Tea party leaders are turning to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, to deliver their message following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, a speech that will compete with the official Republican response.
Paul will make his remarks soon after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, wraps up the GOP response Tuesday night, a Paul spokeswoman confirms to CNN.
"We are giving a voice to the tea party movement when the mainstream media and the Republican establishment wants to write us off as dead," said Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express. This is the third year in a row that Kremer's organization has sponsored the tea party response.
The dueling GOP speeches come at a time when a very public rift is developing between the Republican establishment and conservative activists over the direction of the party. Some grassroots activists are specifically angry at Karl Rove and other Republicans for stating that they will choose sides in upcoming Republican primaries and only financially help candidates who have a chance of winning in the general election.
In Paul, tea party leaders have chosen a nationally known senator, who is identified more for his embrace of a libertarian ideology than aligning himself with his own political party's leaders.
The back-to-back addresses Tuesday night also features two young stars in the GOP, each of whom are expected to seriously consider running for the White House in 2016.
Yes, let America get a good look at the "rising stars" of the GOP right now: a pandering poster Latino that his own party despises, and a quasi-racist hypocrite who wants states to be free to discriminate. Sure. Good luck against Hillary, boys.
I cannot understand why the "Tea Party" receives this special deference and attention by other politicians and especially the media. There is no Tea Party. They are Republicans. They were not elected as a member of the Tea Party, they are not designated with a "T" after their name. I repeat, THEY ARE REPUBLICANS. There is no reason that two separate Republicans should be given air time to respond to the State of the Union. How much longer must we put up with this farce? (I post this here as my husband is tired of hearing my yell this at the television. Thanks.)
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