Ten Notable Conservatives Endorse Take Back Washington Rally

It’s been just over a week since the Take Back Washington rally in Bismarck, ND. I’ve been talking about the importance of the event as a tool for finding unity between the Republican party and the tea party movement for a while, but I helped organize the Take Back Washington event so I’m not exactly an objective source. So, thankfully, you don’t have to take my word for it. In the days following the event we’ve been asking conservative luminaries about this model for finding unity on the right, and we’ve heard a lot of excellent things.
People such as Senator Jim DeMint:

Scott Hennen: …we have, um, as you say a lot of common sense in places like South Carolina and North Carolina — or — South Car…South Carolina and North Dakota rather. We came up with an idea. Actually it was the brain child of Gary Emineth who is the Republican party chairman in North Dakota, and uh, he came to me and said ‘What do you think of this idea Scott. You’ve been at all these tea parties. You’ve spoken there. You know, something is happening there and we agree as a Republican party. Especially in North Dakota, with 80% of what these people stand for. And it is a cross-section, you can’t put them inside a box and we agree on so much. How can I respect them better.’ And he said ‘I’m thinking about just having a thing where, you know, we invite them in…invite them into our process and let ‘em talk.” We came up with something called Take Back Washington. Have a website, called TakeBackWashington.net. Invited Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from a neighboring district in Minnesota to come over and last Friday night the Republican party establishment — led by Governor John Hoeven who by the way will probably be a colleague of yours next session, uh, with Byron Dorgan’s retirement now…good standing politically… — sat and listened. Congressional candidates sat and listened. Every Republican elected leader, the vast majority of them, sat and listened and the people spoke. And ultimately it was a show of respect from the establishment, if you will, towards the tea party movement and uh really is getting quite a buzz. We’re going to do two more in Minnesota very soon and other states talking about doing it around the country. Is that the way Republicans should earn the loyalty of the tea party movement by simply doing something very novel…but listening.
Jim DeMint: You’re exactly right and not just listening to the formal tea party groups but that’s listening to America as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been to a lot of tea party crowds, as have you, and it really is a cross section of Americans. Of seniors, of uh…young couples with children. And so if Congressman and Senators are supposed to listen to them…and if the tea party has just given a voice to the American people. But more than just a voice, it has given some real accountability, because the tea party movement is active enough to take candidates out or to put them in. And so now candidates are having to come to different groups to get elected. If they come to the establishment in Washington and want an endorsement that’s almost the kiss of death. And that’s why our group, the Senate Conservatives Fund, which is SenateConservatives.com, has come some attention…of what I call the the new Republicans who are stepping up — they want to re-earn the trust of the American people by listening to them and we’re going to try get a few new Senators elected this coming cycle
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Jim DeMint: …but when Republicans sit down, like you’re talking about, and start listening to the people, and uh, then I think we can start changing the party. Re-earn our trust and start keeping some promises this time.

Former House Majority Leader and current President of Freedomworks Dick Armey:

Scott Hennen: Came up with this idea, this vision to say we agree on so much, why not bring our elected leaders and our candidates in to listen to the people. So, for the first time ever at a political rally sponsored by a political party the politicians sit and listen…
Dick Armey: Yeah.
Scott Hennen: …and the people speak. The tea party movement was invited in, and uh basically advertised as come on in we welcome you and the politicians are going to listen and you’re ultimately going to do the speaking. We have the website up now it’s TakeBackWashington.net and it’s going national. Grover Norquist and others have said, boy, this is a national model here.
Dick Armey: Right.
Scott Hennen: Now you’ve got something that ought to be taken state by state…
Dick Armey: Absolutely.
Scott Hennen: …to give the establishment credibility within the tea party movement. Do you think it has some…
Dick Armey: Yeah, absolutely. And it gives the Republicans a chance to demonstrate the differences between them and the Democrats. Take a look at all of the hubbub about August at the town hall meetings. The one thing America saw was the Democrat reaction to the people across the country — we’re not listening, shut up and go away, you’re unpatriotic, you’re disruptive, you’re a pain in the backside and we’re not listening to you. Now all of a sudden the Republicans have a chance to demonstrate that yes indeed we are the party that is willing to listen to the constituents that we would hope might trust us with the job. So this gives them a chance to differentiate themselves. The biggest thing you have to understand is…if you love liberty and small government and responsible government there’s no chance the Democrat party will ever even be respectful of your view. They think we’re a bunch of morons because we don’t agree with them.
Scott Hennen: And they don’t actually think enough of people to hold these town hall…Earl Pomeroy held one telephone town hall meeting…
Dick Armey: Right…
Scott Hennen: On the telephone. Didn’t think enough of this whole health care debate to sit down with his constituents because he didn’t think much of them. So you’re exactly right. We can say this is how we are different. We’re listening. Not only are we going to do a Q and A back and forth…we’re just listening.
Dick Armey: Can you imagine if you had your business and we called one of your guys and we said hey we need to talk about the way you’re doing your job and he said oh I don’t want to sit down with you I’ll call it in?
[laughter]
Scott Hennen: Let’s get on the phone and talk about it.

Representative Mike Pence:

Scott Hennen: Let me share with you a worry I have about that. As much as that resonates up and excites me I worry about Republicans forgetting what brought them there. And uh, that happened after 1994 as you know. You’ve spoken out about and been a champion of… as well. How do we prevent that this time? And is it…we did an event las Friday in Bismarck called Take Back Washington where the politicians listened…
Mike Pence: …heard that went great…
Scott Hennen: …and the people spoke. It did. And uh the only person that spoke was Michele Bachmann…
Mike Pence: I think she’s speaking today at CPAC.
Scott Hennen: She is, yeah, visiting…but other was there was a respect of the tea party movement and the grassroots effort and bringing people in to liste …to say… is that the way to…Take Back Washington effort. To listen?
Mike Pence: Well, let me say I think the key to Republicans learning the lessons of history – which I’ll speak about at the podium today – I don’t think we lost our majority in 2006 I think we lost our way. We walked away from the principles that minted our national governing majority first in 1980 then in 1994 and the people walked away from us. Uh, there’s two sources of confidence to your listeners very quickly. Number one…
[static]
…voting unanimously against the phony stimulus bill, against the runaway budgets, against… almost unanimously against big government schemes in energy and health care. Republicans are developing the muscle memory of fighting against big government. We’re going to carry that into the new majority. And number two, we are going to produce an agenda that is going to be drawn from the American people. It’s not going to be a contract with America it is in a very real sense going to be a contract from America. And Republicans — our candidates our incumbents — are going to tell the American people entrust us with power again and we are going to lead and accomplish on the basis of these solutions.
Scott Hennen: Well if you’re part of that effort I have a little more confidence. I’m lookin’ forward to it. …

President of The Heritage Foundation Edward Fuelner:

Scott Hennen- “We did an event recently called Take Back Washington in which we took elected Republicans, the sitting Governor who’s running for the Senate in Byron Dorgan’s seat, House candidates in Kevin Cramer and Rick Berg who are vying for the Republican nomination to take on Earl Pomeroy, other elected leaders and invited in folks who had been to the tea parties around the country, over a 1000 people there, another 500 watching online and the politicians listened at listening posts and the people spoke. What do you think of this concept?”
Ed Feulner- “I think it’s fantastic. Again Ronald Reagan said it trust the people and when you get a 1000 people in North Dakota in one place and you’ve got elected officials having to sit there and listen, that’s really one of my real tests for a leader in Washington. How much do they talk and how much do they listen and the good listeners are the good leaders.”
Scott Hennen- “Absolutely. And of course now you have an opportunity to really to have this sweep across the country and be a good model because isn’t that why the Democrats are in the position they are in today, the arrogance and the fact that the people…what do they know right?”
Ed Feulner- “Absolutely, that’s what we’ve got to battle. And of course Heritage is non partisan, we are unashamedly, unabashedly conservative and of course that means most of the time we end up working with Republicans but by gosh if we can get members of both political parties to start adhering to what Matt Spalding in his book calls we still hold these truths, the basic truths that bring Americans together, that talk about the American spirit, that talk about the positive things we all share, thats what we should be doing and not trying to build a class society ala Europe which eventually leads to socialism, it leads to declining roles for entrepreneurs and small businessmen and small farm owners and thats not the American spirit.

National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Scott Hennen- “We’re going to get all of the info on takebackwashington.net and hopefully watch it on one of the many wonderful resources at National Review Online including the Corner to tell you about it because I think we’ve found the model that ultimately says the passion and the sleeping giant that is the tea party movement can be united with a political cause in this case the Republican party which has a chance to make real change and bring real change to Washington, DC if you respect the movement, if you listen to the people, if you let them be heard and realize that they have some ideas that could really save the Republican party from itself and not have an ala 1994 and then just become Democratic light and so we’re pretty proud of it as a first in the nation effort to bridge those two and that’s been real tough to do in some states, hasn’t it?”
Kathryn Lopez- “Absolutely and I think its a wonderful thing you are doing. Its striking to me, I haven’t been to a tea party I need to, but whenever I talk to organizer types and whenever I look at there’s been some polls now, its just striking to me how conservative these people are. You know center right positions speak to them, the Mount Vernon statement yesterday speaks to them, there is no reason there can’t be a marriage there and yeah I think you’re right its all about respect, its about you know Washington types not looking their nose down at these people who are frankly renewing their movement and tea party people not being too cynical about it because there are some good people in Washington and some good people who want to be in Washington so I think thats a great thing you are doing trying to get the two together.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty:

Scott Hennen: “We started a first of its kind in the nation event last Friday in Bismarck. Michelle Bachmann came over, Take Back Washington event sanctioned by the Republican Party in North Dakota sponsored with coalition partners. Novel concept, all the politicians listened and the people spoke.
Tim Pawlenty “Hahaha Grea, thats great!”
Scott Hennen “And so bascially you had folks that had been at tea parties come in and here’s John Hoeven your fellow Governor sitting there listening, here’s Congressional candidates sitting there listening but really they came away unscathed, the Governor got a standing ovation from the crowd, it wasn’t contentious, it was sort of a show of respect to say here’s how we’re different. And by the way, we’re announcing a couple in Minnesota very soon…”
Tim Pawlenty “Outstanding”
Scott Hennen “Ramping up to something I know you’ll be on the stage for Sarah Palin coming April 7th….”
Tim Pawlenty “Yes I am co-hosting that event with Michelle Bachmann and so that’s gonna be great, its in April”
Scott Hennen “Yeah and so could the Republican party do more to say hey you know we ought to learn a little from these folks?”
Tim Pawlenty “You know absolutely. If you look at the success of the tea party, one of the things that come through is, the American people responded positively because the message was direct, it was bold, it was truth telling and it was based on first principles. And so the Republican party and conservatives more broadly can look at that and say you know what we can take inspiration from that and we can learn from that and we get back to the Sam’s Club Republicans or my more modern day phrase for Reagan Democrats, these are people like my brothers and sisters, they’re hard working folks, they’re not necessarily political you know activists or whatever but they’re saying you know what, this stuff is just common sense. If I gotta go work and balance my budget and live within my means, so should government. If I gotta work hard and deal with health care from a market standpoint, then I don’t think the federal government should take this over. They know that they get for performance, not for how many years you’ve been around so they favor things like performance pay for teacher. They know their benefits are more like a 401K than a life entitlements so they know that has to be reformed. Down, down the list. So its just a matter of squaring up reality and common sense principles are with what we’re trying to communicate and project and those things align nicely I think”

Former Senator Rick Santorum:

Scott Hennen- “We did a event called Take Back Washington first of its kind in the country and you can go to takebackwashington.net and see it but unique vision of the Party Chairman Gary Emineth out in North Dakota bringing in folks that have been to these tea parties but saying here is your Republican party establishment listening you tell them what concerns you, you tell them you want because we believe about 80% of the same things we might as well make that change and do this transformation together and so far its being well recieved, is this a model do you believe?
Rick Santorum “Well I think your Chairman is a very smart man. You know the people have said how do we deal with these tea party folks, how do we get them involved in the Republican party and my answer to that is, you don’t. What you do is respect the fact that they are coming from their own perspective and you listen to their concerns, you try understand where we can find common ground and they’re actually a very helpful group of folks to hold our feet to the fire within our own party that can say that we’re not part of the club but we’re willing to support you if you are doing the right things and by the way we’re willing to support someone else if you are not and that accountability as we know in our lives, we need to be held accountable and the Republican party is no different, Conservatives are no different so I think the tea party movement can actually serve a very useful purpose in the Republican party and if the Democrats are smart, which I’ve seen no indication from the policies that they are proposing that they are, they’ll actually see as an opportunity for them to get back in the good graces of mainstream American and stop trying to appeal to the extreme elements of their party.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney:

SCOTT: I’m looking at the front page of the Washington times there’s a nice photo hear of you and Liz walking off the stage yesterday, and the headline is: Tea Party Activists change dynamic at CPAC, and another story here that says Republican’s press to earn loyalty of conservative group. We have a first of the nation effort that we launched last Friday out of North Dakota called “Take Back Washington,” and what it was, was sanctioned by the Republican party, and some coalition partners that said the politicians are going to listen and the people are going to speak. And literally Governor John Hoevan, who’s going to be going to the U.S. Senate I believe, with Byron Dorgan’s retirement. House candidate’s like Kevin Cramer and Rick Berg, sat down and listened, and the tea party activists’, were invited in and they did the talking. Do you think the Republican Party needs to do more of that nationwide, to listen and ultimately bridge this gap between the Tea Party movement and the establishment if you will?
CHENEY: I think it’s a great idea, having those kinds of exchanges, communications back and forth are very important, and the Republican party isn’t sort of a model, there isn’t some committee that sits there and runs it all the time, it can change and evolve over time, depending upon who’s willing to become a part of it, who are candidate are, what are success is at the poll. The fact of the matter is; Tea Part movement if, you will, can have a huge impact on the Republican Party. Very large, and that’s how it should be. The party ought to be capable of adaptation and of reflecting the true views of American’s out there. That’s the route to success for a political party and I think what they’re doing there is a very, very, healthy positive development o both sides.

President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist (who attended the event) had nice things to say about it in Politico:

North Dakota is ground zero for the yearlong campaign to retake Washington for two reasons. First, no state….I repeat… no state sends to Washington two senators and one congressman more at odds with their own citizens on the central question of size of government. Senators Dorgan and Conrad and congressman Pomeroy are consistent and reliable votes for big spending and big tax hikes. North Dakotans are common sense conservatives. Second, the Republican Party of North Dakota is smart enough to listen to the voices of the tea party activists, to work with them, to hold a joint day of learning and activism. The Republican governor and now candidate for Senate, John Hoeven, will attend today to listen. Not to speak, but to learn.
North Dakota has long been the model of how Democrats can get elected to do the opposite of what their citizens want and yet get re-elected. Starting today, North Dakota stands as the model of Republican Party/tea party listening/learning/organizing to change Washington D.C.

And, of course, Michele Bachmann who keynoted the original Take Back Washington event in Bismarck has had lots of great things to say about the event. She praised NDGOP Chairman Gary Emineth and Scott Hennen for the event from the stage at CPAC in Washington DC:

Michele Bachmann: I also want to give you another success story. One week ago today there was a very brave Republican party chair in North Dakota. His name is Gary Emineth, and he worked together with a local radio guy named Scott Hennen and they cooked up an idea that was pretty good. And it was pretty brave. They decided to reverse the tables on the politicians and have a town hall where the people spoke at the town hall and the politicians had to listen. Pretty good idea. So they had a listening post and the politicians including the very brave governor — Republican governor — of the state of North Dakota. This is a very scary thought for a politician, to think that people are going to go to a microphone and they don’t know what they’re going to hear, but the people went – and I’m telling you – the people went and they were so sophisticated and they were so on top of their information and it was a fabulous event in a state of 620,000 — approximately — people in North Dakota, and it had between 1,000 and 1,500 people show up last week – it was amazing – to take back Washington DC.
Voice From The Crowd: Go North Dakota!
Michele Bachmann: Go North Dakota is right! And I was lucky enough to be able to be there and give the keynote speech. This is the where 100% of their federal delegation is Democrat. Both US Senators and after they took their Christmas eve health care vote, dropped 22 points in the polls in North Dakota.
[Crowd applauds]
Michele Bachmann: And it’s now bye bye Byron in North Dakota. And the state Rep. in North Dakota is also Democrat, and a poll recently showed that the state Rep. in North Dakota is losing by 9% to “other.” I’m not making this up. Take back Washington time! We’ve got the fever! We’ve got the hope! We’re ready for the change!

And she praised the event in a one-on-one interview with Scott Hennen at CPAC:

Scott Hennen “So here we are backstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the buzz is building because about to take the stage is the star of Take Back Washington, the star of the Common Sense caucus in the United States House, our friend Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, how ya doin?”
Michelle Bachmann “Hey I am doing great but you’re the star, you’re the man who was the genius behind it all and haven’t we had fun?”
Scott Hennen “One week ago tonight you were on the stage in Bismarck, North Dakota and boy a lot has happened since hasn’t it?”
Michelle Bachmann “Oh it really has and people are so excited because they realize its possible, we can turn our country around. Decline is not a natural condition for the United States, its a choice and people are choosing not to go into decline, they want greatness for America and I think that’s what we’re going to see.”
Scott Hennen “You know I saw one year after the stimulus a little analysis on everything that happened 49 states have lost jobs, the one that hasn’t? North Dakota! So a little bit of common sense we’re about to export with Take Back Washington and its coming to Minnesota next isn’t it?”
Michelle Bachmann “Well thats right and of course that’s because we have such great American energy independence in North Dakota with the Bakken oil field and great Agriculture products that come out of North Dakota, we should do that everywhere. The great Daniel Webster, one of our early Senators had made the remark we need to build up the United States and utilize all our resources, thats what North Dakota is doing, thats what every state should do but unfortunately the federal Government has come in and whereas where we used to use our timber and our fisheries and our iron ore mines, now we have so many government departments come in with permits and red tape and bureaucracy, you can’t even do anything any more in this country to create a job and thats why jobs get exported. Let’s stop doing that, that’s foolish. Let’s bring jobs back to America by utilizing our own resources like Daniel Webster said and build up the United States and have high paying job just like North Dakota is seeing”
Scott Hennen “Absolutely. Well lets talk a little bit about the Take Back Washington effort. There now is a Take Back Washington caucus in the Senate: Scott Brown from Massachusetts, did you call and welcome him to the party.”
Michelle Bachmann “Well I do welcome him to the party and I will be starting our own Take Back Washington caucus in the United States House. As a matter of fact, we’ve done it without it officially being started”.
Scott Hennen “What is the sense you’ve gotten since a week ago and the buzz that you’re hearing about it from your colleagues and folks around Minnesota”
Michelle Bachmann “They are absolutely wowed with what happened in North Dakota. We’re going to be hearing more and more about it. People are hearing about it here at CPAC and of course there’s 10,000 people here that are gonna take this story, go back to the four corners of the United States and share this great story about how we can take our country back in November.”