Tea-party outpouring can't float GOP

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Ralph Z. Hallow

Embattled Republicans are finding that even last week's nationwide anti-bailout, anti-spending "tea-party" uprising can't immediately cure a party struggling to pull itself together.

It's not surprising that, confronting a popular Democratic president, riven by factions within its national governing body and with new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele under fire from his own camp, the Republican Party has struggled to find its footing.

When Mr. Steele asked permission to address a Tax Day tea party in Chicago on Wednesday, national organizer Eric Odom said no. Mr. Odom, who called Mr. Steele a Johnny-come-lately to the free-market movement, said Mr. Steele was welcome to come and listen — but not to speak. An RNC spokesman then denied Mr. Steele had ever made the request.

Democrats grabbed this political fumble and ran with it.

Mr. Steele "has been dissed by the crew behind the Chicago tea party," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan.

Mr. Steele spent the day before the tea party in Chicago attending four fundraising events with grass-roots Republicans as well as major donors.

"Steele was warmly received. People were willing to give him another chance," Fran Eaton, editor of the conservative Illinois Review, told The Washington Times. "I know there has been disappointment in the launching of his chairmanship."

But on the afternoon of the tea-party protests, he turned down an invitation to address a major Chicago Young Republicans rally on Navy Pier that attracted as much media attention as the big tea party a few hours earlier in the heart of the city, YR President Jeremy Rose said.

Many top party officials were taken by surprise by the energy and size of the free-market rallies that began in mid-February, culminating last week in hundreds of tea parties nationwide. Some Republicans had more success than others in their attempts to race to the head of the parade.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who addressed the New York Tax Day event, said the movement should not be taken over by Republicans and should be "tri-party" — open equally to independents, Democrats and Republicans.