Rendell Rejects Tea Party as Legit Movement

[angi_is_altered]

Ed Rendell, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Fox News on Saturday that the Tea Party movement reflects the anger many Americans feel about the current state of the economy, but dismissed the notion of the Tea Party as a legitimate political movement.

“What’s happening,”

Comments

[gmth]

Rendell speaks the truth. I wish people would stop acting like this stupid movement is meaningful.

[hinoema]

It gets eyes on the TV, even in a train-wreck way, which is all the MSM cares about.

[deborahkla]

Well, one hopes that he's right, but I'm sure that's what they said about the Nazis, too. And unfortunately, this movement has some BIG backers in the GOP.

[teacup_werewolf]

Godwin already?

[erunamiryene]

Totally agreed. Mainstream media should give these idiots exactly the attention they merit, which is ... really not much at all.

[antiotter]

Yep. I have a friend in the 501st Legion. She could get more Stormtroopers to show up anywhere in the continental United States within 48 hours than your average Tea Party with a month of free publicity from Fox News could.

It doesn't make the Galactic Empire a viable political movement.

[erunamiryene]

Greatest. Comparison. Ever.

[bobbarker]

As much as I am proud of being in the 501st, short of D*C, Celebrations or San Diego Comicon, I don't think we could get some of the numbers being pulled in by these Tea Party activities. They just had a rally here a week ago in Wheeling, WV and the local papers and television stations said there were over 1200 at here in our little town. And that is just for our area.

[awfulbliss]

I have to disagree with them not being legitimate. It's quite clear, to me at least, that they've had an impact, and the general themes of their anger will continue to have an impact in the November elections. Sounds pretty legitimate to me. Do they have the infrastructure of a well-organized political machine? Of course not, but they matter.

[donalbain_]

This. And honestly, for all the eye-rolling and pointing and laughing people are doing at the Tea Partiers, I'm really wondering if there's a better way to bring them back around. After all, I really think a lot of these people who call themselves Tea Partiers are just older Glenn Beck stans who have been duped by his false anti-government conspiracy theories and populism.

[awfulbliss]

I can understand why people want them not to be legitimate, but unfortunately that doesn't make it so. This anger is very real in terms of affecting the outcomes of elections (which is different than whether it is misguided or not, of course). If it wasn't, you wouldn't have so many Democrats wavering on every single bill of any importance. Barbara Boxer won her last election by 20 points, Obama won the state by more than three million votes...and she's in a statistical dead-heat right now (which is pretty alarming, because I don't see how her outlook actually gets better unless there is some kind of massive turnaround in the economy), against a guy who has positioned himself as fiscally responsible. Chris Dodd won a landslide with close to 70% of the vote here in CT...he's retiring from the Senate because he knows he had no shot in '10, which at one point was inconceivable. If Blumenthal didn't step in we'd probably lose the seat to someone who is part-owner of a wrestling company. The list goes on.

[donalbain_]

Yeah. I really wish the Obama Administration or ANYONE really was running a better campaign on the president's behalf. They were wonderful during his actual election campaign, but they totally dropped the ball on framing the healthcare debate. I'm really tired of all the "lol lol u guys are just a bunch of right wing fringe nuts" responses to legitimate Tea Party advances, especially coming from high ranked liberals and Democrats. They really need to look them in the eye and say, "here's why you're fucking wrong," and not trust the public in general to discount them on their own.

[bobbarker]

They are not a party and I think most of them do not want to be a party. They are not centralized though there are a lot of people trying to co-op them (which their decentralized nature is going to make that very difficult). They are highly motivated and their mission is pretty limited. They are not old time conservatives trying to take on social issues, they are mostly centered around the economy and federal spending. For the most part they are tying into just that one message. It is resonating with a lot of people. You don't have to like it or agree with it to realize that it is.

While the White House, Rendell, and other top Democratic leaders are saying things like this, behind closed doors they are very worried and they are trying to find a way to deal with them effectively. In the past there was a centralized leader that could be targeted. There is no such thing here.