“That’s how I got started in politics. I got a marketable commodity– one vote….before long I had sixty men back of me and formed the George Washington Plunkitt Association. What did the district leader say when I called at headquarters? I didn’t have to call headquarters.” – Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
If Armey and Kibbe thinks the job of the Tea Party is to take over the Republican Party — a laudable idea, given that describing the party as sclerotic would be charitable — and the Tea Party at large agrees, the smartest thing they could do is to take Plunkitt’s advice to heart. Form a Committee of Correspondance (equally, you could call it a Vigilance Committee) in each and every district, and say “Here’s our Contract From America. We’ve got X votes that will knock you right out of the primary unless you agree to it and keep your word regarding it. Violate it, and you’re gone.”
That X will vary, district-by-district. In heavily blue states, it may require strategic primary voting in order to support whoever’s closest — the Dems have done this for years. That’s a local strategic decision that’s none of my business — after all, what concerns me is MY congresscritter and his incessant runaway spending.
Macchiavelli and his “miserable and rare examples” works for the taxpayers, too. Want to see an honest politician? When yours pulls something cute, “cry Havoc and let slip the sword of Damocles.” Do it for ten years straight. The rest of them will get the message.
