Tom Tancredo on Civics Literacy: Tancredo Rips John McCain: Rand Paul Rips Tancredo

Conservative hero, Tom Tancredo opened the National Tea Party Convention to a rousing call to action and first principles. The outspoken Tancredo said Obama is in office because "we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country." Rand Paul  ripped Tancredo and Tancredo Ripped McCain.

While we are battling the most profound loss of our liberties this country could have imagined with Barack Obama in the White House, Tancredo says "Thank God John McCain" lost the election:"

Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration. 

People who could not even spell the word 'vote,' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama," Tancredo said to cheers Thursday night.

I agree about McCain. The time had come for Americans to realize what the call of Progressivism is, and what it means to our way of life and lives of our children and grandchildren. We needed the gauntlet thrown down.

There would have been a 4-year delay before voters threw McCain out of office, and ushered in Obama or Hillary, who is a self-professed Progressive. In the meantime, Democrats would continue to be sent to Congress, and we would have none of the passionate quest for conservatism that we have today - at least not to the extent we see it In The Time of Obama.

True to Republican politics, a National Tea Party spokesman, and Rand Paul, are already slamming Tancredo:

It doesn't further the dialogue," said Mark Skoda, a businessman and founder of the Memphis Tea Party, who is also serving as spokesman for the convention.

Contrary to Tancredo's remarks, the Tea Party is not about "name-calling," said Rand Paul, whose campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky is supported by the Tea Party.

There are politicians who have gone into the movement and tried to become part of the movement," he said on CNN's American Morning."But really the movement is about individual people."

Dr. Paul forgets that Tom Credo is and "individual" person. He is no longer a politician. Tancredo is a former US Representative from Colorado who was fearless in condemning McCain and Ted Kennedy's illegal amnesty program.

Redstate blogger, Erick Erickson is quoted by CNN saying "this National Tea Party convention smells scammy." There is controversy over a Nashville attorney organizing the event as a for-profit convention. Perhaps that is what Erickson is referring to:

Sherry Phillips, who along with her husband, Nashville attorney Judson Phillips, founded Tea Party Nation, said earlier this week in a message to supporters that "we fully expect to break even at this event. We may even make a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN."

Update 2-6-10: BigGovernment today reports that erickson has stepped back from his "scammy" comment. He attended the Tea Party and "thinks it may bode well for the future...."

I hope each of the Tea Parties are productive and hold to their own principles, and I hope we don't "eat our own."

Related and Background:

Tea Party First Principles: Tea Party National Organizing 

Palin's Rogue Endorsement of Rand Paul