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December 03, 2009 09:04 PM UTC

NoCo Tea Party Groups Lash Out at McInnis, Plan Anti-McInnis Rally

  • 73 Comments
  • by: BobMoore

(Apparently they didn’t get the message that the GOP/McInnis platform is meant for them. – promoted by Colorado Pols)

POLS UPDATE #3: Be there or be square–Tea Party, uh, party against McInnis coming soon. Details after the jump.

POLS UPDATE #2: Michelle Malkin is most displeased.

POLS UPDATE: Here’s the clip, forwarded to us–chutzpah like only Fox News can deliver.

Original post follows.

Northern Colorado’s two largest Tea Party groups have laid into presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott McInnis over what they see as his false claims of Tea Party support.

What really got the Tea Party folks riled up was McInnis appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News Wednesday. As McInnis was introduced, an on-screen graphic read, “”Tea Party Backed Candidate Leading in CO Governor’s Race.”

As anyone who’s spent more than a couple of minutes watching Colorado politics knows, the idea that McInnis has the backing of Tea Party activists is ludicrous. Cavuto comes across as pretty ignorant about Colorado politics, I thought.

Representatives of the Tea Party of Northern Colorado and the Loveland 9-12 Project were incensed at the suggestion that their movement was backing McInnis. Leaders of both groups blasted out e-mails to their membership following the Cavuto appearance.

“We are being played like pawns. And we can’t put up with it,” said Lesley Hollywood of the Tea Party of Northern Colorado.

Nancy Rumfelt of the Loveland 9-12 Project said, “We must demand that we want PRINCIPLE over PARTY (P.O.P.)!!!”

I’m only tied in to the Northern Colorado Tea Party groups, but I suspect this reaction is being replicated across the state today.

You can read more on this issue at my Coloradoan.com blog, including how Hollywood and other Tea Party activists feel about the “Platform for Prosperity.” Click here: http://bit.ly/5phj0O

(NOTE: In an earlier version of this diary I attributed the Tea Party of Northern Colorado quote to Ray Harvey, one of the organizers for the group. The e-mail was sent by Lesley Hollywood, another organizer. My apologies to both Lesley and Ray for the confusion.)

Comments

73 thoughts on “NoCo Tea Party Groups Lash Out at McInnis, Plan Anti-McInnis Rally

    1. Where is all the Maddow inspired hate?  

      Where is all the rage against the principles promoted by groups like FreedomWorks – who are accused of helping to fund and run Tea Party activities?

      Internet taxes and government regulation slows down the growth its a jobs issue idiot

      Fundamental Tax Reform – make taxes simple ……

      Lawsuit Abuse – Stop the trial lawyers’ lawsuit lottery

      School Choice – give kids and parents real opportunity.

      Social Security PRAs

      Work, Not Welfare

      Border Security

      Budget & Spending, spending is out of control

      secret ballots and privacy protections for employees.

      Death Tax unfair double taxation

      Energy policy is driving up the cost and availabilty of it

      Environment, private property rights first

      efficient and fair taxation.

      Free Trade

      Global Warming an attempt by the global Left to gain control of the U.S. economy.

      Trial lawyers, government mandates, and tax code distortions make health care too expensive.

      governments have been aggressively regulating

      Free trade creates wealth and opportunity for America

      Internet tax-free.

      Medicare – the crumbling program

      Privacy

      Judicial Nominations

      Regulations are a hidden tax that costs the economy billions.

      1. You just showed why it would be a real hoot to have you promoted to front-page guest editor.

        We here on Colorado Pols are incapable of sorting out the real arguments in a piece of bullshit without you boldfacing them for us.

        Keep up the good work.

        1. the always calm, well prepared and flawlessly courteous Rachel Maddow as a hatemonger.  Have they ever actually listened to her? Have they ever fact checked her?  Of all the liberal personalities, the image the right seeks to create of this one bears the least resemblance to the actual person. Gee, I wonder if her being openly lesbian has anything to do with it.  

      2. the best of luck at tearing down another Republican candidate!

        Y’all handed us the NY 23rd CD (democrats couldn’t have done it without Teabaggers)…nothing we’d love better than having you help us keep the Governor’s seat here in Colorado!

  1. But I actually feel bad, really genuinely bad, for the Tea Partiers. They just got used and abused on national TV. McInnis laughs at them and uses them at the same time. That video clip is preposterous!

    1. to really feel bad for the Tea Party, but I certainly agree with you, they have a legitimate beef and a real reason to be angry. It isn’t terribly surprising, given the history of success the Repubs have had in convincing many “have-nots” into voting against their own best interests. The Republicans have been suckering the conservative working class for decades. Their arrogance seems to have peaked with this move.

      The poor, working poor, the lower and middle class workers struggling to get by have a lot more in common with each other than they have with the very well off and the stinking rich. But the GOP (and some Dem interests, I might add) has always been able to keep them from collusion by exploiting social issues…abortion, immigration, sexual orientation, etc.

      That misdirection has kept the proletariat, if you will, from becoming a cohesive force. Perhaps that game is falling apart and the have-nots, both on the left and on the right, can understand they have the numbers to change the dynamic, if they would just set aside their differences over who sleeps where and the age of the planet…and stuff like that.  

      1. The other problem the teabaggers face is they want philosophical purity from those they support. That’s a losing proposition in this country outside of some gerrymandered districts. It can win primaries but it then loses general elections.

        What the teabaggers need to do is figure out how much the can get and still have their candidate win. They aren’t even thinking about that (yet).

    1. No litmus test on eliminating taxes.

      No litmus test on TABOR

      No litmus test on no government interference in reproductive health.

      No litmus test on personal property rights in PiГ±on Canyon.

      No litmus test at all for his supporters.

  2. Who thought it would be a good idea to label McInnis as the Tea Party candidate?  Was it his idea, Fox’s idea, state or national party?  His primary path is cleared.  He doesn’t need to run to the right.  Besides the obvious bone headed more of claiming the mantle of a group that has not endorsed you (and inviting their wrath), why would you so conspicuously (on national tv) identify yourself with hard core political movement.  Has anyone, republican or democrat, ever been elected to governor in Colorado who didn’t self identify as a moderate?  

    1. It was FOX that put that label up, it’s not like they okayed it with him first. That’s just what they assumed. Scott has never claimed or implied that he had the Tea Party vote or support. But it’s just like the Tea Party people to go all crazy and start a rally or a fight. Those people are nuts.

      1. Listen again. If you do, then you’d have to be deaf to repeat your claim that “Scott has never claimed or implied that he had the Tea Party vote or support.”

        None the less, some of your observations are quite astute:

        Those people are nuts.

  3. Goodness you all were busy parsing Obama’s speech yesterday now it’s McInnis’ interview.

    Scott McInnis does have a lot of broad appeal because he’s inclusive not exclusive.  That’s one of the reasons voters like me support him.

    1. suggests a level of detail that isn’t necessary. The entire premise of McInnis’ interview is balderdash.

      McInnis so darned inclusive he’s claiming the backing of groups that repudiate him! Is that the Delusional Tent strategy?

    2. But it’s also completely not the point here. McInnis does have moderate appeal, which we’ve said before on this site. But he’s apparently not appealing to the Tea Party folks that his Platform for Prosperity was intended to reach.

    3. Principal Over Our Party (P.O.O.P)?

      The Tea Partiers aren’t interested in inclusion, they are people like Dana Isham in GJ and they hate McLobbyist with a passion.  

      1. Says make checks out to Friends of Dan Maes. The Baggers are in bed with Maes, and vice versa. And then McInnis goes on national TV and claims their support. No wonder their pissed.

        Don’t be concerned folks….its just Republicans eating their young…..

  4.    I think it’s interesting that this GOP insurrection is starting in Bob Schaffer’s former C.D.

      Why would Bob (or his minions) want to derail the candidacy of the man who announced the week before the ’08 Senate election that he could have held the Allard seat for the GOP?

  5. Unions have a problem with some of Ritter’s actions but it’s okay for Ritter to court unions to gain their broad support in his bid for reelection.

    But

    Some Tea Party purest have a problem with McInnis but if McInnis reaches out to them for their support in his bid for governor it’s not okay with most of you?

    Isn’t that hypocritical?  

    1. but if he showed up on TV over a “Unions support Colorado governor” label and the host said, “”He is the country’s biggest Tea Party candidate,” there would be just as much of a (justified) uproar.  

    2. TV as “the Union-backed candidate” you might get a similar reaction. I guess maybe the difference is that Governor Ritter is well aware of his problems with the unions and isn’t arrogant enough to claim their support until he knows he has it.

      1. You all know damn good and well Fox does it’s hype with every breathless word and graphic. Rare is the anchor that writes his/her own script or questions on any network or cable news program.  McInnis sat down for an interview and I would hazard an educated guess the only thing he saw was a monitor with the anchors face speaking whatever behind the scenes producer had up on the anchor’s teleprompter.  

    3. reach out to the tea party for their support.

      Other than claiming he already has it, what would that look like?

      Is he going to show up at the Defend the Republic rally 12/12?

      Will he write a check?  

      Will he speak?

      Will he express doubt that the President was born in the US? (And if so will it be because he thinks the President was born in Kenya or because Hawaii isn’t part of the US?)

      Will he advocate for the abolition of the income tax?

      Will he promise to kill the faster fee?

      Will he publish a detailed budget that shows a reduction in state employees?

      Will he refuse stimulus money?

      Will he commit to opt out of any federal public option for health care?

      Will he commit to abolish the state insurance regulator and allow any health insurance provider to offer health insurance in CO?

      1. McInnis himself never claimed he had the Tea Party support, people may think he’s ignorant or stupid, whichever. But he’s not dumb enough to go around and start fights with them, they are after all Republicans on steroids.

        Fox put that label on the T.V. They didn’t call him up and say, “What would you like us to put under your name,” that’s just what they put and now he’s getting the blame. I love it! That’s the Tea Party at their best…trying to start a war because their feelings were hurt.  

        1. and after watching this clip…he should get a better media consultant.  

          He was dressed ok- but just ok.

          But he came off looking ….smarmy? Condescending?

          I mean, you gotta be yourself and maybe he’s just an ass.  But seriously – a candidate can be coached to be more relatable.

        1. you first

          but are you talking about all the political offices you’ve won and lost?  Or the candidates you’ve supported who have won/lost?  Just so I’m clear on the rules here.

  6. Just kidding, but I bet Josh is wishing he would have waited a few more weeks. This, plus a Plain endorsement, probably could have put him over the top.

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