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Dear
Mr.
O'Donoghue:People
who
know me know
that
one
of
my "rules
of
life"
is
to
try not to
get drawn into fist fights
with
midgets. But,
in
your
case,
I'm going
to
make
an
exception.Let
me
introduce myself.
My
name
is
Fred O'Neal.
I,
not
Alan Grayson, founded the
Tea
Party politicalparty. I did
so
because
in
my opinion and
as
Polk County Commissioner and
1Z
h
District Congressionalcandidate Randy Wilkinson puts it,
the
Republican Party and the Democratic Party are just
two
wings
of
the same bird
of
prey.
You
obviously like the Republican Party. I don't. Why I
don't
like the Republican Party
is
primarilybecause I know
that
the $350,000 you're
so
proud
of
raising probably came
with
a price.
In
myexperience, most Republican politicians have
to
sell
their
souls
to
the devil
to
raise the kind
of
moneythey raise.
In
my experience, big business and special interests have traditionally bought and soldRepublican politiciar,s like commodities.
As
a consequence, Republican politicians,
in
my experience,tend
to
vote the way
their
"masters" tell them to vote, rather than
in
the best interest
of
the people.But that's okay. If you think "trickle down economics" and representing special interests
is
best for thecountry, then you have a right
to
say
so
and you have a right
to
run
for
office
in
a political party whichgenerally agrees
with
your philosophy.
I,
on the
other
hand, disagree. I think the American people have been "trickled
on"
enough.That's not my beef
with
you.
My
beef
with
you
is
your calling the
Tea
Party a "sham" political
rarty
and your questioning
our
right
to
even exist.A
little
background
on
how
the
Tea
Party got founded
for
over
twenty
years I've been working
with
Doug Guetzloe and others
to
fight tax increases and big ticket boondoggle projects like Sunrail.
In
2006,
with
it being apparent
that
the Republican Party (at least at the state level) had become
the
"tax and spend" party, Doug and I looked into what it would take
to
form
a political party. At the time,we
thought
about calling it
the
"Ax the
Tax
Party," but
the
name sounded a little klunky and we
didn't
do anything.
In
August
of
2009,
with
the emergence
of
the
T.E.A.
(Taxed Enough Already) movement, I pulled
out
myold research and
went
ahead
with
forming the
Tea
Party. I
didn't
roll it
out
publicly until November,after Doug Hoffman's showing
in
NY23
and the apparent groundswell
of
dissatisfaction
with
bothpolitical parties.
By
November, Doug and Nick Egoroff had been kicked
out
of
the Republican Party by the
now
infamousJim Greer.
So,
Doug and Nick both being friends, I asked
them
to
come join me. Thankfully, theyagreed.
As
an
aside, Alan Grayson had nothing
to
do
with
any
of
the above.
He
didn't
give me the idea
to
formthe
party.
He
didn't
pay me
to
do
so
(no one paid me
to
do so). Moreover, I've never
met
Alan Grayson.I've never talked
with
Alan Grayson.
In
short, I
wouldn't
know Alan Grayson if I ran him over
with
my
car.But I digress.
Since
November 2009, Doug, Nick and I have been recruiting candidates (and
not just
forthe
8:
c
Congressional District). But,
as
to
the
8
th
Congressional District, I first
metwith
fellow attorney,Todd Long.
The
meeting was arranged
by
a mutual friend, Alicya Simmons, the ex-wife
of
former
State
Rep.
David Simmons. Todd, Alicya, myself and another attorney, Mark Fisher,
met
for
about
an
hour. Itried
to
convince Todd
of
the advantages
of
running on the
Tea
Party ticket. But, Todd wanted
to
run
as
a Republican, and
so
he
politely said
"no."
Next, Doug, Nick and I
met with
Dan
Fanelli. We had several meetings with
Dan.
Unlike Todd,
Dan
couldn't
make up his mind what
to
do. We gave him a deadline (because we needed
to
move on if hewasn't going
to
run
on
our
ticket).
The
deadline came and
went
and still no decision
from
Dan.
So,
wemoved on.
As
another aside, it's humorous
to
read
Dan
say
he
"turned
us
down cold." That couldn't
be
further
from
the
truth.
Todd
"turned
me down cold,"
in
a polite way.
Dan
...
we just never got
an
answer
from
him.Luckily Todd turned
us
down and luckily
Dan
couldn't make up his mind because
that
brought
us
to
Peg
Dunmire.
Peg
was a
total
surprise. I hadn't heard
of
Peg
prior
to
our meetings
with
her.
Peg
is
spunky.
Peg
is
knowledgeable.
Peg
is
100% right
on
all the issues.
Peg
would mdke a great Congress-person. But,
what
attracted me most
to
Peg
is
how
much she cares about her granddaughter and
the
kind
of
countrywe're leaving behind
to
our kids and grandkias.But I digress.
I,
too, read
Mark
Schlueb's article
in
the paper. I like Mark. I
think
he's a good guy. We
go
way back. But,
Mark
needs his job.
So,
Mark
does
what
he's told.
His
"masters" (the people
who
runthe Sentinel)
HATE
Doug Guetzloe (and they
don't
like
me
very much either). The reason they
HATE
Doug Guetzloe
is
because Doug
has
historically been the main opposition
to
all the taxpayer funded
downtown
boondoggles
the
Sentinel tries
to
push down
our
throats
in
order
to
improve the value
of
their property downtown
(question'
is
it just a coincidence
that
the
main SunRail station
is
only a blockaway
from
the Sentinel's property downtown?).
So
when
Mark
writes a story about Doug (or me), I know
what
his instructions are
and
where
the
article
is
going. For example, I gave Mark a statement about Grayson's involvement (or, I should say, noninvolvement)
with
the
Tea
Party. But,
not
surprisingly,
Mark didn't
use
my statement in his article,because
it
just
didn't
fit the story line he was trying
to
create. What I told
Mark
was
that,unfortunately, Grayson hasn't contributed any money
to
the
Tea
Party. But,
if
Mark
were going
to
contact Grayson
for
his
st:ry.
I asked Mark
to
tell Grayson he could either contribute on-line at
our
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