Day: July 18, 2010

Tea Party Federation Expels Tea Party Bus Rally Organizers over Ex-Chair’s Racist Rant

Jon Ponder

Tea Party Express bus
Tea Party Express bus
On Saturday, the National Tea Party Federation, a group that appears to be a sort of organizing body for local tea party groups around the country, announced that it had issued an ultimatum to Tea Party Express, the group whose outgoing chairman, Mark Williams, set off a firestorm of criticism after he posted a racist rant to his website:

Last night, the members of the National Tea Party Federation participating in an “All Hands” conference call unanimously decided the following:

The membership of the National Tea Party Federation has this evening suspended and will immediately expel Tea Party Express from any further association with the Federation should they fail to publicly rebuke Mark Williams and remove him from their ranks by 3 pm eastern time Saturday July 17.

The rebuke must take the following form:

1. Mark Williams must be officially removed from the ranks of the Tea Party Express.

2. Notice of Mark Williams’ removal must be placed prominently on the official Tea Party Express website.

3. Tea Party Express must issue a press release articulating points 1 and 2 above.

A message on the NTPF web site indicates the TPE refused the ultimatum:

[…]

With New Senator, Unemployment Bill Should Pass on Tuesday

Trish

CarteGoodwin
Almost Sen. Carte Goodwin
The Senate’s newest, and youngest, member is set to be sworn in Tuesday, just in time to vote “Yes” on a bill extending unemployment benefits. Carte Goodwin, 36, a lifelong Democrat and West Virginian, was selected by that state’s Gov. Joe Manchin to fill the spot left when the Senate’s oldest member, Robert Byrd, recently died.

Manchin plans to assume the seat himself in November, and appointed his former legal counsel as a place-holder until the voters can choose. Let’s hope Manchin has better luck with that than Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. When Crist picked his most trusted counsel, George LeMieux, to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Mel Martinez last year, LeMieux looked like a safe and loyal pick. But after Crist left the Republican party to run for the Senate with no party affiliation, LeMieux — seen by many as having further political ambitions — abandoned his former boss and friend and announced he was supporting Republican/Tea Party candidate Marco Rubio.

Goodwin, whose wife Rochelle is state director for West Virginia’s other senator, Jay Rockefeller, has also been described as a “rising star” in party circles. As Manchin’s general counsel, he helped craft new regulations in response to West Virginia coal mining disasters in 2006. At the same time, he opposes limiting carbon emissions in proposed cap and trade legislation, because he says it threatens old technology energy jobs.

For the present, his vote on the unemployment compensation extension will be party-line. With Goodwin, 59 Democrats are expected to vote in favor of the bill, with only Nebraska’s Ben Nelson opposing. All Republicans except possibly Maine’s Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, are expected to vote against it.

Verbatim

Trish

I’ll be the only one that hasn’t run as a Republican in the past.

–Florida Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, commenting on his competition in the race: former Florida House Speaker and Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio, Gov. Charlie Crist, who recently went NPA, and millionaire Jeff Greene, who has been a Florida resident and a Democrat for less than two years.