the BOTTOM LINE is they are as much a target of those voters as the Democrats are and WE ain’t paying attention to the names other then to actually KNOW that if the RNC and RNSC or RNCC have “picked” someone in a primary ANYWHERE they are more then likely NOT the Conservative!

I will profess I don’t know much about the rules of the South Carolina Republican Party. I only have one link to rules in South Carolina on my blog www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com.

But here’s what I do know. If things are, on average, the same in the voting ranks of the South Carolina Republican Party as they are across the country, the grass roots conservatives in the “Tea Party Movement” can TAKE OVER the South Carolina Republican Party if the UNITE within the Party. The grass roots conservatives did this in Nevada. We’re doing it in Arizona.

Well, you probably all already know what I’m going to say. And it’s what I told a group of about 75 who showed up at the East Valley Tea Party Patriots’ “Superbowl of Conservative Candidates” held today in Mesa at a high school. The Tea Party invited any candidate who professed to be a conservative to show up and be grilled. And many, many did, including J.D. Hayworth (who plans to run against John McCain in the Republican primary). The Tea Party asked me to talk for an hour about becoming a precinct committeemen, which I did. I explained that if there was ONE and only ONE thing they could do to help change the outcome of the elections, they needed to become a Republican Party precinct committeeman. And that if they didn’t have two hours of time a month to save their country, they should just leave the room because what I was about to tell them would be worthless. No one left.

I explained how the Party won’t discuss this. How even the conservative Republican incumbents won’t. (Well, almost all — we have some in Arizona that DO discuss this with conservative audiences.) Because they know that about half the PC slots nationwide, on average, are vacant and they are TERRIFIED that Tea Partiers/9.12-ers/WeSurroundThem-ers/etc. I explained that if they want to become politically relevant they need to get into the real ball game of politics — party politics — as precinct committeemen so they can vote for the leadership of the Party and vote to endorse candidates in the primary elections (assuming they create a “conservative PC caucus.” Explained how when a vacancy in the state legislature happens, as happened in Legislative District 6, if a the LD has 30 or more PCs, the PCs get to nominate 3 candidates to fill the empty seat, and that the County Board of Supervisors have to select from those 3 candidates. If a majority of the PCs are conservative, then they can nominate 3 conservatives. And I explained how they’ll meet all the candidates at their local GOP meetings and how the primary candidates will suck up to them because they know that the PCs will influence other voters.

I gave away copies of The Citizens Rulebook, candidate “Pre-Oath of Office” forms and primary candidate forms and other stuff I’ve written about the Constitution. After I spoke, one guy came up to me. Fellow West Pointer. Class of 1971. Said he never knew any of this stuff. (It’s all just basic civics.)

I told them we conservatives need to connect — UNITE — in ONE organization as well as in the separate groups. I told them my suggested strategy is to UNITE as many conservatives as possible in a way that makes them politically relevant — and that means uniting in the Republican Party as precinct committeemen. With half the slots nationwide empty on Election Day, 2008, if we can get all those open slots filled with conservative Tea Partiers/Resistnet-ers/9.12-ers/WeSurroundThem-ers/etc., guess what? We’d OWN the Republican Party at the grass roots level and, along with the existing conservatives in the precinct committeemen ranks, we’d be able to elect good, conservative, competent folks to the Party leadership positions and get good conservatives winning all the primary elections. We should focus on getting control over the Republican Party. Then, once we’re in control, we’ll have REAL political power at the ballot box because we’d be controlling who would be winning the all-important primary elections. Plus, instead of the Republican Party being, as it was in the last election cycle, at half-strength and divided, it would be at full-strength with a solid conservative majority and message — and with Ronald Reagan conservatives on the general election ballots, making good, common sense Reagan arguments (cut tax rates, cut spending, roll back regulation, defeat the terrorists, defend the country, etc.) we’d sweep the 2010 elections.

I explained that in Maricopa County, on Election Day, 2008, only 31 per cent of the 6,231 PC slots (for the 694,000 registered voters in the county). And that one year later, we’ve now got 53 per cent of the slots filled. So we’ve made a lot of progress. On Jan. 16, at the annual meeting, the precinct committeemen elected five conservative PCs, running on a “Conservative Slate,” to fill all five of the “at large” positions on the Executive Guidance Committee. So our recruiting efforts have paid off. We’ve got five solid conservatives on the Executive Guidance Council. And the one McCain moderate who ran got less than 6 per cent of the vote. I explained how most of the new PCs have come from the Tea Party/9.12/etc. grass roots organizations and many from online sites such as ResistNet.com where I also recruit (www.resistnet.com/group/invadethegop).

Thank you,
Cold Warrior
No More Scozzafavas!

Now….just who needs whom more?

It seems to me the establishment should be seeking a place at the tea party table since they had these people at one time in the GOP ranks and drove them away. Now that the tea party has made an impact separate and independent of the GOP establishment..the GOP establishment wants to take the wheel and drive the Tea Party bus into the same ditch they put the GOP bus in years ago!

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

…but to what end?

(I say all tis in VA, and knowing there are some cracker-jack SC observers here…these are just general observations

It sounds stupid that they would want to co-op the name when they know that local tea parties are simply going to tune them out. TALK ABOUT A RECIPE FOR DEM VICTORY. Remember the seating arrangements issues at the Paris Peace talks in ’73?

But I know enough about some Tea Party vanities to know the GOP probably isn’t totally to blame. But someone needs to bring these parties together.

My main advice is for the SCGOP to back off trying to co-opt the brand. A state-”sanctioned” Tea Party slate is probably bad idea,. The locals should hold onto that very special name. It’s theirs, and to some extent they all fought for it. Why not just tell Clemson folks to carry SC bumper stickers.

But remove that, and the outreach, the “seat at the table” is a good idea….but at the big table, not the one over in the corner where the children sit.

My own view is that the SCGOP does more good for itself by appearing to independently back the same or similar slates as the Tea Party groups, for while coordination may be inferred, independence is confirmed. Then come November, no Democrat wins over a silly cat-fight between what are mostly conservatives.

It is not just the State’s GOP they have to look out for.

Labor union money linked to anti-Tea Party Web site

Organized labor may be putting their dollars behind an online effort to take down Tea Party groups and their “radical ideas.”

A new Web site, TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, has connections to unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The American Public Policy Committee pays for the site, whose self-declared mission is to “prevent the Tea Party’s dangerous ideas from gaining legislative traction.”

According to Opensecrets.org, the top two financial backers of the American Public Policy Committee this year are Patriot Majority West and Patriot Majority, largely funded by union dollars.

where out GOP Chairman Pat Brady called the “dump Kirk” movement (Tea Parties, 9-12ers, and conservatives) a “fringe movement”. Our GOP (except for many of the candidates) establishment could care less that there is a conservative ground swell.

The sad part there are groups out there posing as a catch all for Tea Parties in different states. They’ll call themselves Illinois Tea or some other generalized name that gives off the impression they speak for all Tea Parties. Sad really.

Wish I could go out to SC and help.