So now that every Obama apologist has used the Tea Party protests to educate the masses about slang terms for oral sex, I think it is time to share a thought about the incredible event last week.  (Interesting though how liberals hate when conservative blowhards like Rush Limbaugh use a play on words to belittle their opponents, fema-nazis for example, but “tea bagging” to insult taxpayers is just dandy.)

I have been involved in plenty of political street theater over the years and I feel completely comfortable saying that last Wednesday was the largest, most effective anti-tax and spend rally I have ever seen.  It was an honor to speak at the rally.

The only awkward crowd response I got was when I reminded my anti-tax brethren that Republicans started us down this track to Obama spending-mania.  Here’s what I said:

This is not a partisan protest. Let us not forget that it was a different political party, with their own out-of-control debt spending, that teed up the ball for the current regime to swing away toward socialism. If Republicans wish to regain their mantle as the guardians of limited government, they first have to atone for their betrayal.

I see Republicans licking their chops at their prospects in 2010, as if it is going to be a replay of the Republican Revolution of 1994.  That isn’t going to happen until Republicans first get their own house in order.  Let’s get some history straight, 1994 had less to do with the Contract with America and more to do with Clinton’s so-called assault weapons ban.  I doubt we will see a large anti-gun bill pass in the next year because of that.  Even Pelosi isn’t foolish enough to make such a mistake, at least not until after the 2010 election.

But the larger issue is the one of trust.  Republicans, now in the minority in DC and here in Colorado, can squawk all they like about getting spending under control and vote against all the spending bills they are faced with.  They might even believe their own press releases about how anti-spending they are.  We have to remember, because the voters sure as hell will, that when Republicans had their chance to lead, they proved that they were just politicians after all.  The growth of the federal government was larger under Bush than it was under LBJ.  In Colorado we saw Amendment 23, the FasTracks tax, the “growth” dividend, and of course Referendum C.

My advice for Republicans on all levels – atone.  No, not just some throw-away lines in stump speeches about how Republicans went to DC to drain the swamp and instead found it to be a hot tub. I’m talking real atonement. Man up. Take responsibility. And make a sincere apology for turning your backs on our core values. Republicans didn’t disappoint us when they were in office, they betrayed us.

In recovery alcoholics must list their wrongs and make amends.  The Republicans’ recovery can be no different.

Republican leaders, both here and in DC, would be wise to go through the painful and humiliating task of DOCUMENTING their errors over the last decade: the spending, the earmarks, the fights they were too cowardly to take on the likes of Amendment 23 and McCain-Feingold, the big-government causes that too many went along with like outlawing incandescent light bulbs and company bailouts.  Republicans must be able to point to a list, an accounting, and say “we will never do that again.”  We all need to know what “that” is.  And Republicans will better be able to recognize “that” when it comes their way again.

I am not suggesting that the party must wear a hair-shirt for the next decade.  I am however suggesting that coming clean about the party’s mistakes and betrayals of principle is the fastest and surest way to get voters to believe they are the answer to the current socialist leaning machine.

Republicans, you can lead again, but you gotta be forgiven first. Republicans, we can forgive you, but you gotta ask.