Below is the letter I sent out to Milwaukee talk radio show host Mark Belling regarding his comments on his show about our group. I will attempt to post the audio soon.
Mark stated the we ” trying to speak for the whole movement” and “are running around trying to endorse candidates and pass judgement”. I am not certain where this is coming from. I can only speculate we have angered some in the Republican Party establishment with our Ron Johnson vetting session. Shortly after the video was posted, I started hearing the same type of rhetoric. Again, this is only speculation.
I will say the same thing again. We will not “carry water” for anyone. It is the job of the people to ask tough questions of candidates no matter who they are or what endorsements they have.
Here is the letter:
Mark,
In Hour 2 Part 1 of your show today (07/14/10), you completely LIED about about our position regarding the endorsement of candidates. We have repeatedly stated that we DO NOT endorse candidates because the Tea Party is about an ideology, not a particular person. Long before your rant today, we were quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal where I stated the same thing.
Here is the link to that article:Wisconsin tea parties face a difficult choice as their convention approaches
We have also repeatedly stated we do not speak for anyone other than our own group. However, it seems that you want to paint us as just the opposite. We are members of the Coalition of WI TEA Party Groups, but never once claimed to speak on their behalf. That is the beauty of this movement, we work together but retain our own group identity.
You may not like our positions on certain issues (which we believe are in accordance with the Constitution), but that doesn’t mean you can completely distort who we are or what we believe. We request that you correct this error. If you have questions about our positions, please feel free to contact us or visit our website.
We look forward to hearing from you.
