As many of you know, the First Coast Tea Party belongs to a Florida Statewide Tea Party Leaders Google Group.  We have been together for nearly two years now.  The group is a secured, confidential group and we discuss issues, thoughts and frustrations among tea party friends.  We do this to coordinate efforts in the state of Florida and bounce off ideas.

Today I was called by the press about an email that was written by me to this private email group.  The email was a part of a large discussion about the Tea Party and the 2012 election and focused on what happened here locally and how that could be applied to our future work.  My email called out the GOP Lawyers who advised the Mike Hogan campaign to let it go and concede.  To put it lightly, I felt they should have advised them to continue the battle and push hard to make sure … as Alvin Brown said “Count Every Vote.”   I mentioned a 2 hour phone conversation I had with Jerry Holland the day after the concession where I was asking questions to understand what happened and why the concession was so quick.  Jerry Holland was forthright and answered my questions with sincerity and professionalism.  My email indicated how upset I was that the GOP Lawyers did not encourage a fight because I knew the “political machine” would have fought hard and would have kept this process going a lot longer. 

To get to the point, either the “political machine” or a mole in our group (doubtful) stole that private email string and sent it to the media.

To say the tea party leaders were shocked and disappointed is an understatement.  To say my trust level has been shattered is another understatement.

Abel Harding called me to get a statement about the email.  It is circulating all over the media and of course they are running with it.  This is juicy news.

I spoke to Abel this evening and told him that was a private email that was stolen and the tea party leaders in Florida were very upset about that.  I stand behind the message of the email and believe the Political Machine did beat us and the GOP lawyers should have fought harder for a win.  We found out the GOP does not understand who Alinsky is and Alinsky IS the Political Machine.  No one organization or person is to blame for the loss of this race and ALL of us are to blame for the loss of this race.

The media loves this story and the GOP is not feeling good right now nor are we.  That message was between friends as we tried to understand who the GOP is and how to fight the Political Machine so we can win in 2012. 

These are all hard lessons for us.  All of us who worked together to win the mayoral race were stunned with the outcome.  The Political Machine beat us and that is the fact. 

What we must do is figure out how to beat the Political Machine in 2012 – by either coming together with a plan; setting up our own political party; OR hunkering down and wishing it would all go away.  At this point, I think we would all agree we must come together to figure thiout.  The GOP is weak about the Political Machine and so are we.  The Machine has massive amounts of funding and a grassroots system that surpasses all of us.  Without funding, a system and boots on the ground, we are going to be fighting an uphill battle that we will not win. 

The country loses, the GOP loses, the tea party loses and the people lose.

The end of this story is this:

• We are getting under someone’s skin so they want to infiltrate our emails and our websites.
• The GOP and Tea Party must figure out how they work together – if they do.
• The Political Machine is alive and well in Florida and will not be going away until December 2012. 

Abel Harding will have his story about this sad state of affairs tomorrow.  There is also another story brewing that the local GOP leader and the Tea Party are in a pointing fingers match with each other and the tea party is being blamed for Mike Hogan’s loss.  That is an outright lie and no one in the GOP leadership or the Tea Party has said anything of the sort.   We are not blaming each other nor are we blaming the Hogan camp.  The blame lies within everyone who had anything to do with this PLUS the 300,000 peope who stayed home and did not vote.

We have gained one more notch in our political belt!  We are new to this political game and finding how dark and difficult it is.  These notches are hard to take but they are worth it all.

On another note: 

• Please be aware that the Political Machine is trolling our website trying to have conversations with bloggers.  We are watching these conversations closely and will remove these people from our website when we see hanky-panky.
• The day after the election a member received a phone call from someone asking about the bumper sticker she has “Take Back America.”  She told them where to get it (our office) and they asked her if she was a tea party member.  She said yes.  A few minutes later the same person called backed believing he was calling someone else.  She confronted him and he stammered with her until he hung up.  It appears the Political Machine is working from a list and trying to identify tea party members.  If you get a call, beware of that tactic.  As for me, I’m proud to be a Tea Party Member and will gladly say “Yes” when they call.

No one said this would be easy and no one said the press would like us.  No one said our friends would not rat us out.  No one said we would win every race.  But someone did say, “Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  That man was Benjamin Franklin and he understood that fighting for liberty would require a lot from each of us.  There are days I wonder if I have it in me to keep it up.  Then I cry my tears, wipe them away and say “Hell No – I’m not going away.  I owe it to my grandchildren and to those who fought and gave their lives for my freedom."

I am willing to risk everything I have and will continue to do that no matter what the press writes or what the infiltrators do to me. The months ahead will require strong, principled people to stand up to the Political Machine, stare it down and say:  “Machines don’t win, people do!”

Are you game for this?  Will you go with us?  Will we let the press or the Political Machine marginalize us or the GOP so Obama and his political class can win in 2012? 

I planned to take the last couple of days off and that has been impossible.  I will be taking next week off to recharge the batteries and prepare for the next battle.  I may write a blog or two while I am away but I do not plan to entertain the media or anyone else about the mayor’s race.  It is finished and there is no need to cry over spilled milk.  Instead, it is time to clean it up and figure out a way to eliminate the spills in the future!

And a final note:  “Be careful what you put in a private email.  It may end up as a headline one day.”