At Nashville Tea Party: Saving the Country, Waiting for Palin

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Is it a movement or a political party? When Opryland visitors with no clue they were sharing a hotel with the National Tea Party Convention call the gathering of grassroots groups "a step in the right direction," the label hardly matters.

That endorsement from Paul Verderese and his wife, Patti, came on Thursday as we wandered the maze that is the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, headquarters for a national convention that hopes to bring the like-minded into a unit they believe can transform the country. The Auburn, Mass., couple had attended the victory party for their newly elected and now sworn-in senator, Scott Brown, the Republican who won "the Kennedy seat." Calling it by that name was "the biggest thing that got him elected," said Paul Verderese, an economist and financial planner. He is counting on Brown to be the "independent representative of the people," as he promised during the campaign. "We don't like every single thing about him, but we want change."

Chambers, 51, has written 100 songs with names such as "Fight for What's Right" and "Save America." Professional singers and producers have already recorded four on the way to a CD, he said. He wants to unite the more than a dozen Tea Party groups (chapters of the Glenn Beck-inspired 912 Project and the Pinellas Patriots included) in a four-county area in Florida on the way to a national movement "to restore the Constitution." He blames the fissures, exposed during the planning for this convention, on the media, "the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain," and "the small-mindedness of many of the Tea Party people themselves," he said. "We've got to unite to be strong."

After a flurry of initial media attention and a speaker list that included conservative stars such as Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the criticism started, first over the $549 cost of registration, particularly considering the Tea Party message of fiscal responsibility in government. Tea Party groups, such the American Liberty Alliance and the National Precinct Alliance, backed away from involvement as Tea Party Nation, the event organizer, and its leaders, Judson Phillips and his wife, Sherry Phillips, disputed charges of profiteering.

Bachmann and Blackburn canceled their planned appearances over concerns about the how profits would be used after receiving "conflicting advice," said a Bachmann spokesman, from lawyers in the House Ethics Committee.

Then Tea Party Nation fought back, with a statement from Sherry Phillips -- "Setting the Record Straight" -- that said, "We never did this to make us rich or famous. Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville."

Chambers said that if the organizers are making a profit and didn't say so, "I'm against that." But he's expecting to get value for his time here. Mark Skoda, convention spokesman and founder of the Memphis Tea Party, said on Thursday that 600 people have registered for the conference, with 1,100 signed up to hear Saturday night keynote speaker Sarah Palin.

Palin renewed her support in a Tuesday USA Today op-ed, calling the movement "a ground-up call to action that already has both political parties rethinking the way they do business." She said of her reported fee of more than $100,000: "I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government -- and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause." Tickets for the speech alone are $349.

Patti Verderese, who has read Palin's "Going Rogue," supports the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate -- though maybe not for president, yet. She and her husband voted for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008. The media, she said, "destroyed her." And McCain "did not handle her well." Of all the themes that cut through the first day of the convention, several are readily apparent and one is clearly at the top:

1) Sarah Palin is the star of this party. She is everywhere, including -- if you count a life-size cardboard cutout -- in the trio of backup singers for opening-night entertainment Ray ("Ahab the Arab") Stevens. (The video of his "We the People," about health-care reform, has attracted more than 2.5 million views on YouTube.) Conservative singer Lisa Mei Norton, in her Sarah song, belted out her praise for "a shining light on the right the left just doesn't get."

Former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo was here to support Tea Party activists, part of what he called "the most important political movement in the United States since the Civil War," and encourage them to take over the Republican Party. The party is "ripe for it," he said. He decried "the cult of multiculturalism, as threatening as the fiscal crisis we face." (When he said that because Europe has given up, America is the "last best hope for Western civilization," the three German reporters taking down every word didn't blink.) But Tancredo's eyes truly lit up when he talked about Palin, "the only reason I voted for the ticket" in 2008. "She's a really, really pretty Margaret Thatcher."

The more she is criticized, the more she is loved. William Temple, dressed and accented as Button Gwinnett, a Georgia signer of the Declaration of Independence, said "the two best men in the Republican Party are women," Palin and Bachmann. He wants her to speak in Brunswick, Ga., but the vice president of the Golden Isles Tea Party will have to stand in line.

2) As much as Sarah Palin is loved, President Obama isn't. Though many here go out of their way to say they didn't much care for George W. Bush's deficits, that both parties are out of touch and that they voted for John McCain without enthusiasm, any mention of voting Obama out of office or the prospect of defeating Democratic health-care reform legislation is a sure-fire applause line. Obama makes Judicial Watch's list of "10 Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009, a list with just one Republican, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada. (Victoria Sanders, a representative of the group, said it is nonpartisan but that "there's just been a preponderance of Democratic corruption.") Is Obama a socialist, a Marxist, a fascist? A planned 9 a.m. Saturday session suggests an answer: "Correlations Between the Current Administration and Marxist Dictators of Latin America."

3) Is the attempt to unite grassroots groups a contradiction of what the movement is about? Disagreements remain over how much the movement should align itself with the Republican Party. A recent Pew Research Center study finds that while the Tea Party may attract more supporters as it becomes better known, divisions among Republicans and independents wary of political extremes may limit its growth.

Chambers, a former Republican activist, is now a registered Independent. "Both parties are taking us down," he said. "Fast-forward two years," and he predicts the addition of a new party. In the current Florida race for a Republican Senate candidate, Chambers' nonprofit cannot officially endorse anyone, though, he said, "we do vetting." He said Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio is "pretty good"; Gov. Charlie Crist, criticized for his views and for hugging President Obama, "has got to go." Chambers will say most Tea Party activists have a "more conservative bent" and are "more Republican than Democrat."

4) God is a presence in speeches, most often aligned with goals of the movement. Former pastor Rick Scarborough, founder of Vision America, defended any profits that Tea Party Nation makes ("It's called free enterprise") and Palin's speaking fee ("Whatever she gets, she more than deserves") but condemned the left, which he said attacks anyone who stands for traditional values. America has gone "from one nation under God to a nation that ignores God," he said. (Earlier in the day at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, the president said that "progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common humanity.")

Scarborough introduced his friend, Bishop E. W. Jackson, president of STAND (Staying True to America's National Destiny), who started his prayer by stating: "I am an American who happens to be black. None of us cares that Barack Obama happens to be black. . . . We want him to be red, white and blue." He offered a prayer asking God to intervene in future elections as he did, Jackson said, in Massachusetts. And he prayed for "Americans who happen to be black to wake up."

5) There weren't that many African Americans in attendance on Thursday, but both Jackson and 29-year-old Nate Whigham of Atlanta defended their involvement in Tea Party politics while also lecturing African Americans for not being more involved. Whigham, one of five activists featured in "Tea Party: The Documentary Film," said, "Eighty percent of black people are completely politically ignorant," unaware of the subtleties of differences between the two parties.

Whigham, who is on the board of the Georgia Tea Party, said he believes in the movement's principles of "fiscal responsibility, the free market and a constitutionally limited government," and is learning more every day. He said he's had to fill the gaps in his education left by the Detroit public school system and has started a smaller group to "empower the individual." Whigham did vote for Obama in 2008, a vote he said he would like to take back. When he attends Tea Party rallies, even the harshest anti-Obama signs and slogans don't bother him. "I honestly think the First Amendment gives people the right to say whatever they want."

Planned Friday breakout sessions include: "How to Involve the Youth in the Conservative Movement" and "U.S. Government Bankruptcy – Facts for Citizens Who Don't Have Finance Degrees."