“Tea party protests” on The Daily Caller

Rep. Michele Bachmann is many things, but she’s not typically considered someone prone to cut and run. (more)

The cadre of reporters that descended on Madison, Wis., during the past couple weeks steered attention away from the union demonstrators’ negativity — or, at the very least, failed to call attention it. The public sector union protesters have exhibited violence against Fox News reporters and have carried signs comparing Republican Gov. Scott Walker to recently deposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and Adolf Hitler. (more)

A couple protests were held over the weekend. The demonstrators were yelling and screaming something about solidarity, supporting the Wisconsin teachers’ unions and the state’s 14 Democrats who ran away to Illinois. Or it could have been about abortion rights. All artist Ray Voide knew was that they weren’t a very art-friendly crowd. (more)

A political organization founded by Texas congressman Ron Paul is distributing free copies of a new book by his son, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, to every member of congress. (more)

A Gallup/USA Today poll released on Monday found that seven in 10 adults, including 88 percent of Republicans, agree that Republican leaders in Congress should take the Tea Party movement’s objectives and views into account when addressing the country’s problems. Fifty-three percent of Republicans and 26 percent of Democrats rated this consideration as “very important.” (more)

President Obama is proposing a five year spending freeze in his State of the Union address to be delivered at 9:00 p.m., according to his prepared remarks, but he is warning Republicans that have proposed much deeper cuts, “let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.” (more)

— “It is unlikely that House Republicans will take the vote to repeal the health care law, shrug their shoulders when it doesn’t reach the Senate, and move on,” writes The Daily Caller’s Chris Moody. “We aren’t going to just check the box off and say that we had one vote and we’re going to move on to other topics,” Rep. Michele Bachmann said Tuesday. Rep. Steve King echoed Bachmann’s sentiments, saying, “This is going to be a debate that goes on not just today and tomorrow and next week. It’s going to go on for the next year or two. It’s probably going to go on until we elect a president that will sign a final repeal of Obamacare. So this is an ongoing debate.” The GOP will fight, just like the Spartans fought at Thermopylae, until they are all dead of old age/exasperation, or until Americans return both the legislative branch and the executive branch to the second worst party in the country. In the meantime, House Republicans will build their own health care bill, starting with the key accomplishment of Obamacare: “A measure to restrict insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions.” (more)

The Tea Party movement has led thousands of Americans to a new level of involvement in political activism. In 2010, Americans elected newly-minted Tea Party activists as mayors, legislators, representatives and senators. As the movement matures and realizes what it can accomplish, we will likely see more Tea Party activists run — and win — in 2012. (more)

It was with great fanfare and a measure of controversy that ABC News named Christiane Amanpour to anchor its Sunday morning show “This Week” after George Stephanopoulos moved on to host “Good Morning America.” (more)

When Republicans take over the House next week, they will do something that apparently has never been done before in the chamber’s 221-year history: (more)

For years, House Republicans have held Paul Ryan’s plan to revamp Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security at arm’s length, deeming it politically unwise to embrace it. (more)

With The Daily Caller approaching its first birthday (the site was launched on January 11, 2010), I thought it would be appropriate to recount the 20 most interesting Daily Caller op-eds of 2010 (according to me). Collectively, these op-eds garnered hundreds of thousands of page views and over ten thousand Facebook recommendations (though, due to a Facebook glitch, the Facebook recommendations for most Daily Caller articles that were published before December 10th have disappeared. You’ll have to trust me on this one.) The articles are listed in no particular order. (more)

To hear most liberals and left-wing media pundits describe the Tea Party movement, one would think the Third Reich has been resurrected in America. In reality, this anti-big government movement made up of mostly non-registered Republicans and Independents is exactly the right prescription for the 2012 election cycle. (more)

The Ryun brothers want to infuse new Tea Party blood into the political system. (more)

1.) Establishment Republicans conflicted over whose back to pat for busted omnibus bill — Majority Leader Harry Reid folded during last night’s high-stakes po(r)ker game. Now Beltway types are racing to cement a narrative for exactly what made the GOP so bold. “The defeat of a pork-laden $1.1 trillion ‘omnibus’ spending bill in the Senate Thursday night was the first serious indication after the Nov. 2 election that the Tea Party movement has staying power and will be a force into 2011,” writes The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward. “Some Republicans on Capitol Hill said Thursday night that GOP leadership played a pivotal role as well. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was said to have pressured key GOP lawmakers to stand firm against the legislation, though some in leadership said the conference was fairly united against it from the beginning.” Less, uh, established folks, like Sen. Tom Coburn’s beard, were more willing to give all credit to the Tea Party: “It was 100 percent grassroots…The American people took it down,” said Coburn spokesman John Hart. Also, bitter Democrats, one of whom dejectedly chalked up the broke-down omnibus to Congressional Republicans being “a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party.” (more)

The defeat of a pork-laden $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill in the Senate Thursday night was the first serious indication after the Nov. 2 election that the Tea Party movement has staying power and will be a force into 2011. (more)

It’s inevitable. A new party is forming. (more)

For the most part, Republicans since the midterm elections have gone from the party of “No” to the party of compromise. (more)

Just this week, Senators McConnell, Hutchison, and Shelby — the latter two of which have long histories as serial appropriators — agreed to support a ban on earmarks. This was exciting news and a key insight into the power of the grassroots. It is true that earmarks comprise a small, even miniscule, percentage of government spending, but they are a flashpoint in the debate about spending and a top issue for the Tea Party and other grassroots activists. (more)

Tea Party leaders in both the House and Senate have come out strong after Mitch McConnell’s call to ban all earmarks with Sen. Jim DeMint calling it the beginning a cultural change in Washington. (more)