(01-05-2010) The following is from Fox News

By Carl Cameron

Tea Party Convention Plans National Organizing Strategy for Elections

Volunteers at the Tea Party Convention intend to propose a series of broad “First Principles” which have already been generally embraced by most Tea Party chapters around the country. They include: fiscal responsibility, upholding the constitution, and national security.

NASHVILLE, TN – Fox News has learned Tea Party convention organizers plan a big news conference here Friday to propose the closest thing yet to a national organizing strategy for the upcoming 2010 midterm elections.

The first ever Tea Party Convention has attracted a sellout crowd of a thousand activists from as far away as Hawaii (and media from as far away as Japan) to the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center.

Volunteers here intend to propose a series of broad “First Principles” which have already been generally embraced by most Tea Party chapters around the country. They include: fiscal responsibility, upholding the constitution, and national security.

Prospective political candidates will be expected to support the Republican National Committee platform, though without any specific litmus or purity test.

If a particular candidate meets the proposed Tea Party criteria he or she would be eligible for fundraising and grassroots Tea Party support.

Once elected to office, members would be required to join a Congressional Tea Party Caucus, attend regular meetings and be held accountable for the votes they cast. Those who stray from the Tea Party path would risk losing it’s support and a likely re-election challenge.

These are simply proposals from activists in Tennessee who put this convention together and who say they recognize that disparate Tea Party groups nationwide have varied interests and ideas of their own.

Organizers suggest creating political action committees, a large scale fundraising apparatus, and starting the development of a national network of pro bono attorneys to deal with the myriad legal-political riddles that such undertakings face in campaigns and elections.

Thursday was mostly a meet and greet and setup.

The workshops and seminars on growing the grassroots and commonsense conservativism are mostly today and Saturday.

The following is from the NY Post

By Charles Hurt

Rebels with a cause

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No body ever said tea parties have to be pretty.

At least, not the kind of tea party gathered here in the thumping heart of gaudy country music.

These people have come from all across the nation for the first National Tea Party Convention to denounce not just President Obama and the Democrats, but Republicans and all of Washington for getting infected with the same voracious and parasitic plague spawned by big-government liberalism.

Folks here are loud and they are proud.

Already, the infant organization called Tea Party Nation has been riven by infighting, dogged by accusations of impropriety and can, at best, point to just one successful candidate.

All of this has been catnip for the battalion of liberal reporters eagerly covering every disjointed mishap of this free-wheeling and unorganizable band of rebels.

But it would be wrong to think tea partiers have not had any successes.

Indeed, they alone are responsible for killing the Democratic government health-care scheme.

Tea partiers sounded the alarm and stormed town-hall meetings.

It was only after the spontaneous, rogue wave got rolling that Republicans woke up and answered the call.

Naturally, at a tea party like this, any fine china is going to get broken.

And if there is a party that has too much fine china, it’s the GOP.

Tea partiers have saved their most ferocious attacks for those in the Republican establishment for allowing the “conservative” party to fall under the spell of bigger government.

They are wrenching the mantle of conservatism from the undeserving hands of the GOP and making them earn it back.