'm just not going to stand by idly any
longer and watch it happen."
Opposition to the healthcare
reform law isn't the only position
Curtis holds that is likely to raise
Democratic hackles.
Although he supports the option
of abortion in cases of rape, incest,
or when the mother's life is at risk, he
opposes Roe v. Wade _
The ruling established a federal
right not found in the Constitution, he
a "constitutional Democrat"
says. Abortion, Curtis says, is an issue
rather than a tea partyer.
Healthcare's individual
mandate runs roughshod
for the states.
Curtis is betting that Democratic
voters will be open-minded, despite
his tea party credentials.
II I wasn't aware that there was an
orthodoxy that you had to subscribe
over the Constitution, he
contends, citing that belief
and backroom deals as the
motivating factors that
pushed him from the
sidelines into the race
for political office.
" I'd hoped
56
stereotypes. "I'm not running as
NEW SIoI AK I
JUNE lOla
to in order to be a Democrat," Curtis
tells Newsmax. "I always thought the
Democratic Party was the party of the
really big tent, where you could have
all sorts of views." - D.P.
,.
the electoral outcomes in November,"
Armey says, "then the first obvious test
of success would be the Republicans in
the majority.
"We will look at that new Republican
majority and say, 'All right you guys, you
won yourself a chance for a beginning.
You stay true, we'll continue to work
•. , \~th you and be supwrtive of you.
,!",
• ''''But {fyou ; tart drinking backsliders' wine, you are going to find out that
you have a very, very unhappy group of
grass-roots activists.'"
A pause in the taping to avoid film·
ing a row o( portable toilets in the
background gives one tea party activist
in the crowd a chance to h eckle King.
"Talk about RINas, what a fake tea
party you are," the sign-waver yells at
King. "Last year, 'Oh the tea party's a
joke.' Now look at you, Anderson!"
King, it seems, occasionally is mistaken for Anderson Cooper, the CNN
host who disparaged tea party participants by labeling them with the sexually derogatory "tea bagger" name.
Cooper is not the tea partyers' favorite
cup of tea, to put it mildly.
The heckler's remarks reflect the
perception of tea party members that
the same media personalities who
voiced skepticism or even derision
about the movement a year ago now
are jostling for face time with tea party
leaders.
Tobe Berkovitz, a communications and politics professor at Boston
University, says that, as the tea parties
grew - by some estimates their numbers now exceed '5 million members
- their portrayal in the media has
changed discemibly.
"I think they sort of went from folks
in tinfoil hats to folks who have some
influence over electoral politics in the
United States," he says. "And because
they were influencing things towards
conservative and Republican candidates, they went from [being thought
of as] perhaps a whacky, zany army of
politicos to a dangerous political force_
"I think that shift probably started with Virginia and New Jersey,
[Ryan Hecker]
( :
The Writer of 'The Contract From America'
RYAN HECKER'S HARVARD LAW PROFESSORS
forgot to teach him one thing: that he had no business
people to the 2009 Tax Day Tea
becoming a grass-roots conservative.
He soon became part of
the Tea Party Patriots' national
leadership. He also came up
with the idea of a Contract
After leaving Cambridge, Mass., in the rearview
mirror and passing the bar, Hecker moved to Texas.
One day in February 2009, the 29·year·old wandered out
of his Houston law firm on his lunch break. He saw a
crowd of protesters and walked over to check them out.
"I went up and said, 'What is this?'" Hecker
recalls. "And they said, 'It's pretty much an economic
conservative protest,' which is just unheard of I mean
it's completely new. It just really has not been done
before. And so I was very interested right away."
Hecker volunteered to help, and he's been
, contributing to the movement ever since. Less than two
months after that first event, Hecker helped draw 12,000
Party in Houston.
from America, a bottom·up
version of the contrf a thiat
contributed to a Republican
takeover of Congress in '994.
More than 365,000
respondents completed an
online form to help select the Contract from America's
top 10 planks. .
The tea party's No. , issue, based on those
responses: "Protect the Constitution: Require each bill
to identify the specific provision of the
Constitution that gives Congress the
power to do what the bill does."
Hecker's contract has received
\
.\
nationwide publicity, and won the
support of former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, one of the architects ofthe
'994 contract .
And you get the impression that
Hecker is just beginning to make his
presence felt on the national political
scene. "My dream, my hope," Hecker
tells Newsmax. "is that economicconservative candidates, and those who
want to be economic conservatives in
the future, will sign on to the contract,
and that we get a bunch of blue·dog
Democrats and tons of elected officials
onboard. They should recognize that any
document they craft themselves won't be
as powerful as one coming from
the people.
"So I'm hoping this will be the
legislative agenda, coming from the
people, for the 2010 elections." - D.P.
and really hit its peak with the special
election that was in Massachusetts."
Incumbents Beware
Will the tea parties prove to be change
agents for the elections coming up in
2010 and 2012?
That may hinge on whether the move·
ment's snowball effect continues. In
March, Rasmussen asked voters wheth·
er they considered themselves a part of
the tea party movement, and 16 percent
said yes. By April, that number jumped
to 24 percent - enough to make even
deniers sit up and take notice.
The tea party's rise corresponds with
plummeting confidence in government.
A recent Pew study showed that near·
ly 8 in 10 Americans no longer trust
the federal government. Brewing tea
party rancor together with disgust over
Washington is not a mix incumbents
look forward to in November.
Sal Russo, chief strategist of the
Tea Party Express, tells
Newsmax that the tea
parties took off when
average Americans real·
ized they still could make
JUNE 20 10 ' NEWSI.IAX
57
[Sgt. Gary Stein]
The Marine Who Sought Friends on Facebook
SGT. GARY STEIN'S PLUNGE INTO THE HEART OF BUREAUCRATIC
darkness began with a really crazy idea: He thought that a U.S. Marine willi ng
to die for the Constitution also ought to be able to exercise his freedom of
speech to help save it.
Worried about healthcare's backroom deals, Stein, a Marine meteorologist
at Camp Pendleton in Southern California who
has served in Iraq, created the Armed Forces Tea
Party group on Facebook.
Stein's objective: Give armed services
personnel a place to share their views.
Contrary to a common misconception, U.S.
military personnel are not prohibited from
expressing political opinions. And the 24-yearold husband and father's opi nion is that his
generation has been "bamboozled by President
Obama and his administration."
Although Stein's group attracted only a few
hundred members, that was enough to ch urn
a media tempest. In fact, by mid-April, he felt compelled to issue a news
re lease stati ng: "Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots in no way supports a
military upri s ing_" No kidding. But the worst was yet to come.
Ju st a few hours before a scheduled appearance on MSNBC's Hardball,
Stein's acting com manding officer summoned him. The officer strongly
advised him to review Department of Defense guidelines on political activity,
in what the corps described as a "one-on-one mentors hip and guid ance."
Stein canceled the interview, removed his site from Facebook, and began
reviewing DoD Directive 1344.10: "A member of the Armed Forces on active
duty shall not _.. allow or cause to be published partisan political articles,
letters, or endorsements signed or written by the member that solicits votes
for or against a partisan political party, candid ate, or ca use ... [o rl serve in
any official ca pacity with or be listed as a sponsor of a partisan political club."
The word "partisan" jumped out at Stein. "Anybody who knows a nythin g
about the tea party movement understands we want to be bipartisan," Stein
tells Newsmax. " It's not about being a Republican or a Democrat."
Stei n soon put his si te back on Facebook. And the next day, the staff judge
I
advocate for the First Marine Expeditionary Force confirmed that Stein was
within his rights to do so.
Stein has since received written permi ssion to continue his tea party
advocacy, as long as he doesn't wear his uniform to rallies and makes it
clear that he is speaking on his own behalf. The Marine says he's garnered
so much publicity that th e Armed Forces Tea Party Facebook group and fan
page now boast more than
12,000
members combined.
"I'm flabberga sted and excited," Stein says of the response. "Because
that mea ns there are 12,000 people out there with Facebook pages who are
saying, 'Yeah, we agree: Not only do they agree with the Tea Party Patriots,
but thetagree that members of th e armed forces should have a vo ice ... It
really touched my heart."
_~
•
f
Newsmax asked Stein to forecast America's future .
"My forecast wou ld be that America is a great natio n,
and we' re going to continue to be a great nation," Stein
says. "We're going to have hiccups and we're going to have
bumps. And the American people, the American voters, are
going to pull out of this_And they are going to show that this
country is not supposed to be run by government officials.
It needs to be run by the people. And I think th at we have
a bright future, very bright. I think that this tea party
movement is just the beginning." - D.P.
58
NEW 5 MAX
I JUNE 2010
a difference and be heard_
Ramming unpopular leg•
islation through Congress,
he says, awakened a sleep- •
ing giant.
"People were sitting at home •
throwing their slipp~rs at the 1V
set, angry, and they were saying, 'Honey, we' re so out of the
loop ,here. Everybody seems to like
this guy [President Obamal, and it's
like he seem s to be abandoning the
Constitution, and what's going on?'"
Russo says.
He adds, "They didn't know what
to do. And so we realized that people
had to see that m illions of Americans
are sharing their views. And that if
they got off of the couch and engaged
in concerted action, they could actually change America and get it back."
Concerned perhaps that the tea
party movement is capable of wielding an increasing amount of clout,
Team Obama appears to be looking
for a way to make nice with grassroots conservatives.
In April, Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner said tea party
activists could prove helpful in forcing politicians to deal with the deficit. Geithner's comments suggested
that the administration had decided
to be more circumspect in challenging the tea party jugge rnaut.
Democrats hope to use political
jujitsu in the midterms by turning
the tea party's energy against the
Republicans. Strong third-party candidates, they say, will siphon off
GOP votes and push Republicans
too far to the right, thereby alienating
swing voters.
One flaw in this reasoning: Polls
suggest that the tea parties are closer
to independents' views than the president on a wide range of issues: taxes,
healthcare reform, deficits.
"You look at the bailouts, you
look at the trillion-dollar deficits,
and the tea party has very legitimate concerns about the direction
of the country and growth of govern-
[Rev. C.L. Bryant]
..
'(
'
.""
The Former Civil Rights 'Radical'
THE REV. C.L. BRYANT, A FORMER
NAACP leader from Texas, whi ps tea
party members into a frenzy with his
powerful speeches, but he may be the
most unlikely grass-roots conservative
of them all.
Years ago, when he ran a local
chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
he was "quite radical," by his own
admission. In fact, he suspects school
officials in Garland, Texas, still "shiver
and tremble" at the mere mention of
his name.
All t~at began to change about
20 yea rs ago, however. Unwilling to
He adds: "There are no
inherently racist attitudes in the
tea party movement, believe me. I
have been wi th these people. I know
these people. We're not about that."
, As for those who thi~k the tea
parties are just a passing fad, Bryant
says they are equally misguided.
"It will not go away because this is
a true representation of the American
9-12 rally in the Nation's capital
in September. "We don't get our
spirit," Bryant says. "Although African-
Brya nt's involvement with the tea
party movement began almost by
accident. He attended a local tax-day
rally on April1S, 2009, as a bystander
to protest government bailouts and
out-of-control spendi ng. After hearing
about his political transformation,
"
speaking circuit.
..
In 2010."
impassioned crowd at the massive
fiscally, and very much socially now
as welL"
f
Bryant's oratory was so effective that
word spread quickly, and he soon found
himself a mainstay on the tea party
America here,
Bryant broke away from the NAACP.
changed. I am a conservative both
,-
coun try of ours," he
tells News max.
The response was electric.
my mind on the Constitution
h.ere,
and the "character
of.
',(
.
"We will not bow down to any
earthly kings!" Bryant declared to the
the years. He began to believe that
civil rights meant not feeling obliged
to pull the lever for whichever
candidate promised bigger and bigger
entitlement programs.
"Yes, it has changed over the years
as I aged and began to see the world
through a different glass," he tells
Newsmax. "My views have definitely
,
him to take the
podium and share a
few words_ "I simply
spoke from my heart
and told them how I
feel about this great
those people. _. I understand
that it is the Constitution, which
I believe is a living and breathing
document, that has afforded me,
a black American male, to speak
compromise on his pro-life views,
His political views evolved over
"
however, local
organizers invited
freedoms from Democrats! We don't
get our freedom from Republicans! We
Americans have been reluctant in
becoming a part of it, what I have found
in speaking with them candidly is that
are em powered in our rights endowed
they do inherently share conservative
by our Creator!"
Bryant, who identifies h,imself as
a political independent, says what
bothers him most these days is the
hypocrisy of Democrats who call tea
party people racists.
"In Opelika, Ala., I was looking
views. They believe in God. They believe
in country. They believe in personal
freedoms - and they almost naturally
don 't want government intervention
into their lives." - D.P.
out over a crowd of about a thousand
Former "radical"
C. L. Bryant (inset)
is now speaking from
the heart about our
"great country" and
"rights endowed by
our Creator. "
people, and I was thinking to myself that
25 to 30 years ago, there was no way
that I, as an African-American, would
have been able to speak to that crowd in
that place because of the attitudes that
existed in the country then.
"But to be as received as I was by
,. . "
JUN E 20 10
I
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59
Tea Parties 'Purify' GOP Ahead
Of Midterm and 2012 Elections
By Dic k Morris
in 2006 were under indictment or in
jail, under heavy investigation, or had
THE TEA PARTIES WILL PLAY A CRITI CAL ROLE
resigned. Washington is an unsafe city
in the upcoming elections.
with a high crime rate, but the House
Republicans lost the elections of 2006 was its worst neighborhood.
,#,.:..
and 2008 because the grass-roots organiIn the Republican primaries, the tea
zations of the left - MoveOn, ACORN, party movement will deanse the party,
SEIU · - were much more effective at getting rid of the long-time incumbents
mobilizing people, tumand sweeping into power
ing them out, and creata new generation of
ing a presence. The tea
office holders.
parties are very imporIn 2012, whether
tant for mobilizing
the tea parties will rally
people, and tapping into
behind a third-party
their feelings.
presidential candidate
President
Barack
depends on the nomiObama's programs reach
nees of the two major
into so many aspects
parties. If they nominate
of our lives, things not
bad candidates, then an
normally political: our
independent candidacy
banks, our doctors, our
can thrive.
utility companies, manuAn independent canfacturing plants.
didate is not a "demandThe tea party movepull" phenomenon. It's
not like, "Oh, I love Mike
ment politicizes that, and NEW GROWTH The tea parties'
makes you understand increasing clout could give life
Bloomberg. Oh, I love
Ross Perot. I love Ron
that it is a political issue, to Independent candIdates.
and you can have a political expression Paul." It doesn't work that way. It's a
ill response to it. I think that's terribly "push" candidacy. It gets pushed up by
important.
dissatisfaction with the other parties.
Another point is that the tea parties
A more likely scenario: The tea parpurify the Republican party.
ties will be very effective in generating
Ten of the 200 Republican congress- momentum for the conservative cause in
men who might have sought re-election both the midterms and in 2012.
0
~"
I
ment," FreedomWorks economist
Wayne Brough tells Newsmax.
Powerful Force
Rep. Michele Bachmann,
R-Minn., predicts the tea party
legions will have a massive impact
in November.
"'''The' people who are still paying
taxes are saying, 'You know what?
We're not chumps," she says, adding, "I am really proud of tl,e rein·
vigorated American spirit ... The
tea p~rty movement is just a reinvigoration of the American spirit ...
we are free men, and we intend to
live that way."
"They know how much territory they have lost in liberty and
freedom," says Tom Borelli, a fellow
with the National Center for Public
Policy Research. '''They know it is
going to be a long battle, but they
are prepared. The tea party leaders
I've met .. . are very, very committed
and energetic."
Today, those energies are being
directed at restoring the limited·govenunent principles of a Constitution
that many believe both political par·
ties have trampled on.
Now that the tea parties have
thrived despite unfounded accusations of ignorance, racism, and
violence, a new tack is emerging
against them: Some pundits say
they've peaked and are declining.
Crowds since the big 9-12 rallies
have diminished, according to
those pundits, who predict the
movement will lose steam as the
employment rate rises.
Tea party leaders respond to
such tallc \vith quiet confidence.
In many ways, they say, the movement has entered a stealth phase,
in which it's gradually building
strength in towns and neighborhoods across the nation.
Leaders such as Armey, Russo,
Leahy, and Kibbe say the off-year
election battles in New York, New
Jersey, and Massachusetts pro-
vided some valuable lessons.
Tea party activists learned
about the importance
of having a very strong
"ground game," the
get·out-the-vote activities that are so important to changing actual
political outcomes.
Plenty of high-profile events remain on
the tea party calendar,
including rallies on
July 4 and Sept. 12.
But the movement's
stealth strategy focuses
on more prosaic work:
developing organizations at the state, precinct, and even neighborhood levels.
Universi ty
of
Virginia political sdence
expert Larry Sabato tells
Newsmax that activist
tea parties in local pre·
cincts will prove to be a
powerful, albeit unpredictable, political force.
"The tea party,
being localized and
grass roots, will have
differen t effects in
different places: he
says. "In some states
and districts, the tea
party will bring energy and enthusiasm to
the GOP ticket, since
the group is overwhelmingly
Republican and conservative in orientation. In other
places, tea party candidates,
especially independents on
the November ballot, could
split the GOP vote and help
Democrats. It's too early to
know how many cases of each
there will be."
When asked about reports
that the tea parties are off the
front burner and sirnrnering
down, Russo smiles and says,
"Well, as Ronald Reagan used
to always say, 'Lefs be happy they
are underestimating us, because that
means we are going to win."
Grass-roots conservatives ,vill experience "a
tremendous victory" in
November, Russo predicts.
If so, the tea party's
triumph will recall a fateful . February morning
il C hic;go when Rick
Santelli bared his soul to
a restless nation.
That already seems
like a long time ago.
But Santelli remembers
it every time strangers
approach to tell him how
his words restored their
faith that a citizen's lone
voice in the wilderness
still matters.
"A lot of people say the
same thing when they recognize me," Santelli says.
"They always start out
saying, Thank you: And
they say: 'We were thinking this, many people were
thinking it, these were the
kinds of conversations we
were having around the
table. But you made us feel
more emboldened to actually go forth and feel brave
enough to start challenging the things we think we
disagree with, or the things
we want to change ,vith
regard to our government, our leaders,
or the programs they put forth.'"
In other words, they thank Santelli
for showing them how to rant.
0
JUNE 2010
I
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61