Tea party's effect on the federal government?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

The old saying is you can't fight city hall. The country's city hall is Washington, D.C.

And the frustration being felt by Americans with that city is palpable. We are lied to, pandered to, taken advantage of and taken for granted. And election after election, we watch the quality of our lives and our country continue to ebb away.

Most of us feel powerless to do anything about it.

Enter the tea party.

Love them or hate them, they are making a difference, changing the debate. When the conservative faction of the Republican Party was formed, it subscribed to a set of principles that, surprise, it continues to cling to today.

Tea party movement members said they would go to Washington and work for smaller government, lower taxes, less spending and a general disengagement of the federal government from our everyday lives.

Now granted, their recipe for success doesn't appeal to everyone.

But the point worth making here is this:

It is possible to fight Washington. They just finished doing it with the debt ceiling fiasco. The government was brought to its knees and made to look absolutely silly by a small group in the House of Representatives – just 60 out of 435 members.

They came to Washington and did exactly what they said they would do. That doesn't happen often in Washington.

But there is a lesson here for all of us:

Vote in enough numbers for the people you believe in and can trust, and who knows what might be possible.

Here’s my question to you: What's your impression of the effect the tea party has had on the federal government?

Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.

And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.

Jack Cafferty sounds off hourly on the Situation Room on the stories crossing his radar. Now, you can check in with Jack online to see what he's thinking and weigh in with your own comments online and on TV.

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Tea Party Against Government Mandated Sustainability

The use of the word sustainability has the Jefferson Area Tea Party calling foul. They say it has been hijacked to push a radical political agenda and they are calling on Charlottesville and Albemarle County to renounce it.

The tea party says they are all for sustainability and environmentalism as long as it isn't government mandated. But they say that is exactly what is going on in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, tea party leaders said Albemarle County's participation in several groups should end. Those include the Cool Counties Initiative as well as their involvement in ICLEI - an international cooperation of city and county governments.

They also take issue with the county and Charlottesville's acceptance of a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to facilitate better regional planning.

Carole Thorpe with the Jefferson Area Tea Party, stated "We are concerned that environmentalism in this case is being used as a bit of a veil, to hide a greater agenda, which is to impose massive mandates, to have big government style central planning involved here."

Charlottesville Vice Mayor Holly Edwards did sit in on Thursday's press conference to listen to the concerns raised.

The tea party plans to bring these issues up at next Wednesday night's board of supervisors work session. They plan to urge supervisors to drop the use of the word sustainability from any government documents.

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Tea party roots for Paul's message of government limits, personal freedom

The Texas Republican's supporters dominated the crowd of more than 150, many of them Greenville Tea Party members, who gathered in a ballroom of the Hyatt hotel to take in the first-in-the-country 2012 Republican presidential debate.

With each Paul response during the debate, supporters loudly cheered and whooped for the Republican — most notably during a response in which he voiced support for states' rights to legalize narcotics — and jeered other candidates whose responses were deemed unsatisfactory.

Just after 11 p.m., about a half hour following the conclusion of the debate, Paul took to the ballroom stage to address a crowd that had swelled to more than 300 people and said that he's getting close to formally declaring his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

"Stay tuned," he said.

Lynn and Mike Miller of Easley are members of a political action committee supporting Paul, and they attended Thursday's debate-watching event.

The couple said Paul's message of personal liberty and limited government has a special resonance with groups such as the tea party and college students.

"You get the message of personal freedom and liberty and it's infectious — that's why the supporters are so passionate," Mike Miller said.

Lynn Miller said Paul reawakened her political participation during his 2008 presidential run, and said she plans to deliver the congressman her vote should he decide to run.

"He's the only one who's constant and has a track record," she said.

Paul was expected to be the runaway winner of a straw poll taken in the hotel ballroom later in the night that included more than 20 of the top candidates for the Republican nomination.

Chris Lawton, an organizer with the Greenville Tea Party, said he's keeping his options open but has always been a "Paul guy."

Underscoring the importance of candidates' building inroads in the overwhelmingly conservative and politically active Upstate, Lawton said about 80 percent of the Republican delegates from Greenville County planned to attend and vote for the state party chairman at Saturday's state GOP convention.

Many of those delegates also belong to the 1,000-plus member county tea party group, he added.

Lawton said the Republican presidential candidates who decided to skip Thursday's debate — many of them tagged as the thoroughbreds of the Republican race — made a significant misstep.

"Who said they're frontrunners?" he asked.

"These people that came to the debate took a leadership position and came to South Carolina. South Carolina voters are going to remember the people that skipped South Carolina."

Lawton said he will "make it a point" of ensuring the absent candidates pay a political price.

The group's advisory board still must decide whether it will back a candidate or candidates in the 2012 election, but Lawton said endorsements are likely.

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