I’ve read a number of articles recently about how the TEA Party might hurt the GOP if the TEA Party goes the third party route. I don’t doubt that the Democrats, both the elected officials and those in the Agenda Media, want to stir up trouble. The bad news for them is that that ain’t happening. The TEA Party Movement is about putting the spine back in the GOP. This reporter is just the latest to not understand the TEA Party Movement:

The Florida GOP race is being followed closely by national political watchers to see what, if any, impact the tea party movement might have amongst GOP voters. In other political races, the “tea party” has threatened to run its own candidate if the GOP candidate isn’t far enough to the right. The problem for the GOP is that if a tea party candidate can shave off enough support from the Republican candidate, both parties will lose.

BULLLETIN TO THE MEDIA: The TEA Party doesn’t exist. It isn’t a political party. It’s a movement.

Notice the little shot about the tea party “has threatened to run its own candidate if the GOP candidate isn’t far enough to the right.” Considering how far left GOP politicians like Linc Chaffee, Lindsey Grahamnesty and Chuck Hagel have wandered, it’s more accurate to say that TEA Party activists just want Republicans to return to the principles of fiscal discipline and personal liberty.

TEA Party activists just want GOP politicians to stop spending like liberals. They want to see more GOP politicians with a Barry Goldwater libertarian streak. We want more GOP politicians acting with the fiscal discipline of former House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich.

Fortunately, the House GOP is developing a great core of elected officials whose priority is to return to Chairman Kasich’s ways. People like Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Michele Bachman, Thad McCotter, Kevin McCarthy and others have stepped forward, much to the delight of TEA Party activists nationwide. For that matter, TEA Party activists are thrilled to see John Kasich’s return to electoral politics as he tries to unseat a once-popular Democratic governor in Ohio.

Here’s reporter Tim Kephart’s closing:

For example, the Rasmussen poll found that on a generic ballot, the Republicans have a seven point lead over Democrats in the 2010 Senate race. But, if a “tea party” candidate jumps into the race, everything changes. Rasmussen found in a three-way race, Democrats would pull in 36 percent of the vote, the tea party candidate will bring in 23 percent and Republicans would finish last at 18 percent.

I’ll repeat: This isn’t about abandoning the GOP. It’s obvious that alot of conservatives stayed home in 2006 and 2008. That’s changing, dramatically, starting with the 2009 elections. Don’t think that that intensity will vanish in time for the 2010 election, either. If anything, look for the TEA Party movement to gather momentum.

The TEA Party Movement is more relevant because Pelosi’s Democrats have spent money at an alarming rate. There used to be a time when the only people who showed interest in “the debt” were economists. That changed, as Norm Coleman told me recently, when they started talking about the deficits in terms of trillions of dollars.

The first TEA Party event I attended was the Tax Day TEA Party here in St. Cloud. The biggest worries people attending the event had were bailouts, fidelity to the Constitution, the now-failed stimulus bill, elected officials actually reading bills before voting on them and Janet Napolitano worrying that military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan posed a a terrorist threat.

The day after the event, I asked Dan Ochsner when reading legislation before voting bacame a radical principle. I told Mr. Ochsner that the radical was President Obama, who was taking over car companies and banks, not people who insisted on following the Constitution.

The context that the TEA Party Movement came up was in connection with the ‘Fight In Florida’ between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio. It’s fair to characterize Crist as Establishment’s candidate whereas Rubio is the darling of the TEA Party activists. When Crist jumped into the race, the NRSC quickly endorsed him, saying that his name recognition and fundraising ability made him the best bet to keep the seat in GOP hands.

That’s typical inside-the-Beltway thinking, which is why Crist is doomed. If 2008 should’ve taught us anything, it’s that candidates with little name recognition can raise huge amounts of money in very little time. The determining factor is whether a candidate has a message that appeals to people. If the candidate has an appealing message, it won’t take much time to raise the cash and build the organization.

What we’re seeing in the TEA Party movement is the rebuilding of the GOP the right way. Contrary to the CW, TEA Party Activists, and the politicians they support, are brimming with ideas about how to return to Constitutional government, restore fiscal discipline and putting government into its proper place. The dirty little secret that Democrats don’t want you to know is that TEA Party activists don’t hate government.

TEA Party activists just prefer government that doesn’t overstep its constitutional boundaries.

Technorati: Activism, TEA Parties, Fiscal Restraint, Mike Pence, Michele Bachmann, Thad McCotter, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Constitution, Read The Bill, Stimulus, Bailout Nation, President Obama, Democrats, Charlie Crist, Lincoln Chaffee, RINO, Election 2010

Cross-posted at California Conservative