Tea Party involvement, good and bad

The Tea Party movement has gained a couple new supporters recently. One was welcomed with open arms. The other, not so much.

Virginia Thomas, the 52-year-old wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, formed in January a conservative activism group called Liberty Central. The nonprofit will be involved with the November elections and will produce score cards on members of Congress, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," Thomas said at a recent panel discussion with Tea Party leaders in Washington,D.C., the Times reported. The newspaper said she counted herself among those energized into action by President Barack Obama's "hard-left agenda."

While Tea Party leaders embrace Thomas, the Republican National Committee hasn't received such a warm induction into the movement.

According to Alex Pappas of The Daily Caller:

The Republican National Committee is paying for signs and political buttons used by Tea Party groups -- despite widespread disagreement among the conservative, grassroots activists on whether the movement should work to elect candidates within the Republican party or steer clear from it.

The items, paid for by the RNC, were on full display at a Friday press conference of the Tea Party activists in Washington. At the afternoon event at the Capitol Hill Suites, activists in town for the "Take the Town Halls to Washington" project passed out the red-white-and-blue buttons and signs emblazoned with the words "Listen to Me!"

Text at the bottom of the sign reads: "Paid for by the Republican National Committee."

Michael Patrick Leahy, an organizer of the Take the Town Halls to Washington project that is bringing Tea Party activists to the capital to lobby Democrats on President Obama's health-care bill, admitted that the RNC "did provide the signage," but said he didn't know the details of the arrangement with Republicans and couldn't explain how the signs got there. "They just showed up," he said.

Read more.

This report outraged many Tea Party Patriots, who seek to separate themselves from the Republican Party and accuse the GOP of hijacking the movement.

Thus, they've started a petition calling for the GOP to stay out of the movement and are asking Patriots to send a letter to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, telling him to butt out.

The Tea Party movement is a grassroots, activist coalition that seeks to advance policy based on three core principles: fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets. So, how can we act as watchdogs and hold our elected officials accountable if they're trying to steer us?

Hmmm ... a tea pot with elephant features ... must be a Michael Steele work.