December 18, 2013 01:41 PM UTC

Boehner's attack on the Tea Party, from the perspective of CO Springs Tea-Party radio

• 4 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

When you read about House Speaker John Boehner turning against his right-wing supporters, what you miss is how Boehner's salvo was received from the humble perspective of the Tea Party in the trenches of a place like Colorado Springs.

For this raw material, you need to tune to Tea-Party radio, like KVOR's Jeff Crank show, broadcast from CO Springs.

On Saturday, someone named "Ron" phoned Crank's show and calmly suggested that the Tea Party should back off a bit, because it might cause Republicans to lose elections. And Crank, a Tea-Party stalwart, lets loose on him.

I transcribed it below, but to understand the underlying feelings and battle scars, you have to listen here. (First you'll hear caller Ron, then radio-host Crank.)

"[The Tea Party] is trying to do something real big, all at one time, and turn around the ship," Ron told Crank. Maybe it should be more incremental, Ron said.

Crank: "Your attacks on the Tea Party, Ron," said Crank as he began to blow his top. "You need to look and see who won those [recall] elections. I know you think it was the ads that the NRA ran.

Ron: "No! No!"

Crank: You're foolin' yourself, Ron. You're foolin' yourself, if you think that. You're foolin yourself. I'm not going to sit and argue about it [apparently muting Ron]. I know who won those recall elections. I know who was out walking precincts, Ron. [Shouting] I know who did it! So you can say, ‘Oh it was just the NRA came in and won it.’ [now screaming] Look, I'm a member of the NRA! I have spent time and effort and money trying to get people to contribute to the NRA, Ron. But they're not going to save America singlehandedly. We're going to save it. And you attacking the Tea Party. And John Boehner attacking the Tea Party is simply counter productive. It just is."