But Where was Todd?

Last weekend, the sprawling Tea Party movement finally coalesced itself into something resembling a national organization by having the first ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. With key speakers such as Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin rousing the crowds of the Convention, Kansas voters need to be asking the question: Where was Todd Tiahrt?

Time and again Mr. Tiahrt has said that he is a conservative first and a Republican second, but if this was really true then wouldn’t he want to be present and active at the first national meeting of the conservative movement that has been sweeping the nation for nearly a year? It makes no sense why this ‘true conservative’ would not be at the Tea Party Convention—unless he was worried about being labeled as too conservative.

The thing about the Tea Party is that while most real conservatives in America strongly agree with their founding and their merit, there are many moderates across America that see the movement as a national punch-line. By neglecting to go to the convention, is Mr. Tiahrt trying to gain the acceptance of this group of non-conservative Americans?

If this is the case, then Mr. Tiahrt is again showing how he will put his desire for political gain in front of what he claims to believe or what he actually believes. By not attending this important convention, Mr. Tiahrt is again proving that he has become a dishonest Washington insider like so many other politicians before him.

However, I think there is a different reason for Mr. Tiahrt’s failure to attend the convention.

Last month I questioned Mr. Tiahrt’s logic in participating in an ill-advised conference call with the Maryland Independent Party. Those that have listened to ‘the call’ know that it ends with the organization criticizing Mr. Tiahrt’s conservative credentials on abortion and then proceeding to fight amongst themselves for a really long time. I believe that Mr. Tiahrt stayed away from the Tea Party Convention because he and his advisors were worried that he would again be called out by a true conservative organization for his credentials as a true conservative.

As far as I can tell, the biggest issue for most factions of the Tea Party movement is the excessive government spending. The movement wants less government spending and they are seemingly angry at all of government: Republicans and Democrats. Because of this, I believe that Mr. Tiahrt was afraid that the Tea Party Conservatives would question him about his votes for stimulus packages when other representatives voted against all the stimulus packages last year.

I believe that Mr. Tiahrt and his staff were fearful of a repeat of ‘the call’ and decided to keep him away from the meeting of true conservatives that might damage his conservative ‘reputation’. I believe this stimulus issue could be even more damaging for the Tiahrt Campaign seeing as his opponent for the Senate nomination is one of the 17 Representatives that never voted for a stimulus.

At the end of the day, I don’t know why Mr. Tiahrt did not attend the National Tea Party Convention. Maybe he was afraid of being questioned about his credentials or maybe he did not want to be associated with the movement. Either way, this is a movement that Mr. Tiahrt should associate himself with if he wants to be known as a true conservative, and for now Kansas voters are just left to ask why he wasn’t there.

Tea-Drinkingly Yours,

Publius