DeMint: "I don't think people realize that we're borrowing money to pay back debt that is coming due."

Want to go on the record that arrogance is not limited to Obama and Pelosi as Republicans have their own share. What is needed in DC is a dose of humility from the White House and Members of the Congress.

Republicans backed by the movement lost in some key Senate races, including Sharron Angle who failed to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.

Analysts have said Republicans would have had a stronger chance of capturing the Senate with more established candidates. But DeMint has offered no apologies.

"There's not one Republican senator who would have been elected without Tea Party support," he said.

"This is make-or-break time for Republicans in our country. We have to pull our country back from a precipice," DeMint said.

"I don't think people realize that we're borrowing money to pay back debt that is coming due. China and other countries are chiding our mishandling of our currency."(Reuters)

Most Americans are not as dumb as DeMint thinks we are as we know we owe a huge debt to China that is coming due. Don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Doesn't he realize that the Tea Party movement started by the Ron Paul and his people was about that debt and how Congress was spending much more than we take into the US Treasury and selling the debt overseas to places like China. The headlines were everywhere that China was rapidly buying up our debt which led to the backlash. Never met anyone who didn't understand we had to pay China back someday.  Some of you may question my saying Ron Paul started the Tea Party movement like he claims, but it is a fact to most of us who follow politics in Middle America:

Sarah Palin may be the face of the Tea Party movement today, but it started with Ron Paul in 2007. That December, on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Paul's presidential campaign supporters participated in a "money bomb," a one-day online fundraising blitz that raked in $6 million from 40,000 people nationwide, and drew upon the 1773 protest's anti-tax sentiments. (Ron Paul Helped Inspire the Tea Party Movement)

In addition Mr. DeMint says that every Republican candidate elected was because of the Tea Party. That is a flat out lie and he has to know it.  Is DeMint trying to tell Oklahomans that Dr. Tom Coburn would not have been reelected without the Tea Party when he won over 70% of the vote and the people working his campaign were the same grassroots Republicans who worked his campaign in 2004.  Made tons of calls in 2004 and made more this time as a member of the Oklahoma grassroots.  Give me a break! Who does DeMint think makes up the largest share of the Tea Party? Grassroots Republicans in most states where I have connections!

Bet John McCain would not agree with DeMint's statement when you realize the Tea Party leaning people of Arizona worked for his opponent in the primary (didn't bother to vet his opponent either but blindly followed the radio pundits and posters on line) and the grassroots establishment Republicans worked for McCain's re-election. Same people who worked for his Presidential campaign in 2008.  Anyone who follows this blog knows I wrote a lot about that primary and what a bad candidate Hayworth was.  Then it finally came out he had done informercials touting free money.  Where were the pundits then -- still supporting Hayworth despite the facts.

We held every Republican Senate seat that was up for election in the Senate and now DeMint tries to take credit for all the incumbents winning because of the Tea Party? Even Ken Buck in Colorado who DeMint had close ties with said his campaign was made up of the Colorado grassroots Republicans and the Tea Party was only a small portion.

In Florida, the County Chairs were some of the first Flordians to go Marco Rubio over Crist. If DeMint thinks that Rubio would have won in such a resounding manner without the Florida grassroots Republicans think again. We have now been branded the establishment by DeMint and Palin even thought most of us have been part of the grassroots Republican movement for years all because we didn't join a Tea Party movement.

How many members of the Tea Party are also grassroots Republicans who belong to County parties and attend State Conventions? I bet the number is very high in a lot of states. We have noticed that a lot of the outspoken Tea Party people come from the Tea Party Express who for the most part doesn't even understand how Government or elections work especially the FEC rules.

Now let's look at the flip side since DeMint thinks every Republican candidate was elected by the Tea Party. Using that flawed analysis then Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Dino Rossie, John Raese, and Ken Buck should be US Senator-Elect as they were heavily favored by the Tea Party. Outside the Tea Party Express who are these people who are organized enough to swing elections? They are not my neighbors who are members of the Republican party. An activist in NM has never met a Tea Party person nor have people I know in Florida except for the senior citizens Tea Party people who got out and worked campaigns as grassroots conservatives long before the Tea Party.

Guess DeMint has not been getting around too many campaigns in other states as he does not recognize the people working campaigns for Republicans in most areas of the Country come from the Republican grassroots not the Tea Party. Here in Oklahoma we took great pride as the grassroots Republicans in sending Dr. Coburn to the Senate in 2004. He was the best candidate even if Denny Hastert and others in DC worked against him but he won big. His race was one that a lot of campaigns have looked at with their campaigns to see how it was done. His funding in DC was cut off but Senator-Elect Pat Toomey's Club for Growth stepped in and along with the grassroots we funded his campaign with him winning a 3-way race in primary with no runoff and winning the general going away. Back in 2004, where was no Tea Party.

Don't think there is one member of the Republican grassroots that doesn't believe in the ideals that started the Tea Party movement, but we have been going to Town Halls for years as members of the grassroots. The ones who attended were mostly senior citizens who have been Republicans for years here and elsewhere. The ones who did make the most noise at the Town Halls were Ron Paul supporters or Libertarians.

Just don't get it and have to wonder why a real poll on how many people consider themselves in favor of the Tea Party ideals are the Republican grassroots who work the campaigns and are already activitists. Others are independents, libertarians, or Democrats who were fed up with DC. Most of the new people who claim to be Tea Party did not work in campaigns in many states but who DeMint says are the ones who got every Republican Senator elected.

In some states like Colorado and Nevada we keep hearing that Republicans may have had better candidates in the primary who were defeated but we see it more as the candidates who won the primary being naive about running a general election race where you have to move to the center to win the independent votes needed for victory.  The winners of the primary were also establishment candidates by definition.   Sharron Angle was a member of the Republican Executive Committee of her county for years and a State Representative. Ken Buck was a county district attorney. Dino Rossi had run statewide before and same with John Raese. They were all good people who probably should have listened more to some people who had run close races like Dr. Coburn than other people who had not won a tough race.  Tea Party Express should have stayed out of NV as it cost votes and didn't help Angle win.

Do not believe NRSC should get involved in primary campaigns period -- look at Florida where they endorsed Crist. Bad move! Let the states decide and that goes for people from out of state like Tea Party Express getting involved on the ground in primaries when they don't live in the state. It is one thing to donate money, but the Express was on the ground in Delaware, Nevada, Arizona, and other states.

Tea Party Express went all out for our two worst candidates -- O'Donnell and Miller. So did the pundits. Do these people not vet candidates as it wouldn't take much to realize these people should not have been running. Read the Anchorage Daily and have learned a tremendous amount about the Miller campaign. Trying to throw out a ballot with the 'L' in cursive and the rest printed correctly is not 'count every vote.' More like Al Gore.

Miller is a disgrace in this write-in counting that is in progress. Yet pundits and posters are still defending him and blaming the media for cherry picking ballots to show that he tried to throw out because an 'r' looked like a 'v' and things like that. He tried to keep records sealed because he lied in 2008 and quit before being fired. He should have never been the candidate but Palin and DeMint went for him because he was the anti-Murkowski candidate. BTW, Palin donated $5,000 to the Lisa Murkowski campaign last year for the person she dislikes.

Murkowski ran a louzy primary and it bit her but like her or not, she has run a masterful write-in campaign. One thing she has shown is that because you win the primary doesn't mean you will win the general.

Think the media with the help of people like DeMint and Palin have over hyped all of this Tea Party movement for stories and now they are believing their own hype. There are a lot of people who were brought into the process especially in the northeastern states but in Middle America where we have a strong grassroots who make up a large portion of the Tea Party movement it was ignored by the media led by Fox News.  Having grassroots Republicans as part of the Tea Party doesn't fit the narrative.

DeMint in the Reuters article went over the top again and yet he thinks he can run for President and find all these Tea Party people supporting him. They will be supporting Ron Paul for the most part as a large portion of the Tea Party is made up of his supporters and Libertarians who will never support someone like DeMint in the Presidential race.

It goes back to the Paulbots saying throw every incumbent out of Congress on the websites which was ludicrous since they were supporters of Ron Paul who is a member of the House. Just who is the establishment they love to demonize? Dr. Coburn of Oklahoma? How about Paul Ryan of Wisconsin or Eric Cantor of Virginia? They love to go after John Boehner who by the way is not going to be using the Pelosi plane but commercial instead to fly back to Cincinnati. Why not throw in Jeff Sessions of Alabama? If we elected men and women near the caliber of any of the these people (we did this time for the most part), we would have a conservative House and Senate with a load of Common Sense. Most of the more moderate Republicans from conservative states didn't survive 2006, 2008, or the primaries in 2010. Some of those like in Utah were not ousted as much for their votes as they didn't do anything.

This whole deal trying to pit the Tea Party against the grassroots has to end including the threats if you don't do what I say, then I are going to bolt the party. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. As Ron Paul will tell you that running without GOP support does not have a happy ending. Does DeMint honestly think with roughly 55 million registered Republicans they are all going to follow someone from South Carolina who grandstands? There are roughly 72 million Democrats and 42 million registered independents who the vast majority would never vote for someone like Jim DeMint or Sarah Palin for President.

We need a candidate for President in 2012 who can appeal to a wide range of people. Note to people like DeMint and others: We cannot win without Independents being on board so that means you move to the middle not the right. American people are mostly center right and don't want someone from either party who is unappeaseable and refuses to listen to common sense. That applies to both parties -- the far left of the Democrats and the far right of Republicans. The 'my way or no way' crowd is not going to get elected in a lot of states including my State of Oklahoma where in the primary the person who was far right lost big to a Conservative with Common Sense Mary Fallin who has more of a backbone and who will stand up against Obamacare and other bad bills coming out of DC more than most men I know.

DeMint has some good ideas but it is being overshadowed with his continual grandstanding while trying to get support for running for President.  He has lost all common sense and is believing the media that he is the 'kingmaker' of the last election.  His final total if you take out grassroots candidates who won with heavy grassroots support is not very good which is why he wants you to believe that all Republicans who won were Tea Party candidates.  With that scenario that would include Ron Kirk of Illinois who is definitely not a Tea Party candidate.  County Chairs who are now considered establishment were responsible in a lot of areas for getting out the vote and the support.  Where were the organized Tea Party members in many states in Middle America and the south who made the telephone calls or worked campaigns?  Does he honestly think that Independents and Democrats who are members of the Tea Party movement are going to make calls for Republican campaigns?  Not going to happen in most states outside the northeast. 

Nice to know as part of the grassroots we are now part of the Establishment because we are not a member of the Tea Party movement so we are no longer a conservative and not needed.  Only the Tea Party people are the conservatives now in some people's worlds.   Two of us go back to the days of passing out literature for Goldwater as teenagers and have been conservative since then.  We have been part of the grassroots helping Republican candidates for years but we are not part of the 'real' or 'pure' conservatives as touted by the far right so we don't count.  The good thing is that most candidates love to have us and others helping out their campaign because we believe in winning seats not standing on principle for bad candidates and losing. 

Any person who stays home or supports a candidate that cannot win in the general, might as well vote for the Democrat that they agree with 0% of the time because the candidate they chose not to support that they agree with 80% of the time is going to lose with that ideology.  If you don't win seats, your agenda goes down the drain as witnessed in 2006 and 2008.  We would have thought they learned a lesson but with the arrogance we are seeing along with the threats, we do not think so.  This is one time we would love to be proved wrong.