When The Brody file was in Hawaii last week for the Republican National Committee meetings, I spoke with Dick Armey, Chairman of Freedom Works. The former GOP Majority Leader is now a big mover and shaker within the growing Tea Party movement. He was invited to the RNC meeting by members of the conservattive caucus. Below are video clips from my interview with him. Partial transcriptions are below but watch the whole answer because he sure knows how to tell it like it is. (at least the way he sees it)
Dick Armey on how Tea Party Patriots are not extreme: (Bible and Guns comment)
“There as ordinary as you can find. These are not people sitting around in their basements with their Bibles and guns gathered around looking for the invasion. These are real ordinary folks.”
Dick Armey on GOP Unfulfilled Promises
“We don’t particularly care to hang around with people who are making insincere promises to fulfill their political objectives. If they don’t understand the ideas are bigger than the man, the idea is bigger than the party, the idea is bigger than the moment then we’re not particularly willing to be with them and give them the sense of our endorsement.”
Dick Armey on the potential for a third party:
“The tea party patriots, the grassroots activists their hope is rehabilitate and reform the Republican party and get it back to the party of Reagan. It doesn’t have to be 100 percent perfect that way but it has to be dominant that way and then we have a place to invest our dreams. If we invest our dreams in a 3rd party we’ll be like Ross Perot. He went on the most expensive ego trip in the history of the World and nobody got elected.”