Nashville, Tennessee A grass-roots movement that exploded last year is now working on its underpinnings as what's being billed as the first national Tea Party convention gets under way.The convention started off with fireworks Thursday night as former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado used his kickoff speech to slam President Obama.
"People who could not even spell the word 'vote,' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama," Tancredo said to cheers Thursday night.
A spokesman for the Tea Party Nation, the group that organized the convention, said Tancredo's speech may have provided some red meat but termed it problematic.
"It doesn't further the dialogue," said Mark Skoda, a businessman and founder of the Memphis Tea Party, who is also serving as spokesman for the convention.
Contrary to Tancredo's remarks, the Tea Party is not about "name-calling," said Rand Paul, whose campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky is supported by the Tea Party.
"There are politicians who have gone into the movement and tried to become part of the movement," he said on CNN's American Morning."But really the movement is about individual people."
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The activists are mostly concerned about the "fiscal insolvency of our nation," he said. "We have to do something, and it's not going to come from the career politicians."
Speeches are not the focus of the convention. Panels, sessions and workshops are the bread and butter of this event. Among the sessions scheduled for Friday are ones on how to conduct voter registration drives and where to find conservative votes, women in politics, how to organize a Tea Party group, how to involve youth in the conservative movement, grass roots "on the ground," how to unite state Tea Party groups, technology in the Tea Party movement and why Christians must engage.
"This convention is a way to galvanize the conservative movement in a way that the general rallies do not," said Skoda, leading a panel on technology in the movement.
Organizers hope the three-day event will help strengthen the anti-big-government movement. On its Web site, Tea Party Nation says the event is "aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movement's multiple organizations' principal goals."
Organizers told CNN that they'll announce at a news conference Friday afternoon a set of "first principles" for candidates seeking support from the movement. Skoda refused to term the principles a "litmus test," but said candidates would have to adhere to the principles to be eligible for Tea Party fundraising and support.
The principles include fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, states' rights and national security.
There has been pushback against the convention and its organizers from both outsiders and some in the movement because of the Tea Party Nation's for-profit status and because the price of entry attendees have paid for access to the workshops and seminars being held through Saturday.
Red State blogger Erick Erickson wrote that while he has good things to say about some groups within the Tea Party, "this national Tea Party convention smells scammy."
Mark Meckler said he and Jenny Beth Martin, co-founders of the Tea Party Patriots, aren't participating in the convention because "it wasn't the kind of grass-roots organization that we are, so we declined to participate."
Organizers say some 600 people have paid $549 each to attend the convention and that the event is sold out. But they add that tickets costing $349 are still available for Saturday night's banquet, where former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will give the convention's keynote address.
Neither convention organizers nor a spokeswoman for Palin would confirm reports that she's getting paid around $100,000 for her keynote appearance.
"I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event," Palin said in a statement this week. "Any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause."
Sherry Phillips, who along with her husband, Nashville attorney Judson Phillips, founded Tea Party Nation, said earlier this week in a message to supporters that "we fully expect to break even at this event. We may even make a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN."
Phillips also fired back at her critics, saying, "We never did this to make us rich or famous. Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event."
As controversy surrounds the convention, tensions have been rising among Tea Party activists. Rival factions are battling over who will carry the Tea Party banner, and others worry that powerful groups are "Astroturfing" what they think should remain a grass-roots group.
Last week two major speakers scheduled for the convention dropped out of the lineup. Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota announced that they would not attend the convention, which is being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville.
Blackburn was scheduled to serve as a featured speaker and introduce Palin. Bachman was scheduled to serve as one of the convention's kickoff speakers. Both are strong supporters of the Tea Party movement.Both said the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct advised them not to participate because of the convention's for-profit status. And both said the canceling of their speeches is not a sign that their commitment to the Tea Party movement is fading.CNN's Kristi Keck and Mary Snow contributed to this report
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