Boosting the Tea Party?

From conservative talk show host to state senator and, now, founding father. It must be difficult for Dan Patrick to keep up with himself. His latest political endeavor, which he announced this morning, is a new organization called Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, or ICROT (an interesting sounding acronym) for short.

Patrick lists himself as the founder of the group, which, so far, includes 14 Republican state senators, 44 Republican members of the Texas House and five Republican nominees for House seats. Membership will be by invitation only, he says.

But how independent is independent? Maybe, I suspect, as “independent” as the teabaggers allow it to be

At first blush, ICROT seems more than anything else to be an effort to give some mainstream political legitimacy – while protecting nervous Republican officeholders to the extremist “Tea Party” movement. This is the same political force that put the word “secession” back in our political vocabulary and helped Gov. Rick Perry win the Republican primary.

Patrick’s announcement gives prominent mention to the movement, which started making headlines on the political fringe in Texas about a year ago. And ICROT’s “core principles” recite a lot of Tea Party rhetoric – protecting our borders, protecting the “sovereign rights” of Texas, supporting strong family values and upholding JudeoChristian beliefs.

Educators, however, should be particularly concerned about one other principle – the new group’s pledge to “limit the size of government.” That may very well mean things like tying teacher pay to test scores, larger class sizes and property tax cuts over quality public schools.

Educators also should note that both the Senate Education and House Public Education committees are liberally (sorry, Dan) populated with ICROT charter members. IckRotters on the Senate Education Committee include Patrick, the vice chairman, and Sen. Florence Shapiro, the chairwoman. Those on the House Public Education Committee include Chairman Rob Eissler and Reps. Jimmie Don Aycock, Jim Jackson, Mark Shelton and Randy Weber.

Here is a link to ICROT’s website:
http://www.icrepublicans.com/welcome