FRIENDSWOOD — More than 300 people gathered in a city park Tuesday to rally against “out of control” government spending and to ship protest tea bags to Washington, D.C. Whether the first of what will be a series of tea party protests across the country is the start of a grass-roots political movement or just another form of political theater is yet to be determined.
“I think it is too early to say,” said Rice University political science professor Bob Stein. “There is a good deal of partisanship, but for an event the Republican Party would normally put its stamp on as the loyal opposition there really isn’t a (party) spokesperson on this.
“To me, the story is why the Republican Party is not jumping on this. (Republicans) are supportive of this, but not sounding the trumpet.”
In fact, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was denied a request to speak at the Chicago Tea Party by organizers who said he had “ignored” the movement until it had garnered national attention, primarily through the Fox News Channel and conservative radio talk show hosts.
On the county level, though, Republican Party Chairman John LeCour was front and center at Tuesday’s rally in Centennial Park in Friendswood.
“We are having a revolution against taxes and out of control spending,” LeCour said. “It is not a Republican event. It should be an event for everybody.”
LeCour was joined by Congressman Pete Olson, Friendswood Mayor David Smith, Councilman Mike Barker and Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones.
Olson, R-Sugar Land, indicated the event was a signal of a sea change in the national political debate despite November’s election surge by Democrats.
“Today is the day we start to take our country back,” Olson told the receptive crowd. The freshman congressman said despite Democratic assertions Republicans are not just speaking in opposition to the president’s agenda but has offered alternatives to the stimulate the faltering economy.
“This is the time for debate, something that is foreign to those in charge of the House of Representatives by the way,” he said.
LeCour said he and other members of the GOP were frustrated enough by the spending habits of a Republican-controlled Congress and White House when George Bush was president.
“Now it’s so dangerous it could cause stagflation and major economic problems down the road,” LeCour said. “The idea is spend the money now, and they will cut back. Historically, that hasn’t happened, and it’s dangerously out of control.”
Lloyd Criss, chairman of the Galveston County Democratic Party, was an outspoken critic of the Republican’s overspending but now says President Barack Obama and the Democratically controlled Congress have to spend.
“George Bush created this economic crisis, and Obama is at least spending the money to get people back to work,” Criss said while on a lobbying trip in Austin. “I don’t know if Obama’s spending package will work, but we have to do something.”
LeCour said Criss should join the effort.
“They have Blue Dog Democrats who voice their opinion against government spending,” he said.
Even if he wasn’t in Austin, Criss said he would have passed on the tea party.
“I think they are showing their ass is what I think they are doing,” Criss said. “(LeCour) may have agreed with me privately about George Bush’s spending, but he was totally silent in public. Now there is a Democrat, (Republicans) are speaking up. This is 100 percent about politics and not for the country. It’s for the party.”
