Tea party leaders grapple with ‘Occupy Wall Street’

Photos: AP

Russo said that Paul’s recent statements, particularly regarding the killing of American-born al Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki, demonstrate there is “a wide divergence on foreign policy, on social issues, on cultural issues” within the tea party movement.

“The one commonality of all the tea party groups is concern about the intrusiveness and growth of the federal government and the skyrocketing national debt,” Russo said. “That’s the unifying theme, once you get into foreign policy and how much you should cut the defense budget or are you for or against sugar subsidies or ethanol subsidies, then there’s wide divergence of opinion.”

“It’s not at all a monolithic movement as sometimes it gets characterized,” Russo continued.

“We’re pretty ecumenical in the sense that we tolerate a very wide disparity of viewpoints within the movement, and even on the economic issues — we tend to be very much on the pro-growth side some of them are more austerity-oriented,” he said.

Are the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters welcome to join the tea party?

Perhaps, Russo said. “Our primary issue is opposition to the size and intrusiveness and cost of the federal government. That’s the one litmus test we have. We’re pretty open on social issues and foreign policy issues, but you have to agree on that,” he explained.

“I don’t know what their view is on that point,” Russo conceded. “A lot of the left that opposes crony capitalism wants to see some sort of big government, and that would be incompatible because we’re a very much small-government, pro-growth and for economic freedom in our approach.”

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