Inside the Beltway: Michele Bachmann reinvents the tea party
The news media continues to either mock the tea party or declare that it is dead and gone. Members of the grass-roots movement know that as long as Americans believe in fiscal conservatism, personal liberty and founding values, the tea party remains a potent brew with a lot of potential. One lawmaker in particular is also convinced of this Rep. Michele Bachmann, who takes her case to the public Wednesday morning in an event to be aired live by C-SPAN.
The retiring Minnesota Republican will appear at the Heritage Foundation to deliver a speech titled The Tea Party: Continuing the Revolution in American Thought. She founded the House Tea Party Caucus in 2010 and has never backed down on her faith in the spontaneous phenomenon that emerged five years ago and has rattled opponents and critics ever since.
The tea party movement focuses on principles before politics and defending the Constitution rather than defending political parties. The media would have you believe that the tea party is a group of old white racists bought and paid for by Republicans. The Democrats shrugged off the massive crowds as fringe and unworthy of notice. Its only AstroTurf, they said. They were wrong, Mrs. Bachmann noted earlier this year.
In her speech, she will trace the rise of the modern tea party, its ongoing impact and implications for the midterms. More important, perhaps, the lawmaker will outline a unifying agenda to restore American greatness and opportunity. The event will be moderated by Tim Chapman, CEO of Heritage Action for America, and can be seen live at 10 a.m. ET on C-SPAN and online here: Heritage.org.
STILL NO NAME FOR ISLAMIC STATE WAR
Headlines vary when it comes to press coverage of the Islamic State conflict, with interchangeable references to ISIS and ISIL. And there is still no formal name no Desert Storm or Enduring Freedom a fact that the Pentagon acknowledged and dismissed without explanation almost two months ago. Critics suggest its a political ploy to ease the White House through events until the midterms are over and done with. Those who track the usage of words, phrases and mottoes in popular culture have also taken note.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and this is even more true when it comes to the Internet, Paul J.J. Payack tells Inside the Beltway. He is president of the Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which uses software to track buzzwords and language patterns in 50,000 media sources. No name from the side of the coalition forces simply means that the enemy will define the nature of the conflict, which we now see happening. With [the Islamic States] dramatic imagery of caliphates and crusades, they have apparently seized the imagination of disaffected youth, even in the West.
Mr. Payack has a few suggestions of his own for naming the war: Operation Levant Relief, Operation Desert Redux, Operation Middle East Rescue, Operation Kurdish Relief, Operation Iraqi Relief or combinations thereof. And note theres no mention of ISIS or ISIL, he says.
HILLARYS PREMIERE PARTY
There are fundraisers, and then there are significant fundraisers. Check out the upcoming, ultra-exclusive West Coast event with Hillary Clinton in the starring role, considered a coming out of sorts for Clintons possible run for president, says Tina Daunt, a correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter. Silver screen elites are falling all over themselves to be included in the Oct. 20 event, which already counts uber-producers Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg plus Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Michael F. Bennet on the guest list.
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Inside the Beltway: Michele Bachmann reinvents the tea party