Will Jones planted his feet on the platform, took a deep
breath and leveled his gaze at the crowd. He had a death
grip on the cordless microphone.
Suddenly, electronic feedback blasted through the speakers
on his left and right.
Apologizing, the soft spoken money manager educated at
Baylor University said he is not familiar with public
appearances.
"See, I don't even know how to hold the microphone."
It was the perfect icebreaker for a man new to the political
stump. The crowd laughed with appreciation for his genuine
humility as he basked in their applause, grinning shyly.
It was a moment, the scene when the nice guy played by Jimmy
Stewart or Tom Hanks in a Hollywood production acknowledges
that he's just plain folks, trying to get the job done with
the tools he's got in hand.
There was one big difference and the people gathered
together at that TEA Party knew it as well as they know
their mothers' names.
For Will Smith and everyone else involved, this is what that
old Houston boy Dan Rather used to call "the real deal."
This is not a movie and it's not a dream. This is reality
and it's coming at you right now - in stereo.
Then a woman in the audience got a microphone from Ms. Toby
Marie Walker, a key organizer of the Waco TEA Party, and
asked him what he thought of any Republican operative's call
to vote for a candidate who has declared that he is not
seeking the nomination for State Senator, such as Mr. Kip
Averitt, whose name remains on the ballot, though he has
bowed out due to "health concerns."
In halting language, displaying a slight stammer born of an
unfamiliarity with public speaking that caused every
listener in the room to automatically lend him their
emotional support and their utmost respect, he said, "We
don't need any more back room deals...I want to empower the
grass roots."
No one made a mistake about his remark. It's well known
that if Mr. Averitt wins the nomination of his party and
refuses to run in the General Election, the duty to pick a
candidate for the Senatorial seat will devolve to the County
Chairmen throughout the district.
The applause from the couple of hundred TEA Party supporters
at the venerable Palladium on downtown Waco's Austin Avenue
was thunderous, instantaneous and prolonged.
And it's a funny thing to know, but Mr. Will Jones never
stammers in private conversation. He is as poised as any
confident business man may be. One is led to conclude that
his affect is propelled by his sincerity and his concern
with these issues.
A candidate for McLennan County Republican Chairman, Mr.
Smith followed an appearance by incumbent Republican County
Chairman Joe B. Hinton, a veteran vice president of Exxon-
Mobil's European division, who decried appeals made last
week by Democratic Party operatives such as President Bill
Clinton and "The mouth of the South," long-time political
consultant James Carville to "infiltrate" the TEA Parties
nationwide and bring them to heel.
At issue is a return to local control of local issues and
the peoples' choices then heeded - and followed - by their
elected representatives.
It's not a lot different than the conflict of taxation
without representation that came to a head the night Mr.
John Hancock and other members of his lodge dressed as
"Indians" and raided three ships lying at a Boston pier
laden with tea and coffee he had consigned from a London
merchant. In the interim, he learned from British Crown
customs officials, Parliament had imposed a Colonial Excise
Tax on just those very imported items and he could not take
possession of his property as the rightful consignee until
he had satisfied the tax by cash payment. The fact that he
had never heard of that particular tax made no difference.
At that point, the "Indians" told them they could just keep
the stuff, broke open the chests of tea and poured it in the
brackish waters of Boston Harbor.
What no one ever stops to realize or even discuss is that no
armed guards, no Royal Marines and no Customs officials with
drawn sabers and cocked pistols ever opposed them.
They walked aboard the ships unopposed and unmolested, did
their deed and went back to the tavern where the lodge was
known to meet on full moon nights. There, they reportedly
had a few more beers and a few more tears - maybe a few
laughs, too. It could be that the customs officers, the tax
men and their armed guards were members of the same lodge
back in their mother country, England. One never knows.
Certainly, the brethren never discuss these matters.
It was a rainy night in Boston, as they say in Newark, New
Jersey.
To sum up about Mr. Hinton's remarks, which were made to a
tepid response by the TEA Party audience, he declared of the
"Obama Nation" that "They are frightened to death" of what
is taking place at TEA Parties everywhere.
He warned his listeners about a redistribution of wealth by
Mr. Obama and his staff members.
"He has no right to go up there and fire (GM CEO) Waggoner
and then turn around and turn over 80 percent of General
Motors to the union."
Of President Obama, he said "Not only is he a Marxist, I
think he's a full-fledged Communist."
In comparison to other Presidential administrations, which
have averaged a ratio of business executives to career
government and academic types in their cabinets of between
40 and 50 percent in Republican organizations and between 30
and 40 percent in most Democratic White Houses, only 8
percent of the members of the Obama cabinet are experienced
corporate officers.
The rest have been either civil servants or community
organizers.
Of Mr. Obama, he said, "He's never had a real job."
The remaining 92 percent of the Obama cabinet have been
"either community organizers or politicians."
On a recent trip to Europe, Mr. Hinton declared, he was
shocked when a German restaurateur refused to accept payment
in U.S. dollars. Furthermore, during the London sojourn of
his trip, he received only £24 Pounds Sterling in exchange
for a $100 Federal Reserve Note from the concierge service
at his London hotel. He used it to pay a taxi driver to
take he and his entourage to a location 10 blocks distant
from the hotel and return, an item which cost him the entire
sum he had received in exchange for the $100 bill.
It was a 20-block transportation bill that cost him one
hundred U.S. dollars, he recalled.
"Obama Nation had just printed a trillion dollars in new
money," Mr. Hinton said by way of explanation.
The key to solving the dilemma?
"We need to get control of the House and Senate. That way
we can break his pen...He can't sign any bills if we don't
send him any bills to sign."
His opponent Will Jones said, "Without the TEA Parties,
(Massachusetts Senator-elect) Scott Brown would not have won
Massachusetts."
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