Here's what you've got to know about the 5th Congressional District: Up there, you've got your Sussex Tea Party people, the creationist-led, baby-dinosaurs-in-Noah's-Ark-believing captains of the effort to recall a seated US Senator, 'cuz they don't like how he votes. Tough, they are. But also up there, you've got you some progressives, and they're just as tough, and maybe more firmly affixed in the real world. And if you Tea Party folks get to have your legally-disputable recall of a United States Senator, maybe they go after your poster boy, Rep. Scott Garrett. Game on. - - Promoted by Rosi
This morning I read something that got my blood to boiling. As I frantically was working this morning to pay off my many medical bills at my very tiny small business, something I read before work kept me distracted - so I had to blog.
It was simply this: crazy nonsense about Tea Party activists who want to recall Senator Menedez, for VOTING. Not criminal wrongdoing, not Republican style adultery, not even ethical misconduct. Just for VOTING in a way that the little girls throwing their Tea Party tantrums didn't like. Aw.
I got news for those Tea Party guys. This cuts both ways you know. I have had to endure the heartless voting record of Mr Scott Garrett for way too long. Silly me, I assumed, when your guy loses the election, the other guy gets to vote for what HE wants. The loser LOSES. See, that's how it was supposed to work.
Well, the Tea Party activists stirred up by the hate groups here decided to go after the Senator with an ethnic sounding name. Lautenberg votes with Menedez and they vote so consistently Democratic that I trust they will vote for Democratic values 99% of the time - which they do. Why the little Tea Party girls chose to ONLY go after Menendez is shocklingly, astoundingly, absurdly blatant bigotry. In addition, The Tea Party activists, instead of actually winning an election, want to circumvent the democratic process and only invite their friends in for tea.
Here is where it can cut two ways. Who would Progressive NJ Dems who actually believe in evolution and helping their fellow man DEARLY love to remove from the Senate? Scott Garrett of course. You go after our guys, we will recall yours. We actually respected the outcome of the past elections where the 5th district was so gerrymandered as to ensure Scott Garrett's win for the foreseeable century. Lou Dobbs, king of anti-immigrants lives with other old angry white men in the rural parts of the 5th, and THEY have had their say for WAY too long here. I have been resigned to NOT having ANY representation in the House for the past 8 years. Because my guys lost the election. Now that the Tea Party folks have shown that ANY angry idiot with an ax to grind and too much time on their lazy hands can destroy democracy as we know it, I hope they realize they will have to reap the consequences of their actions.
You take away the Senators that speak for ME and the progressive community in NJ and I will see to it that your boy Garrett and his friends are recalled too. Just cause I don't like the way they vote and I think their mother dresses them funny. Wars have been fought over less. This recall effort by the Tea Party bigots is more than a silly prank. It is literally a shot across the bow. One that CANNOT go unanswered.
Tea Party activists can have their shot at taking down a United States Senator by recall vote, according to a decision today by a NJ state appeals court, which ruled that New Jersey's Secretary of State must accept a petition filed to recall Bob Menendez. The court stayed its own decision, to allow Menendez to appeal the ruling. Count on it. It is the senator's position that such an effort against a federal lawmaker is unconstitutional.
This is a first. And it is a surprise. And no doubt, it is a muscle flex for the reactionary forces of the still-forming Tea Parties. The Appeals Court ruling found the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue of recalling a U.S. Senator. From the decision:
Given the will of the people embodied in our state organic law, and the dearth of clear precedent nullifying the people's enactments, we accordingly decline at this juncture to find our state constitutional provision and related stature permitting recall of a United States Senator to be unconstitutional. [snip] The silence of the federal Constitution [on recall] may well result in the conclusion that it may be done.
The action was brought by NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party. Tea Party activists tried last year for permission from Secretary of State Nina Wells, under Gov. Corzine, to begin a petition recall. They went to court when that was denied.
If the petition recall is allowed to move forward, the Tea Party will be required to get one-fourth of New Jersey's registered voters to sign their petition. That means 1.3 million signatures on the dotted line.
The Court said its decision is not "definitively valid or invalid," and in fact put a stay on its own decision until lawyers for Senator Menendez can appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court. But the Court was definitive in ordering the current Secretary of State to allow the petition effort of the Tea Party to move forward, should the State Supreme Court agree.
Menendez' current term is due to end January 2013.
UPDATE: Statement of NJ State Democratic Chair John Wisniewski: These people are on a crusade to undermine the U.S. Constitution and to discredit human evolution. Those are not the kinds of radical movements that typical, hard-working folks in New Jersey sign up to join, and that's why this group is looking to Glenn Beck for help.
Attacking the constitutionality of the Constitution is a strange, hypocritical effort, which contradicts the system of elections that most Americans have taken pride in for more than 200 years.
A few weeks ago, I posted a diary that called for progressives to reclaim populism and have a tea party of their own. SmartyJones posted about the coffee party in the comments, which I will admit that I was skeptical of. That is until it went viral. Progressives like me are rightfully pissed off at the status quo. I like the individual Democrats in Congress that represent New Jersey, and I feel that I am fairly represented. However we are pissed off that the national (and state) Democratic Party lacks the spine that is needed to stand up to the schoolyard bullies better known as Republicans.
The coffee party movement was started to counter the tea party movement on the right, but it also has another theme which is commonly associated with coffee—wake up. I think that progressives need to wake up to the reality that is American politics. So many of us worked so hard during the election of 2008 and simply expected President Obama and Congress to govern as progressives and we could sit back and enjoy the ride. As the last year has told us, this is as far from the truth as it comes. Democracy is not a spectator sport, and we need to remind our elected officials on all levels that they work for us. However, unlike the tea party movement, the coffee party does not have the funding from industry and billionaires. It’s received some media coverage, but nowhere near what the tea party has received, nor does it have it’s own cable news channel.
I think that the coffee party movement is real. Like so many other movements and organizations, they have been using the social networking site Facebook to expand their operations. As of this writing, the national coffee party movement has over 90,000 fans with 64 individual chapters throughout the country, and the New Jersey chapter has 572 fans. Nine events in various counties throughout New Jersey are planned for Saturday March 13 in various coffee shops. I plan on attending the one in my county and will hold off judging the movement until after the meeting.
I have many hopes and fears about the movement itself. My biggest hope is that it will equalize the calls and letters that our elected officials receive from us (as Congressman Pallone said at a conference that he hears from the tea party more than progressives), and it will wake up many of the casual progressives to political involvement. My biggest fear is that the attendees of the coffee party movement will be the same group of (about two dozen) people that attend all of the other progressive events throughout the county (that are already very involved). I will call the coffee party a success if it brings new (and younger) blood into progressive politics. I really hope it does because I believe we will need this movement in full force come November.
"The state is trying to draw a bright-line rule completely excluding all possibilities," said Daniel Silberstein, a Clark attorney representing the recall committee. "We are not arguing today for Senator Menendez's recall. We are arguing simply for the right to express our dissatisfaction with Senator Menendez."...
While Silberstein argued the case was about allowing "core political speech" by way of New Jersey's secretary of state approving the recall notice, Menendez attorney Marc E. Elias of Washington, D.C., and state Deputy Attorney General Donna Kelly said the parts of a recall cannot be parsed and the whole effort is unconstitutional. They cited the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps a conflicting state law.
This is ridiculous. Tea Partiers, like anyone, can go gather petitions in person -- or online -- all they like. Petition for Menendez to resign. Petition for him to vote against the budget. Petition for a recall. Petition for Exxon to spend $10 million attacking him. Whatever they like. Having a petition trigger a recall is what is at stake, and that is arguably unconstitutional. Besides the Idaho precedent we discussed before, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled term limits for Congress unconstitutional, and that is a very similar issue.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll has a new release out on the Tea Party (full PDF). The poll is helpful in that it might help us a understand those who are sympathetic, even if it doesn't tell us much about the leadership's motives. 48% of Repunlicans and Republican-leaners, 30% of independents, and only 11% of Democrats have a favorable impression of the "Tea Party." So pollster David Redlawsk can check the political beliefs, race, class, etc. of those who are favorable. I think there are two clear-cut conclusions. The first isn't too surprising:
"We find that Republicans who favor the TEA Party movement are driven, at least in part, by an antipathy towards Obama which is simply less prevalent among Republicans who are not favorable toward the TEA Party,
In other words, the Tea Party's base is right-wingers who think Obama is a socialist, un-American, blah, blah, blah. The pollster didn't ask about Obama being a Muslim.
The more important conclusion is that there are really two groups involved:
GOP TEA Party movement supporters are clustered in the $50,000 to $100,000 income range and are somewhat older than the average New Jersey voter. They are also significantly more likely to be male, white, and to consider themselves born-again Christians. Democrats and independents favoring the TEA Party are more likely to have incomes under $50,000, are much younger, and less likely to be white males.
"There appear to be two demographic bases for the TEA Party movement," said Redlawsk. "One is a higher income, older, male, Republican, anti-Obama group. The other is a lower income, younger group who are not Republicans and who like Obama. These voters are attracted to the TEA Party because of worries about their own financial situation and feelings that something is wrong in America. With more than a quarter of New Jersey voters favorable towards the TEA Party, it is possible that the movement could have real impact on politics. The question is whether it can provide what both groups want at the same time. If the focus is on impacting the Republican Party, it may lose the 30 percent who are not Republicans. But to keep that group happy may require a focus that is much broader than Republican Party politics and an intense dislike of the Obama administration."
The first group won't possibly vote for Democrats and worrying about them is a waste of time, although I suppose the fact that 65% of Republican Tea Party supporters want government to do more for "middle class people" might mean I am wrong. The second group, though. can be reached and indeed many of them may vote for Obama in 2012. Communicating with them this year is important for Democrats. The President's otherwise admirable non-partisan, "there's not a liberal America and a conservative America" approach has let the conservatives and indeed the entire "Establishment" off the hook for the disaster they've led America into. Perhaps I should say partly off the hook. Republicans in Congress have only 25% favorable rating with 48% unfavorable. Democrats in Congress are at 35-42 and President Obama 56-31.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll has started to roll out its newest data, and it turns out they've decided to focus on the Tea Party in New Jersey. Favorable-unfavorable for the "Tea Party" is 27-29, much worse than the national numbers. Read Professor David Redlawsk's post discussing the poll, but basically the Tea Party is mainly a Republican movement:
The upshot is that this looks much more like a branch of the Republican Party than any real attempt to form a sustainable third party movement. In fact, Tea Party supporters in New Jersey are more likely to support the current two party system than are those who do not have a favorable view of the movement. Go figure!
They are also more likely to be in the upper half of income: "While only 18 percent of voters making less than $50,000 have a favorable view, 30 percent of those making more than $50,000 do."
Redlawsk speculates that since this is a group of Republicans who are mad at the Republican establishment, they might be more of a danger in the primaries than general elections. Personally I doubt anyone in New Jersey will face a serious primary challenge, but we'll see.
The grassroots movement that swept Obama into office sat back and relaxed following 2008's historic presidential victory, wrongly believing the job was done.
Oh ... really? I will acknowledge some post-election exhale, which I imagine they both enjoyed themselves. But, really, who sat back here? We elected a President who told us if we brought the hope, he'd deliver change. And yet, who sat back? Obama, and his people did. The activists have been calling for public option for months - hosting public forums, writing letters, lobbying. And the president is walking on the sticky paper of bi-partisanship, unwilling or unable to lead a majority-Dem Congress to reform, unable to inspire, unable for most of the time even to articulate his position. Or worse, making stirring public option speeches while undermining the effort by sending Rahm Emanuel and Kathleen Sebelius to whisper to legislators, No worries, he doesn't really mean it. The prez gets a partial-save for deftly maneuvering the truculent GOP into the party of NO wall recently. But it's too little, too late.
We called for repeal of ENDA and DADT, and he has not used his power.
A smart friend of mine said of this, The activists used their tools and power, to identify issues that need reform and elect those in support. The President has to use his tools and power - which is to make like LBJ and twist arms and drive strong legislation. We did our part, he didn't.
Over the last year, the tea party movement has gotten a lot of attention from the media, progressives, and conservatives alike. I’ve been one of the many progressives that have made fun at them and commonly refer to them as “teabaggers,” which they originally called themselves before media personalities like Rachel Maddow told the public where the term “teabag” as a verb originally came from (porn) and what it means (a vulgar sex act). If you take away the top-down organization, the media hype and coverage (especially from Faux News), and the funding from industry, the tea party movement is a populist movement. However because of the top down organization and industry funding, it is not a grassroots movement like Faux News would like you to believe. It’s an Astroturf movement.
Last Friday, 27 of them visited Congressman Frank Pallone’s office in Long Branch and made their wishes known--- that the Congressman get a pink slip from the voters in November. A big part of me wanted to be there throwing snowballs at them. However that would be stooping to their level, and could possibly get me arrested, so I was better off not finding out until after the fact. The teabaggers are upset at Pallone for his role in the pending health care legislation, his vote on the (successful) stimulus bill, and his support of the “cap and trade” environmental legislation that is pending in the Senate. What the teabaggers do not realize is that they are often the very people who would benefit from the very legislation they are protesting. Do they honestly like the health insurance industry’s ability to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions? However having spoken with a few of them at Pallone’s Red Bank town hell (not a typo) meeting—they seem to be unconcerned with the rest of us. Their mantra struck me as “I got mine--screw you.” I’m just the opposite and support Pallone’s position on all of the above legislation.
This whole tea party movement has been on my mind for quite some time and it has me wondering--- why is there no populist equivalent for progressives? Should there be one? There are already several great progressive organizations in New Jersey which I am a part of. However not too many people know about them and the meetings and events are usually attended by the same (amazing) group of people. Should we embrace this populism and take to the streets the way the teabaggers have?
I personally think that it’s time for progressives to cash in on some of this growing populism. I do not mean that we should join the teabaggers with their misspelled signs, racism, and conspiracy theories. I simply mean that we as a party need to embrace populism. With a new governor who has already declared war on commuters and public employees this should not be very hard. If you simply ask people how they feel about the issues, many will agree with us. It’s just a matter of how we get our message out, which we are not very good at. However we do not have long to get our message across as the November elections are quickly approaching. And between now and then, the Democrats in Congress have to learn where their spines are located and how to use them. We saw last November what happened when progressives could not get excited about a candidate. We must not let this happen again.
The casino workers' union, Unite HERE, and Americans for Prosperity are allied, along with the local conservative group Liberty and Prosperity 1776, behind a "No Morgan Stanley Bailout" campaign, an effort to cast plans for a state rescue of the half-built Revel casino as a bailout of the Morgan Stanley, the investment house that is reportedly the casino's main investor.
They union already has launched the website nomorganstanleybailout.org to highlight their opposition to the tax break the City is giving Revel on the proposed $2.5 billion casino project. This isn't UNITE Here's first attempt to stop the planned tax break. They sought to put the $300 million on the ballot as a referendum question but Atlantic City Officials rejected the unions petitions. Senator Lesniak got a bill passed unanimously through committee at the beginning of this Legislative session which would protect the tax break from a public vote as well. Here is the plan for the tax breaks:
The plan would require Revel to pay just 25 percent of its sales and room taxes over its first 20 years of operation, scheduled to start in 2011. Revel officials have called the funding "an important factor" in securing financing to complete its $2 billion megaresort.
Follow me below the fold for more on how the tax break came to be, who else is opposing and who is supporting the plan.
It seems to me that if most of our schools have eliminated civics classes, the political party that works to educate its members to the structure, process and history can build in an advantage. Yo, Democrats? - - promoted by Rosi
As a person who teaches political science, I understand that I probably have an overblown sense of importance about my field of expertise. After all, if I won the lottery, I'd just keep throwing money into various studies and dream programs of study until I was broke again. But I want to make a case here for the very real need for a basic familiarity with the reality of our political system, its design, and the foundation of it.
"A progressive believes government knows what's best for people. Our government believes in government from top down. Conservatives, our founders, believed in government from people up. It's something we slowly have to go back to. This is not going to happen overnight. We have to awaken to the fact that both parties have done us wrong. Bush took us there on a steam train. Obama's taking us there on a rocket ship."
I emphasized that third sentence because it reveals a whole world of ignorance about everything I want to talk about. First, our country was founded by wild-eyed radicals, not conservatives. Second, they were not a uniform group of thinkers (some delegates even boycotted the Constitutional Convention). Third, while they trusted the common man to run his own affairs, they did not trust the common man to run the government. They were, first and foremost, elitists, confident in their ability to reshape the world to their will.
The tea party people have come and gone from Rep. Frank Pallone's District Office in Long Branch today. As I understand it, they didn't let the office know they were coming; I think Pallone's staff found out from a right-wing blog (imagine that!).
I'm hoping I'll have pictures to go with this later, and I don't know how many people showed up. But, though the Congressman was in D.C. today, he had this statement:
I respect the right of the tea party members to speak out. But, i am concerned that their policies would give more New Jerseyans pink slips.
They opposed the stimulus bill, which povided the biggest tax cut to the middle class in history. It prevented teachers,police officers and fire fighters from being laid off, helped ppl with extended ubemployment compensation, Medicaid and COBRA subsidies.
The Tea Party opposes a new jobs bill that provides more tax cuts and loans to small businesses as well as money for transportation projects - all to create more jobs.
The legislation they oppose is actually good for NJ and will help us get out of the recession.
So what is the New Jersey Tea Party all about? I gather its members are not well known for drinking tea, tossing tea into the Boston harbor, nor acting with the proper etiquette expected at a tea party. They do not gather at 4:00 PM with scones and cucumber sandwiches as do the British, nor do they attend a tea ceremony - a moment of beauty, quietude and politeness toward others - as do the Japanese.
And yet I hear this busy, fractious Tea Party is active in New Jersey.
Dear readers please explain this group to me and how progressives should respond.
The group, called the Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez, is going to court after its petition to recall the senator was denied by former Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells last month.
The Tea Partiers, part of a Sussex County group supporting limited government and opposed to Menendez's stance on healthcare reform, are contesting the decision in a state appeals court.
Dan Silberstein, a lawyer for the group, said the legal battle is over which constitution - the U.S. or state - should apply to residents who want to recall their senators.
"We essentially have a New Jersey constitution that says we can do it," said Silberstein.
Now sadly they don't have a leg to stand on because this is apparently settled law--I say sadly because they don't have a chance of getting a recall even if state law applied. Article I, Paragraph 2b of The New Jersey state constitution requires 25% of registered voters to sign the petitions to even get to hold a recall election. From my previous post:
According to the latest state voter registration statistics, there are 5,227,896 registered voters in New Jersey. So to recall Senator Menendez, my conservative friends will need a minimum of 1,306,974 signatures. Chris Christie only got 1,174,445 votes, so that might be a bit tough for them.
Maybe this higher traffic blog will help. I advise the Tea Party people just collect petitions and never turn them in, because the chance of success is the same without the court costs.
The tea party went to Washington yetserday with people demonstrating and protesting on Capitol Hill. Reports say that Americans for Prosperity were the driving force behind the organizing:
ThinkProgress has video of AfP workers handing out signs and talking points to the Tea Partiers the group shuttled in from other areas. According to one AfP staffer, the group paid for 40 buses to bring protesters to today's event.
They said they brought 25 buses from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Congressman Rothman took some time to speak with protesters that were his constituents and Steve Lonegan had this observation on Rothman choosing to speak with them:
"We thank the congressman for having the guts to come out here - whether we agree with him or not," Lonegan said, and many in the crowd voiced agreement.
Rep. Joe Wilson, who gained fame for heckling President Obama with the words "you lie" while Obama spoke about health care to a joint session of Congress last month, will join a rally Sunday in Morristown.
Famous or infamous? Either way, he'll be joined by another fox news icon:
Other speakers at the rally Sunday morning at George Washington's headquarters in Morristown include the "ACORN pimp," James O'Keefe of Westwood. O'Keefe posed as a pimp with a prostitute who visited offices of the community group ACORN with a hidden video camera.
But the question isn't who is attending, but rather who may not be there:
Wilson is expected to speak around 11:30 a.m. before attending a private fund-raiser, Weingarten said. Wilson's office confirmed the visit was planned.
Weingarten said Christie has not agreed to appear "even though he's only going to be half a mile away" on Sunday. Christie's campaign did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
There's a nice contrast. While Democrats hold events with President Obama, the Acorn Pimp and Congressman You Lie will rally the GOP base. And Christie will turn his back on them while they do it, instead attending a private fundraiser under a mile away.
Steve Lonegan, Richard Merkt, Brian Levine, Chris Christie, Roger Bacon, Gary Steele, Michael Illions!
The jokes just write themselves. It is interesting to note that hometown boy Rick Merckt and party front runner Chris Christie are listed after Steve Lonegan. Here's what Andrew Sullivan has to say about the whole thing:
These are not tea-parties. They are tea-tantrums. And the adolescent, unserious hysteria is a function not of a movement regrouping and refinding itself. It's a function of a movement's intellectual collapse and a party's fast-accelerating nervous breakdown.
They will gather for teabagging at noon on the green. Oh and by the guest list, you can clearly see these are non-partisan events. If anyone is in the area, please stop by with a video camera and share with your friends here at Blue Jersey.
I understand that the organizers consider this a non-partisan movement opposed to government spending. But anyone reading the national group's Website sees all sorts of pro-Republican goals. There is talk, for instance, about opposing health care reform, illegal immigration and even commentary on union elections.
Steve Lonegan is scheduled to speak in Morristown. It doesn't get more partisan than that.
So far we have members of the Assembly and Gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan publicly participating. According to his press release, Lonegan will be teabagging in four locations. I haven't seen whether Chris Christie or any of the GOP Congress members will be teabagging with their friends. If you find out about GOP teabagging in your neighborhood, let us know in the comments.
Apparently members of Congress have been tea bagged for weeks, as conservatives have been mailing teabags to their Congressional offices. But now the right is ready to step it up a level, because nothing says making a difference like tea bagging parties.
Rachel Maddow and Anna Marie Cox actually managed to say teabagging 44 times in this segment discussing the parties across the country:
Here is a list of NJ teabag parties. In Piscataway, they will be teabagging in Johnson Park. Or you could teabag in Hackensack. Beck O'Scanlon and Cassagrande will teabag at a party they host in Freehold Twp.
