The Fusion: Tea party leaders will meet with Steele and Republican operatives

[Emit]

GOP operatives, courting 'Baggers ...

Tea party leaders will meet with Steele and other Republican operatives
By Philip Rucker
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

About 50 leaders of the grass-roots "tea party" movement will meet in Washington on Tuesday with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele and other top GOP operatives to discuss campaign strategies and conservative principles.

The afternoon meeting on Capitol Hill will mark the first time that a broad coalition of tea party organizers -- who have railed against both the Democratic and the Republican establishments -- will sit down with GOP leaders. Top Republican leaders have been openly courting the organizers, looking to marshal grass-roots energy heading into November's midterm elections.

Karin Hoffman, founder of DC Works For Us, a tea party group in South Florida, said she initiated the meeting by approaching Steele last month and asking him to sit down with a range of tea party organizers. She said her goal is to open a civil dialogue with the GOP leadership, but she dismissed any suggestion that tea party groups might merge with the Republican Party.

"From the get-go, the grass-roots movement emerged from people desiring to be heard and not feeling like their voices are being heard in Washington," Hoffman said in an interview. "This is the beginning of a formal discussion with the political establishment."

~snip~

But Hoffman said some other leaders of tea party groups declined her invitation to meet with Steele, saying they "distrust" the Republican Party leadership.

"The trust has to be earned," she said.


~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021502211.html?wprss=rss_politics

[T Wolf]

1. The teabaggers will sooner turn on the pukes than I will ever vote for either one. The GOP

will use them just as they have used the ignorant morans for-ever -- to be the ground troops in the assault against the Democrats.

And the Dems (DNC, DCCC, DSCC, DLC, etc.) would sooner engage the baggers than the Democratic wing of their own party.

November is going to be ugly - and we will have a ringside seat as the media run with the story full-time.

[Emit]

3. Yup, the 'Baggers are free labor to the GOP

I sense it'll be ugly, too, T Wolf

The GOP is working hard to contain these bagger foot soldiers, otherwise, they'll be threatened by Tea Party candidates all over the map siphoning off GOP votes come election time.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Since Michael Steel

is so fond of spreading the rumor about Oreo cookies, are they gonna serve Milk and Oreo Cookies...could be......