Tea Party Express allows Romney and Hatch at rallys, Freedom Works liked Mitch Daniels, so top Tea Party groups advance establishment GOP, Updated

UPDATE: 9/1/11, New Hampshire GOP Chmn. steps down, appears to be GOP establishment victory over Tea Party (first report). "N.H. GOP chairman quits," Boston Globe, by Shira Schoenberg

Concord, N.H., "Embattled New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Jack Kimball stepped down tonight, ending a bitter internal battle that pitted Tea Party activists against long-time Republicans."...

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Tea Party connected group Freedom Works who loved GOP establishment crony Mitch Daniels now says they're against Romney because he's an establishment crony. ""What is the point of having the tea party?”"

8/31/11, "FreedomWorks to protest Romney," Politico, Kenneth P. Vogel

"A top tea party organizing group, FreedomWorks, is planning to protest Mitt Romney’s appearance this weekend at a New Hampshire stop of a bus tour intended to encourage tea party sympathizers to participate in the Republican presidential nominating process....

And Romney, for his part, hasn’t focused much energy on appealing to the movement. So it attracted considerable attention — both within the tea party and among the GOP operative class — when it was announced Tuesday that he intended to speak at a Sunday evening rally being staged by the Tea Party Express in Concord, N.H., as part of a cross country bus tour set to culminate in Tampa, Fla., ahead of a Sept. 12 GOP presidential debate co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN.

FreedomWorks, which had been participating in the Tea Party Express’s tour and had helped turn out activists at rallies during prior stops, decided it could no longer be affiliated with the tour, said Brendan Steinhauser, a lead organizer for FreedomWorks.

Instead, it began working with local New Hampshire tea party groups to organize a counter rally set for about the same time in the same park in Concord as Romney’s speech.

“We have to defend our brand against poseurs,” Steinhauser said.

FreedomWorks had voiced quiet displeasure with the Tea Party Express’s decision to grant speaking time at a rally in Utah earlier this summer to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has been targeted by FreedomWorks. But when Romney’s participation was announced, Steinhauser said that represented

• “a major line we would not cross.

“If we can’t make any distinction between any of the candidates, if we’re just going to provide cover for the establishment candidates, then what is the point of having the tea party?” Steinhauser said. “We’ve got to have a brand, and we can’t water down our brand.”

At least one prominent New Hampshire tea party group — the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire — is planning to participate in the protest, and its organizer, Andrew Hemingway,

• predicted at least five more groups would join in.

“The tea party stands for a few pretty core principles — limited government, individual responsibility — and Mitt Romney does not represent those,” Hemingway said."...

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4/29/11, "Tea Party's Armey on 2012: (Mitch) Daniels would be 'perfect pick for us'," The Hill, Michael O'Brien

Dick Armey said he was disappointed that Haley Barbour dropped out. Barbour is the epitome of establishment Republicanism.

via Hot Air