I was invited to speak at the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives Monday night.  It was a memory I will forever cherish and am thankful for the opportunity.

Michelle Bachmann reached out and asked three tea party leaders to speak on behalf of the Tea Party Movement.  Her goal was to get our input on the Debt Ceiling.  (Answer:  Do not raise the Debt Ceiling.)  The room was filled with new and more seasoned representatives who felt they identified as a tea party member. 

I’m sorry to say but my Representative, Ander Crenshaw, did not show up nor did anyone from the Northeast Florida area, including Rep.  John Mica who I had breakfast with the next morning for a discussion on High Speed Rail.

Our new and outspoken Rep. Allen West was there and we had a meeting with him earlier in the day in his office.  Let me say this about Rep. West – “Thank God he is there!  What a man of character and courage and he is certainly a leader!”  (We’re talking to him about showing up for a gig in North Florida in the near future so stay tuned on that one!)

The two days in DC were exhausting and enlightening.  My encounters went like this:

• Rep. Allen West – A gift from God sent to the front line in DC!  He said:  “Keep the Tea Party awake.  This place is crazy.  We must control the House in 2012 and take back the Senate too.  If we don’t have a good candidate to run against Obama, then we can control thorough the power of Congress.”
• Senator Marco Rubio – Met with him for a few minutes as he was rushing out the door.  He was smiling and confident.  He said:  “This place is more screwed up than I could have imagined.  Keep up the good work with the Tea Party, we need you guys.”
• Rep. Michelle Bachmann – As she led her peers in the House Tea Party Caucus event, all she could focus on was this question:  “What do the Tea Party members think about the debt ceiling?”  That was the question of the night and although those in the room wanted to speak, she kept drawing the conversation back to us – the tea party members – for our input.  She told the audience:  “We are here to listen to them.  That’s why they are here.” 
• Rep. John Mica – Enjoy meeting Rep. Mica for breakfast and discussion that followed.  He is very smart about transportation issues in America and how money is generated for that purpose.  He said:  “18.4 cents per gallon of gas sold generates about $30 billion per year in the Highway and Transportation Trust Fund.  80% is used for highways and 20% for transit.  If Florida doesn’t take the money for High Speed Rail (which he said is not really high speed and the messaging is wrong(?) – Obama’s administration will take that money and use it somewhere else in a liberal state to help his campaign.”  About this time, my head spins backwards and I lose my breakfast!  “Playing with our money for political gain” ran through my head.  First things first – we could use that money to pay down the debt but no way will that happen.  Rep. Mica had more to say and has his own perspective after many years in the House.  We will work with his new Chief of Staff, Wiley Deck, to get him here for a face to face discussion on transportation dollars and the “not really high speed rail issue.”  We have a lot of questions and the communication coming from Rep. Mica’s office needs to be improved and he agreed it did.  Let’s make sure we keep on him about that communication flow and his attendance at a meeting with us in North Florida and all tea party leaders across the state.  (More to come on this one – soon!)

My overall observation was this: 

• We have some good leaders and we need A LOT MORE of them in Congress.  2012 is our time to focus on this critical issue.  The left is already funding campaigns for progressives and they once again are ahead of us in that deal.  They are also training Summer Interns on College campuses to work towards the 2012 election!  What are we doing?  Where is our funding coming from?  How will we keep our members engaged without deep pocket funding that the left has?  How can we educate those who are paid to canvas neighborhoods and sign up people for the progressive movement?
• The Tea Party leaders in this country must start to talk to each other in a more robust fashion while focusing on 2012 results.  We have leaders of individual groups doing a great job across this country and they are doing fantastic work to keep the movement alive and awake.  Our focus should now be on leading our local members to find qualified conservative candidates in our own districts.  Encourage them to run for the House or the Senate and back them with your time, talents and resources.   Start a team in your local tea party group that will focus on this one thing and one thing only.  We need leadership at the local level and leaders working together in every state to keep their state awake to conservative values.  Florida is a targeted state by the left so we have work to do.  We presently have a great group of people leading tea parties in Florida and we talk every day about issues.  This group needs to grow and each tea party group needs to grow.  Let’s get it done and start our focus on 2012 now! Remember, “Without a leader, the people perish.”  Let’s go find our leaders – forge ahead!
• Communication is lacking between those in DC and We the People.  I had the pleasure of sitting with all these people in DC and listened to their concerns.  Not all of us can do that.  I encouraged them to find better ways to get their message out and to open communicate with their local constituents.  Communication is key to good leadership and they need to focus on that – BIG TIME.  Here was one of my coaching moments with a few of our leaders in DC:  “Without communication, people make up stuff and fill the void.  If you do not get your message out to us, we will make it for you and that’s not pretty.  Keep us informed.  Get back into your districts.  Tell us all the news – the good, the bad and the ugly.  We can take it.  We are smart people and we know more than you on some of these issues because we have more time to research than you do.”  Let’s hope they listened and if they didn’t – let’s find some who will!

The two days were worth the time and the efforts walking those long hallways in high heels for the sake of Liberty!  Now we must get to work and it must start today.  November 2012 is only 19 months away and it is time to find our new leaders to run against the RINOs and root out the Progressives.  Anyone up for the job?

BY THE WAY – We are now heading to Tally next week to meet with our leaders.  March 8 is our day in Tally and we hope you will make plans to attend.  If you are coming from Jacksonville, we have a free bus awaiting you for the trip up and back on the same day – March 8.  On the schedule will be meetings with our legislators, a rally at noon on the steps of the Capitol with some great speakers, and a press conference at 4:00 announcing the new Tea Party Caucus in Tallahassee led by Rep. Mike Weinstein from Jacksonville.  We will be a part of setting up this Tea Party Caucus and developing the agendas as they move forward with this new initiative.  Contact our office at (904) 683-3945 to reserve a seat on the bus.

And another note:  Today, March 2, at 4:30 we will announce the First Coast Tea Party endorsements of local candidates for city council and the mayor’s race.  We ask for your prayers and support as we make these announcements. 

Continue to stay focused, stay awake and stay the course.  Tell your friends to join our movement and get involved in securing freedom and liberty for all.  Our country needs you. 

P.S.  – Find attached a poster we handed out at the Caucus.  Print one for yourself and post it on your wall.  These people showed up way before any others across this globe showed up in their city squares.  The media never spoke about that day and the numbers that came to DC.  And guess what happened on that day – no one got hurt, the place was clean as a whistle when we left and no media personnel were attacked.  America was the first to stand for freedom and why didn’t the media report about that?  Look for the First Coast Tea Party in the crowd.  We were there and we plan to be a part of the next March on DC in November 2012 when we take back Congress and hopefully the White House!

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