CQ POLITICS: Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” Bill Gaining Steam.

He may have faded from the national political scene a year ago, after his dark-horse presidential run came to naught, but Rep. Ron Paul ’s influence is still being felt in campaigns and policy debates across the country. Indeed, the latest legislative priority of the libertarian Texas Republican — auditing the Federal Reserve — has gained support in unlikely quarters.

Paul’s legislation, popularly known as the “Audit the Fed” bill, has drawn 244 cosponsors, ranging from Ohio’s John A. Boehner , the conservative Republican floor leader, to Michigan’s John Conyers Jr. , the liberal Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Some Democrats have even picked up on Paul’s rhetoric. “It’s time to yank the shroud off the Fed and shine some light on these events,” New York Democrat Edolphus Towns , chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at a hearing last week about the shotgun marriage between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch last fall to stave off the latter’s collapse.

Paul’s efforts have only gained in political significance since the Obama administration unveiled its proposal to give the Fed new powers over the financial regulatory system.

The sentiment was certainly showing at Monday’s Nashville Tea Party protest.

LIVEBLOGGING the Nashville Tea Party. “Guest veteran gets huge cheers from the crowd, ‘I was offended by being called a racist redneck teabagger,’ says our veteran, who is an African-American female.”

UPDATE: More from Nashville’s Channel 5: Thousands Protest Obama Policies In Nashville.

Four thousand local protestors took over Legislative Plaza Monday to protest a new energy initiative by President Obama. The “tea party” protest also took aim at universal health care.

The event marked the third time this year protestors have held similar rallies in Nashville.

“More than half of Americans feel the way I do,” said protestor Karen Entz. “That should be represented on the national news, and it’s not.”

Protestors said they felt like their conservative voice has not been heard. They want that to change.

Yes, it’s a much higher crowd estimate than the Tennessean blog above. The Tennessee Tea Party site claims 2,500. Perhaps the folks at the Tennessean accidentally omitted a zero? . . .

READER LINDA WHITE SENDS THESE PICTURES FROM TODAY’S NASHVILLE TEA PARTY PROTEST.

NASHVILLE SCENE: Maybe Those Tea Party Protesters Were Right About the Bailouts.

HERE’S A REPORT on plans for a Nashville Tea Party protest on April 15.

NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN: Franklin mom brews up tea bag protest over stimulus. “She is behind one of a handful of protests around the country that aim to bombard the White House with tea bags and protest notes in time for the nation’s April 15 tax filing deadline.” The very first tea party protests were organized by mom-bloggers. Is this a mom thing? Anyway, here’s her website. For those who can’t attend a tea party protest, it’s an alternative.

A TEA PARTY IN GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: “Mike Miller brought his young daughter downtown Friday night to the “Greenville Tea Party” rally at the RiverPlace complex, as the Upstate Young Republicans and others protested the government spending in President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. They weren’t alone. A crowd estimated at 800 to 2,000 people took part in a loud hourlong rally, one of an estimated 60 around the country.”

Plus, a roundup from around the country.

Despite terrible weather in many cases, citizens braved the wind, cold, and rain to exercise their Constitutional right to protest the current direction of the country under Barack Obama and the Democrats.
In St. Louis, over 1500 attended the Tea Party at the famous arch.

In Chicago, between 800 and 1000 braved the bad weather to gather to protest the massive spending of taxpayers’ money by the federal government.

Atlanta was the site of another well-attended Tea Party.

Many smaller towns and cities participated in the semi-simultaneous events around the country, such as Shelby, Alabama, Asheville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Reader Kaye Evans writes:

You have posted pictures of the Nashville Tea Party gathering at the Legislative Plaza on February 26, and there was much to be learned from the folks who came out on that rainy day.

I was there and spent more time studying the assembled crowd than listening to the speakers. I was struck by how the crowd grew throughout the lunch hour. Many I spoke with had traveled to be a part of the protest.

It was glaringly obvious that these folks were not the $250+K fat cats whom Obama castigates. These people represented the middle class who, ostensibly, will be “helped” by the stimulus spending bills. They clearly were not convinced; they were angered by the class warfare components of his economic policies and the awareness that the burden of his ruinous spending will eventually become theirs to bear.

On a related note, may I suggest an appropriate coda for the New American Tea Party?

In 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

I think we’ll see more people upset about this as time passes.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are a couple of pictures from the Sarasota Tea Party. More on that here.

And here’s TV coverage from Neil Cavuto.

And reader Miles Wilson says don’t give Rick Santelli too much credit: “Just wanted to remind you that the Rick Santelli ‘rant’ was not the genesis of this movement – in fact, at least four events (Seattle, Denver, Mesa, Overland Park) occurred before the coining of the term ‘tea party’. So credit where credit is due – to the grassroots organizers far from the madding media crowd.”

(Had it as “Mike” Wilson earlier; sorry for the error.}

TEA PARTY UPDATE: photos and Fox TV video from Chicago.

Plus, a report from Seattle, courtesy of Sherri Kennamer, who writes: “I attended the Tea Party in Seattle this afternoon. The crowd was three hundred or so.” Here’s a pic she sent.

Plus, St. Louis Arch Tea Party Draws 1,500 Protesters! Lots of pictures at the link, as well as links to reports on other protests around the country.

Meanwhile, here’s a Christian Science Monitor story from Atlanta’s demonstration:

Several thousand neopatriots – some shouting “Give me liberty or give me death!” – took to the streets in over 30 US cities Friday, representing what some of them call the beginning of a new conservative counterculture in America.

“The spark has been lit,” says Ben Mihalski, a “house husband” from Cobb County, Ga., one of at least 300 protesters who gathered in a hefty downpour outside the Georgia Capitol on Friday to protest what they see as profligate spending by Washington.

Protesters with sign-slogans like “Pillage and plunder: At least the Vikings did it openly” fanned out across capitols and courthouses in cities from Nashville, Tenn., to Los Angeles, objecting to bailouts and policy changes since the inauguration of President Obama.

The Tea Party USA movement also added some symbolic flourish, vowing to gather tens of thousands of tea bags to be dumped on the floor of the US Congress. In Atlanta, the brand was Luzianne.

The article also observes, “the largely grassroots show of force hints at a sharpening thorn for Democrats and a potential powder keg that could threaten to blow ahead of the 2010 congressional elections.”

And, courtesy of A.C. Kleinheider, a Nashville Post report, with video, on the Nashville protest.

UPDATE: Dave Weigel reports from the White House protest.

And reader Jerry Dickerson sends this from Houston: “This picture was taken at the Houston Texas Tea Party at Discovery Green. At 12:30 there were approx 250-300 attendees, pretty good turn-out considering the livestock show barbeque cook-off in Reliant Park was a competitor.” Turning out against pork vs. turning out for pork. Hmm. Tough call.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a report by reader Donna Higgins from the Tempe, Arizona protest:

We had approximately 150- 200 people at noon at the Tempe Town Lake Tea Party. Tom Jenny, the Arizona Director of Americans for Prosperity, was in charge. They had several state legislators who talked and then invited people in the crowd to speak as well. Here are a few shots from today, use any and all if you like.

Hopefully the next one will inspire more to turn out and hopefully they will have a bull horn or microphone so it would be easier to hear.

Yes, the folks doing these are inexperienced at the moment. That’ll change. Here’s a picture from Tempe, where the weather was better than many locations today!

The weather was a lot worse in Lansing, Michigan. Reader Duane Hershberger reports: “Some pictures from Lansing, Michigan. My guess is 120 people showed up in 30 degree weather with 4 days notice. Freezing rain was predicted, but did not materialize. Actually, just as we were starting the sun came for 5 minutes.” Not quite Tempe, but extra points for hardiness! Here’s a pic. Brr! And here’s a report with more photos from Lansing.

Nicer in Sacramento, too. Reader Doug Richard sends this: “Here are pictures I took at the Sacramento Tea Party earlier today. Mark Williams rallied the crowd at the start of the event. Surprisingly, there were only a couple jeers during the entire time, but scores of honks in agreement, as well as cheering car occupants driving by.”

Also, here are some more pictures from Denver.

STILL MORE: Some more Chicago reporting, from Freedom Folks.

Megan Fox was there, too, and posted a report with lots more pictures.

IT’S COLD AND RAINY, but the Tea Party pictures are coming in via cellphone already. Here are a couple.

From Atlanta, where a reported 300-400 showed up, a flag with protest babes:

From Chicago:

More Chicago pictures here. Plus this summary: “The Chicago Tea Party was an unqualified success. I’m not an expert at judging crowd sizes, but there could’ve been as many as 500 to 1000 people there. In cold weather, in the middle of February, without paid organizers like the left has.”

Plus Bill Rickords emails from Wichita, Kansas: “About 3-400 folks showed up in 25 degree weather. Don’t know what these things would be in Spring weather. But we had a pig show up anyway.” I thought they were all in D.C.!

And Bradley Ems emails from St. Louis: “I don’t know if you’ve gotten any pictures from St. Louis (I’m too swamped at work to have attended), but KMOX just reported that the tea party here was expected to draw a small group of 50…over 1,000 showed up. There is something brwing in the
heartland.”

And Joe Fairbanks emails from Oklahoma City: “I’ll be sending you pictures from the ‘Tea Party’ in Oklahoma City soon. I wanted to let you know that we had an amazing turnout of 400 people. This is amazing for multiple reasons, but mostly because this rally was organized in less than 48 hours and it took place at 11 am and the temperature was below freezing with the wind blowing quite strongly. Simply put: people are mad as hell. Obama and Congress won’t be able to ignore this anger much longer if they hope to survive 2010 or 2012. I can also tell you the crowd did take a lot of pride in the fact that our Senators, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, are two of the leaders against all this irresponsible spending. I’ll get those pictures to you as soon as I get them back.”

Plus, at Gay Patriot, pics from Los Angeles.

UPDATE: Reader Trish Elam sends this news report on Atlanta from WXIA TV. I’m in the car and don’t have a good enough connection to play it, but I’m passing it along FYI.

Plus, reader Michael Bassham reports from the Nashville event: “Weather was cold and drizzly. Attendance, in my estimation, was about 300.” Plus, a pic:

And a reader who requests anonymity writes from Tulsa: “Surely someone will send you a better pic than this one, but wanted to make sure you had at least something from Tulsa’s event, where I’d say about 200 or so turned out on a very cold day.”

And, via email, some thoughts from human-rights blogger Robert Mayer:

I just want to offer you and the tea party protesters some words of encouragement. As someone who has studied (and blogged) protest as an act of democratic revolution and people power in the post-Soviet area, I know a lot about the dynamics of mass civil society unrest, government transition, etc…

What we are seeing now is truly huge POTENTIAL for massive civil unrest against the American government gone lunatic with spending. Realistically, 400-1000 people at a protest, even at a dozen protests across the country, will do nothing to change the minds of our idiot leaders.

However, it creates the POTENTIAL that each protest could have a million. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine did not start out with two million people camping in tents in downtown Kiev. It started with only a few hundred diehard activists.

Conservatives and libertarians have never had a strong activist base, but this appears to be the time to start. They need to capture today’s momentum and hold bigger and bigger protests every week. Use technology to organize and move and grow the movement. Compared to other countries, the United States is huge. Don’t aim for a massive march on D.C. (at least, until you have a few million going). Focus the protests locally, on state policians and state capitols.

In any case, this is simply an email of encouragement to you guys. You just have to stay determined and keep people focused and believing. You’d be surprised. Within a month you could go from 500 to 50,000.

Well, it’s broken a thousand already, reportedly, and in not much more than a week.

Meanwhile, Ed Driscoll has the photo and quote of the day, so far.

COMING FRIDAY: A Nashville Tea Party. Also Houston.

UPDATE: Also Washington, D.C.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Plus, St. Louis and San Diego. Also Atlanta and Orlando and Kansas City, whose organizer sends the information below. (Bumped).

MORE: Cleveland!

PICTURES FROM THE taxpayer protest in Seattle. Reportedly, there’ll be one in Denver tomorrow, and people are trying to organize them in Nashville and NYC.

More here.