GOProud 'never' a part of tea party

Judson Phillips

Tea Party Nation founder and CEO Judson Phillips plans to set the GOP congressional leadership straight about the tea party's legislative demands, after a handful of Tea Party Patriots and a homosexual activist group, GOProud, released an open letter last Monday urging Republicans to ignore social issues.

This coming Monday, Phillips plans to release an open letter of his own urging the GOP to address several fiscal matters and at least three social issues, including the preservation of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy banning open homosexuals in the military.

"There is a battle going on for the heart and soul of the tea-party movement," Phillips told WND. "GOProud has its own agenda. It wants to create credibility for itself by leveraging the tea-party movement, but GOProud has never been a part of the tea-party movement."

Phillips is also taking aim at abortion.

"The abortion industry is a multibillion dollar industry. Why are they getting funding from the government? Cut that off!" said Phililips.

Phillips sent out an email Thursday morning soliciting signatures from Tea Party Nation leaders across the country for his letter, which calls on Congress to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading abortion provider, and crack down on illegal immigration.

"The purpose of the email was to ask people if they'd be interested in signing a letter saying the GOProud letter doesn't speak for the mainstream of the tea party, and here's what the mainstream tea party really thinks," said Phillips.

"This morning's letter has gotten a huge response, my email box is blasting out."

"There's a part of the movement that wants to focus exclusively on fiscal issues, but at least half of the tea-party movement is made up of values voters," Phillips observed. "Ignoring these people is a recipe for disaster. If you want to win, you've got to have a pretty broad coalition. You need more than 50 percent. With the fiscal and social conservatives together, we win. If we start cutting our coalition up, we can't win."