"...........“Nice to see you, Mr. Rickard,” someone said to Alan Rickard, 57, who described himself as an “envoy” from the tea party group in Orangeburg County, S.C., and said he agreed with what radio host Rush Limbaugh had been saying earlier in the day, that the tea party movement is a “way of life” that can never die.
“There is rightness that is coming from the ranks,” Rickard said.
He joined a buffet line with Bob Dowd, 70, a retired police officer who said, “I think Speaker Boehner needs to be replaced — I don’t think he understands where we’re going.”
“Good job, Bob,” his wife said.
Milling around was Bob Dill, 80, editor of the Times Examiner newspaper, whose motto is Matthew 16:3 (“. . . can ye not discern the signs of the times?”) and whose most recent headlines included “Dr. Ben Carson’s Presidential Campaign Taking Shape,” about the neurosurgeon popular among religious conservatives.
Dill said he did not believe polls showing tea party conservatives losing popularity.
“I think it’s wishful thinking on the part of the leadership of the Republican Party,” he said. “I feel more energized.”
Mary Beth Green and Linda Weeks circulated a petition opposing President Obama’s federal health-care law.
"Would you sign?” Green asked.
“Anything for a patriot,” a man said.
Dean Allen, who is writing a book called “Rattlesnake Revolution: The Tea Party Strikes!,” said it was people like him who are the future of the party.
“You’ve got to have people in this room excited,” he said, waving a biscuit. “It’s who will open their checkbook, who will put the signs on the road. When we are demoralized we get crap like Obama in the White House.”
“Hear, hear!” said Justin Alexander, 33, biting into his fried chicken.
Soon, everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, and the program began......."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
