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UPDATE (REVISED AND EXTENDED) SEPTEMBER 13! See national conservative activist Demos Chrissos‘  photographs of rally here. And don’t miss the Daily Mail (UK) report “Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration” here. Long-time conservative investigator Cliff Kincaid (see his rally photo’s here) declares ” [M]y crowd size estimate, based on covering protests since the 1980s, was about 150,000. It was bigger than organizers had expected.”

Glenn Beck, Mark Steyn “Get It” But Does the Beltway GOP?

At today’s Washington, D. C. “9-12″ rally, Glenn Beck (see his video “Turn This Thing Around” here) interviews Representative Mike Pence and Senator Jim DeMint. The two conservative  legislators related their attempts to slow Bush spending which certainly eased the way for Obama mega-spending and government overreach.It is clear that the hundreds of thousands of Americans at today’s rally are behind the Pence-DeMint (and we would add House Republican Study Committee chair) Tom Price approach to right-sizing government while expanding, not shrinking liberty.

But the Beltway GOP doesn’t like all that very much.  And even many of those Republican faithful who have finally come to understand the importance of reining in government on the Federal level turn off their new-found warning devices when they applaud indiscriminately at local Republican Party meetings in Virginia, or cheer the feckless leaders of Maryland Republican state legislators. 

Maybe, for example, the Loudoun County GOP could have a civil but healing talk with Mr. Ed Gillespie next week and bring him to a better mind on smaller government, lower taxes, and a wiser immigration policy.

Today Dan Eggen and Perry Bacon report that the “GOP Sees Protest As an Opportunity: ‘Taxpayer March’ in D.C. Attracts Party Leaders, but Some Are Wary” in their Washington Post article here.

They illustrate, however unwittingly, the barriers conservatives face with a Beltway GOP well represented in the Senate Republican leadership.

“Several key Republican lawmakers, including House GOP Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, have helped to drum up support for the march and are slated to deliver speeches to the crowd.

But top Republican strategists and many party observers also worry about the impact that the most extreme protesters might have on the party’s image, including those who carry swastika signs or obsess over the veracity of Obama’s Hawaiian birth.

Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and other Republicans, said there is an ‘opportunity for Republicans’ to tap into legitimate fears about an overreaching federal government. But he said that ‘right-wing nutballs are aligning themselves with these movements’ and are dominating media coverage.

“It’s bad for Republicans because in the absence of any real leadership, the freaks fill the void and define the party,” McKinnon said.”

Reporters Eggen and Bacon continued - -

“Saturday’s march is sponsored by the same loose-knit coalition of groups that helped to organize health-care protests over the summer and anti-tax rallies in the spring. They include the Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet and Freedomworks, a Washington-based organization headed by former House majority leader Richard Armey (R-Tex.). The march has also been heavily publicized by Fox News host Glenn Beck as part of his ‘9-12 Project.’”

Meanwhile, world-class conservative thinker Mark Steyn warned yesterday - -

“Three stories bubbled up in the past week, although if you read The New York Times and the administration’s other airbrushers you’ll be blissfully unaware of them: The resignation of Van Jones, former (?) communist and current 9/11 ‘truther,’ from his post as Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar.” The reassignment” of Yosi Sergant at the National Endowment for the Arts after he was found to be urging government-funded arts groups to produce ‘art’ in support of Obama policy positions. And, finally, the extraordinary undercover tape from Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government Web site in which officials from ACORN (the Obama chums who’ll be ‘helping’ with the next census) offer advice on how pimps can get government housing loans for brothels employing underage girls from El Salvador.

What do all these Obama associates have in common? I mean,aside from the fact that Glenn Beck played a key role in exposing them. We are assured by the airbrushing media and ‘moderate’ conservatives that Beck is crazy, a frothing spokesnut for the lunatic fringe. By contrast, Van Jones, Yosi Sergant and ACORN are all members of the lunatic mainstream, embedded philosophically and actually in the heart of Obamaland.

What all these individuals share is a supersized view of the state, from a make-work gig coordinating the invention of phony-baloney ‘green jobs’ to Soviet-style government-licensed art in support of heroic government programs to government-funded ‘community organizers’ organizing government funding for jailbait bordellos.”

On August 5 of last year, we wrote “Legacies - Bush Signed Bill Bankrolling ACORN, La Raza.” We don’t know of a better current example, apart from the bailout last fall here and here, when the Beltway GOP showed how far it has lost its way.

But Steyn’s immediate view is pessimistic - -

“My sense from Wednesday’s speech is that the president’s gonna shove this through in some form or other. It may cause a little temporary pain in Blue Dog districts in 2010, but the long-term gains will be transformative and irreversible.” (Underscoring Forum’s.)

Our fear is that commentator Steyn may well be right.

But our hope is that enough of the conservative media will join with home-state activists to get the Senate Republican leadership to play hardball not only against the Other Team — but also against straying Republican senators when whatever version of Obamacare, heavy or “lite,” finally comes before that chamber.

The Senate Republican leadership here and here must be persuaded that it is not enough to “talk right” in elevated tones that sound “statesmanlike” to the national media, but that the leadership must jump into the arena and effectively “act right.”

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