Tea parties fail to stop food billLeaders struggled to rally the grassroots around niche policy issue.
By Ambreen Ali
The tea parties are having trouble channeling their grassroots base.
While tea-party leaders have been able to get activists fired up about protests and elections, it has been much harder to incite that same fervor over niche policy issues.
That could undermine the movement's ability to channel its electoral gains into a policy force and hold accountable the lawmakers activists helped elect.
The struggle played out this week as several tea-party groups and conservative commentator Glenn Beck failed to stop the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) in the Senate.
"Enough phone calls were not made," Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party Patriots national coordinator, said.
Only six of the 18 Republicans Tea Party Patriots targeted voted against the bill. It sailed through the Senate 73 to 25 Tuesday with a broad coalition of bipartisan support that included the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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The legislation gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to recall food and requires it to inspect farms and food processing facilities. It also puts greater responsibility on manufacturers and farmers to prevent food contamination.
http://www.congress.org/news/2010/11/30/tea_parties_fail_to_stop_food_bill Well *I* called! ;) .. Score one for us "Nanny state" advocates. :bounce: