“Tea party” on The Daily Caller

Just because the tea party hasn’t been as noisy this election cycle doesn’t mean it won’t be a force come November, says Elizabeth Price Foley, author of “The Tea Party: Three Principles.” (more)

In this installment of Jack Hunter’s Daily Caller video commentary series “The Deal with Jack Hunter,” Jack argues that there’s essentially no difference between Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich: “Right now, each candidate is fighting over whether they might be marginally better than the others because they might not have supported one or two parts of this big-government recipe, which is kind of like arguing over whether Franco-American or Chef Boyardee makes better spaghetti.” He concludes: “So where does small government conservatism fit into the 2012 election? It doesn’t. The tea party apparently does not demand it at the top of the GOP ticket, and Super Tuesday proves it.” (more)

Let’s be honest, the marriage between the Republican Party and the tea party has always been a marriage of convenience — and an uncomfortable marriage of convenience at best. Unfortunately, this marriage is no longer working and it is time for both sides to move on. Call it irreconcilable differences. (more)

In this installment of Jack Hunter’s Daily Caller video commentary series “The Deal with Jack Hunter,” Jack says that “most tea partiers would agree that balancing the budget and reducing the debt is their top priority. The question today is, for which presidential candidate is this a top priority.” He argues that Ron Paul is that candidate. ”When it comes to real fiscal conservatism,” he says, “Ron Paul remains the sexiest candidate in this race.” (more)

Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly said Wednesday that he would be happy to assist tea partiers in ensuring that “the federal government defunds everything in Alaska.” (more)

Liberal billionaire and CNN founder Ted Turner accuses “the tea party people” in a new magazine profile of him of being “mean-spirited.” (more)

On Tuesday, Jamie Radtke, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Virginia, asked California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa to investigate what she said was unfair treatment of tea party groups by the Internal Revenue Service. Issa chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (more)

When will conservatives learn that being right doesn’t matter? Having the correct answer to a philosophical problem is gratifying on a chalkboard, but it means little in political confrontations. The left learned this lesson a long time ago. The right needs to catch up. (more)

When the tea party movement burst onto the scene nearly three years ago, conservatives did something unheard of: they took to the streets! With the federal government in the midst of an unprecedented power grab in the form of the bank bailouts, auto takeovers, and Obamacare, hard-working conservatives could no longer afford to be apathetic about the country’s direction. And in the movement’s first election, the 2010 midterms, the tea party scored impressive victories in races across the country, despite significant disadvantages in both dollars and organization. (more)

DENVER (AP) — Long skeptical of Mitt Romney, tea party activists are either warming up to the GOP presidential front-runner or reluctantly backing him after abandoning hope of finding a nominee they like better. (more)

When it comes to picking a Republican nominee for president, there is little consensus among tea partiers in Nevada, the next state to hold a nominating contest. (more)

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Washington, D.C. radio station WMAL’s “Morning Majority,” MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews denied applying a double standard to his treatment of the tea party and “Occupy” movements. He also claimed he never saw hate-speech protest signs directed at former President George W. Bush — only at President Obama. (more)

On the online “Green Room” segment of Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham speculated that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s strength in the contest is a sign that the tea party might not be as strong as conventional wisdom suggests. (more)

Florida tea partiers would be most enthusiastic if former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich* won the Republican presidential nomination, according to a straw poll conducted Sunday night by the Tea Party Patriots organization. (more)

Sen. Rand Paul has said that Newt Gingrich “goes against everything the tea party stands for.” This might be an understatement. (more)

The assistant Democratic leader, South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, accused former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of “appealing” to the racist tea party “element” of the Republican Party in his campaign. Gingrich won the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Saturday. (more)

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Daily Caller has learned that 100 tea party leaders from 25 states will announce Thursday that they are supporting Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and will form a coalition called Tea Partiers With Newt. (more)

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The top strategist for the Tea Party Express told The Daily Caller that the organization isn’t quite ready to endorse a candidate in the presidential election, but admitted that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich seems to have the most buzz among tea party activists heading into South Carolina’s primary. (more)

With the second session of the 112th “tea party” Congress about to begin, let’s recall how the first session opened a year ago — with members reading the Constitution aloud for the first time in history. Could it be, tea party folks imagined, that Congress might at last begin restoring constitutionally limited government? A year later — after battles over the budget the previous Congress hadn’t passed, over raising the debt ceiling, and finally over the FY 2012 budget, following the collapse of the misbegotten super-committee — the session ended barely before Christmas with the payroll tax debacle, the House caving to the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll tax “holiday.” So inconsequential was that ending that it made April’s 2011 budget compromise, more than six months into the fiscal year, look positively grand, even though it cut “baseline” spending from a $3.6 trillion budget by a mere $38 billion. Tea party folks in and out of Congress are today dispirited. They shouldn’t be, not if they’re in for the long haul, which is what it’ll take. (more)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sunday in a rare television interview that his Republican counterparts in the Senate are guilty of “obstructionism on steroids” and that the tea party is slowly “dying out.” (more)