Democrats Demand GOP Candidates And Incumbents Take A Stand On Tea Party Caucus

Seizing on the recent creation of a Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats unveiled a new initiative on Thursday aimed at forcing Republicans -- both incumbents and challengers -- to either embrace or reject the caucus.

Eighty GOP members of Congress and candidates will be targeted in the offensive orchestrated by the Democratic National Committee.

50 lawmakers who have already joined the Tea Party Caucus -- such as Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) -- can expect to be blasted over the affiliation in statements the DNC plans to issue on Friday. An additional 30 Republicans who are not currently members of the caucus -- like Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) as well as several candidates -- will face demands to say whether or not they would join.

Here's a taste of what the Cantor and others are set to receive (text is from the DNC's draft release):

"Now, faced with the choice of turning their back on the Tea Party or embracing these radical views, the question remains: does Eric Cantor intend to join the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives and sign on to its out-of-the-mainstream positions? And if not, why?"

The mission of the whole, project, according to the DNC, is to convey what the Tea Party agenda means to voters in states across the country. The Democrats plan to highlight the Tea Party's support for "repealing social security and Medicare, reversing critical reforms to Wall Street and our health insurance system, extending tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil and taking us back to the same failed economic policies championed by George Bush and Dick Cheney.

News of the initiative comes on the heels of the DNC's announcement that it plans to paint the Republican Party and Tea Party as "one and the same" in its larger 2010 midterm election strategy.

"Those Republicans who chose to stand with the Tea Party and their radical agenda will be held accountable for those beliefs," DNC spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said in a statement on Thursday. "And, those who don't will be asked to say what exactly it is that they stand for - other than big business, big oil and big banks."

Here's a list of the 50 Republican lawmakers Democrats have identified as House Tea Party Caucus members:

Robert Aderholt (AL-4), Todd Akin (MO-2), Rodney Alexander (LA-5), Michele Bachmann (MN-6), Joe Barton (TX-6), Roscoe Bartlett (MD-6), Gus Bilirakis (FL-9), Rob Bishop (UT-1), Michael Burgess (TX-26), Paul Broun (GA-10), Dan Burton (IN-5), John Carter (TX-31), Howard Coble (NC-6), Mike Coffman (CO-6), Ander Crenshaw (FL-4), John Culberson (TX-7), John Fleming (LA-4), Trent Franks (AZ-2), Phil Gingrey (GA-11), Louie Gohmert (TX-1), Tom Graves (GA-9), Ralph Hall (TX-4), Gregg Harper (MS-3), Wally Herger (CA-2), Lynn Jenkins (KS-2), Steve King (IA-5), Doug Lamborn (CO-5), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Kenny Marchant (TX-24), Tom McClintock (CA-4), Gary Miller (CA-42), Jerry Moran (KS-1), Sue Myrick (NC-9), Randy Neugebauer (TX-19), Mike Pence (IN-6), Tom Price (GA-6), Denny Rehberg (MT), Phil Roe (TN-1), Ed Royce (CA-40), Steve Scalise (LA-1), Pete Sessions (TX-32), John Shadegg (AZ-3), Adrian Smith (NE-3), Lamar Smith (TX-21), Cliff Stearns (FL-6), Todd Tiahrt (KS-4), Zach Wamp (TN-3), Lynn Westmoreland (GA-3), Joe Wilson (SC-2)

Comments

[justobserve]

02:16 PM on 08/27/2010

It's a great idea!

[Just Say Know]

05:03 AM on 08/10/2010

Tea Party Core Values: 3 of 3
Fiscal Responsibility by government honors and respects the freedom of the individual to spend the money that is the fruit of their own labor. A constitutionally limited government, designed to protect the blessings of liberty, must be fiscally responsible or it must subject its citizenry to high levels of taxation that unjustly restrict the liberty our Constitution was designed to protect. Such runaway deficit spending as we now see in Washington D.C. compels us to take action as the increasing national debt is a grave threat to our national sovereignty and the personal and economic liberty of future generations.

[lordmi]

02:39 PM on 08/28/2010

Really?
Where have YOU been, when Bush created Deficit?

[Just Say Know]

05:02 AM on 08/10/2010

Tea Party Core Values: 2 of 3
Free Markets: A free market is the economic consequence of personal liberty. The founders believed that personal and economic freedom were indivisible, as do we. Our current government's interference distorts the free market and inhibits the pursuit of individual and economic liberty. Therefore, we support a return to the free market principles on which this nation was founded and oppose government intervention into the operations of private business.

[lordmi]

02:40 PM on 08/28/2010

wasn't it Free Market with no regulations, that dropped Economy into the ditch?
You mean - we need to make it more free?
I guess- You are Free from any sense.

But what FOR?

[Just Say Know]

05:01 AM on 08/10/2010

Tea Party Core Values: 1 of 3
Constitutionally Limited Government: We, the members of The Tea Party Patriots, are inspired by our founding documents and regard the Constitution of the United States to be the supreme law of the land. We believe that it is possible to know the original intent of the government our founders set forth, and stand in support of that intent. Like the founders, we support states' rights for those powers not expressly stated in the Constitution. As the government is of the people, by the people and for the people, in all other matters we support the personal liberty of the individual, within the rule of law.

[lordmi]

02:41 PM on 08/28/2010

Have You ever read it?
Seems - never, just being a Parrot From Faux Corporation.
Not much to be proud about

[Just Say Know]

04:57 AM on 08/10/2010

Tea Party... "radical views, out-of-the-mainstream positions"? Maybe the DNC needs to rethink its positions! The core values of the Taxed Enough Already Party are: Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.

The Tea Party is NON-PARTISAN! No matter how much the Republicans would like to claim this movement as theirs it is NOT. Democrats need to look at these core values very hard and join this movement, it is a movement of WE THE PEOPLE who have had enough of "business as usual" in Washington DC and we intend to get things back in line. If you can’t hack it, get your jacket, it’s cold on the outside! THE TEA PARTY IS HERE TO STAY! We The People are no longer willing to be silent!

[treadway123]

10:21 AM on 08/23/2010

Ya right! The tea party is a non-partisan party! That is why they pick Republican Candidates to back. That is why they fund Republican Candidates to! It is not a movement of WE the people, because We the people know they are gone over the line of the Extremist behaviors! DR. Paul of the tea party wants to Break up the Civil Rights Act, the Disability Act! Angle wants to Drop the Social Security for all Americans, or Privatize it so it can go down the drain with the Stock Market, an we all know how stable that is on a BLACK MONDAY! NO MORE CONSTITION unless it's for their own purpose, NOT FOR THE PEOPLE, but their own agenda, an that my Freind is what the TEA PARTY stands for! U can write what u want on paper, it's harder to follow the rules an laws of what is written!

[SoCalGrandma]

02:56 PM on 08/27/2010

Those four posts were copied from TP literature, weren't they? Do you have any original ideas?

[lordmi]

02:42 PM on 08/28/2010

He could not - has no Brains.

[deeblk07]

01:22 PM on 08/08/2010

Good luck with that

[JBoy]

03:46 AM on 08/08/2010

What's really funny is that the DNC thinks the Tea Party has radical, "out-of -the mainstream" positions.

This is going to backfire in their faces BIG-TIME!

Say goodbye to your majorities, DNC!

[lordmi]

02:43 PM on 08/28/2010

Every Normal Human think that.
When You do not have a tool to think with - You are just repeating Faux Corporation.

[Brian Gilmer]

10:10 AM on 08/07/2010

This is really a political checkers match. Republicans request the formation of a Tea Party Caucus to a Democratically controlled House of Representatives expecting them to reject it thus supporting the "Tea Party" outsider status. The Democratically controlled House of Representatives calls the bluff and allow the opposition to create the caucus. The opposition now has to set up the "Tea Party Caucus". Now the DNC can paint Republican as "members" of the "Tea Party" if they join the caucus. The opposition sets up the caucus to "listen" to the concerns of citizens that identify with the "Tea Party" movement and clearly places a firewall between the caucus and the movement. The DNC calls the opposition to explain what it means to "listen" to the "Tea Party" movement.

[lordmi]

02:45 PM on 08/28/2010

It's so easy - Minority leaders are endorosing Trash Pary candidates all over, so - they do belong there.
The fact is - Republican Party is dissolving in Trash-Baggers movement.
Where does trash need to go?

[senatortruth]

03:57 PM on 08/06/2010

The "Tea Party" is ONE BIG LIE--

that they are NOT wholly-owned by the RapePublic Party

and NOT supported by Fox "news".

These people are the SAME ones who supported the TRAITTORS Buhs and Cheeney

and think they are "heroes".

Tea Party= BIGGEST rightwing waaaaaccoooooos!!!

[Benjack]

05:37 PM on 08/06/2010

What happened to make you so mad? What's you point here? any solutions? All I see here is an individual due for removal from society.

[senatortruth]

06:02 PM on 08/06/2010

What YOU "see" and what REAL Americans SEE are two different things.

REAL Americans SEE the waaaaccccooooss of the Tea Party,

and realize that they are just the luuuunnnnatttiiic fringe of the TRAITTOR RapePublics.

Not YOU, of course...

[hrpmap]

01:33 PM on 08/06/2010

Republicans to Democrats, take a stand on Black Panther movement!!!

[PWM]

02:01 PM on 08/06/2010

Black Panther movement are not dems.

[dtlewis]

02:10 PM on 08/06/2010

After you've spent several years as a minority and have gained some understanding of what it really means to suffer gross prejudice and descrimination in virtually every aspect of your existence you will have qualified to speak on such a subject. Until you've gained the understanding of the issue Through your own personal experience as a minority within a society hostile to you and those like you based on unfounded assumptions and sweeping generalizations you are only bloviating from a position of abject ignorance. You don't get it, you can't get it and you never will be able to get it. So just admit it; you don't get it. You do realize that the Bush administration DOJ dismissed the issue, not the current administration.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

02:58 PM on 08/06/2010

How many more years do we have to bloviate before its over?

[TexasTim]

01:15 PM on 08/06/2010

The DNC is about to suffer a jump in unemployment after the November elections. I don't think they're in a position to demand anything.

[PWM]

02:01 PM on 08/06/2010

Unlikely. Republicans are going to learn America wants solutions to our problems, not merely saying no and aplogizing to BP.

[JBoy]

03:40 AM on 08/08/2010

Democrats are going to learn that Americans want fair representation, not an agenda that runs counter to the will of the people.

[vonPinto]

01:14 PM on 08/06/2010

I learnt what looks like a coup is going on at the Maine Tea baggers party.

Is this the same thing they are planing for America?

[TexasTim]

01:28 PM on 08/06/2010

In all revolutions there are those who have personal issues. I know liberals salivate to paint us all with the same broad brush and I invite you to continue that tradition. Your misdirection helps us.

[senatortruth]

04:45 PM on 08/06/2010

REAL Americans KNOW who you are.

RapePublic TRAITTORS.

[vonPinto]

12:12 AM on 08/07/2010

Don't make me laugh.

Revo-----what?

[lohu]

01:08 PM on 08/06/2010

DNC is afraid of the tea party.

[hrpmap]

01:46 PM on 08/06/2010

They should be, it's the American people getting tired of the C**p

[King Banhammer]

07:27 PM on 08/06/2010

The giant, festering pile of, as you put it "c**p" leftover from the previous guy's term, or healthcare reform?

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

02:59 PM on 08/06/2010

And so are the repubs.

[King Banhammer]

07:27 PM on 08/06/2010

They also should be. The core crazy vote is pretty limited, in reality. It's pushing moderates away.

[Jay Alexander]

12:52 PM on 08/06/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7cQqLUsv3k&feature=player_embedded

[Rabbi Kool]

12:13 PM on 08/06/2010

None of them are from Ohio. That's a shame.