Viguerie: Many GOP Congressional Staff at Odds with Tea Party

By Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com -- 7/23/11

“Personnel is policy, and the congressional staff of both establishment political parties is a powerful, but largely unseen, bastion of the Washington establishment,” said Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.  “The Tea Party represents a severe threat to the power of these unaccountable behind-the-scenes operators and the power they exercise on Capital Hill.”

“In the aftermath of the Tea Party led November 2010 election sweep, in order to protect the prerogatives of the Washington establishment and perpetuate the status quo, House Republican leaders put together a list of ‘experienced Washington hands’ to help fill top staff positions for the newly elected outsiders of the Tea Party movement. Who were these handpicked protectors of the establishment’s power?” asked Viguerie. “We know at least 130 current congressional chiefs of staff and legislative directors are former lobbyists.”

“These unelected insiders exercise their unseen power through the drafting of legislation and budgets, and by leaking to the establishment media, so few of these members of the shadow government will stand-up to a potential future employer,” observed Viguerie. “All too often working on the congressional staff is merely an interlude between adolescence and a lucrative career as a corporate lobbyist, or a partnership in one of Washington’s elite establishment law firms.”

“With a congressional staff dominated by those who were or wish to one day become corporate lobbyists, it is little wonder that the Tea Party’s anti-establishment agenda has often been stymied and why Tea Party activists seem to have so much trouble getting their message through to their elected officials.”