Thanks to the tea party movement all across the USA for having the negotiating skills and the guts to tell politicians that this nation is heading rapidly toward bankruptcy. Its conservative members in the U.S. House of Representatives have been adamant at pushing through the debt ceiling measure and a no tax increase that meets their ideological requirements. Spending must be brought under control now.

Tina Dupuy

Le Templar: I was impressed by the enthusiastic turnout and general attitude of Wednesday’s TEA parties across the U.S., which included a noontime crowd of more than 1,000 people in Gilbert and up to 5,000 people at the state Capitol later that afternoon. This was the beauty of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly in action. 

WASHINGTON — Is the tea party the new Republican Party?

I found the letter to the editor "Tea party should practice what it preaches" (Aug. 19) by Edward Murphy to be very entertaining. Mr. Murphy states the tea party are the ones that never get their facts straight and they need to tone down their rhetoric.

Tea Party Patriots, the nation's largest grassroots organization, will hold its first-annual national policy conference in Phoenix on Feb. 25 to 27. The Tea Party Patriots' American Policy Summit - Pathways to Liberty will bring tea party supporters, national speakers, 2012 presidential candidates and public policy analysts together for briefings, discussions and policy debates. The summit will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the founding of the tea party movement, one of the fastest growing and most dynamic grassroots movements in American history. The conference is open to all Tea Party Patriot supporters. To register, visit http://www.summit11.org.

The Ahwatukee TEA Party may have begun only about three months ago, but its meetings already bring in more than 120 people at a time, according to A.J. Wells, one of the group's founders.

The Ahwatukee TEA Party may have begun only about three months ago, but its meetings already bring in more than 120 people at a time, according to A.J. Wells, one of the group's founders.

Analysis: The Associated Press reviewed tea party operations in almost every state, interviewing dozens of local organizers as well as Democratic and Republican strategists to produce a portrait of the movement to date — and its prospects for tilting this November's elections.

Jay Ambrose: Like a hero rescuing a damsel tied up and lying on the railroad tracks as a train approaches, the tea party movement has been trying to save America from runaway leftism. But this hero, instead of being applauded, is taking it on the chin from critics who will invent any calumny and revise any truth to make their case.