Personal Is Personal, Even for a Congressman

For the past year, I have consciously avoided the occasional infighting and circular firing squads that have broken out among various conservative and tea party groups. The fight against the left was simply too important to waste time determining which organization was “more true” to the “movement”. Any young movement was bound to have these dust-ups and, with the November elections approaching, it was generally a good idea for most of us to stay silent.

But, the recent actions by one of these organizations is simply too outrageous to ignore. The Tea Party Patriots are hosting an orientation conference for incoming GOP Congressmen next week. It seems its event conflicts with another orientation conference, sponsored by another group. TPP claims that this competing conference is really being organized by “Washington insiders.” I have no idea if this is true or if it matters, but it is also beside the point.

To ensure incoming Congressmen attend its event. TPP sent out a mass e-mail to its activists, directing them to call the Freshman and urge them to attend its conference. In the email, it included the personal cell phone numbers and email for each new member. This information is now out there, on the internet, forever. Remember, not an office number, but the individual members’ personal information.

This is a terrible violation of trust with these new members, most of whom are supportive of the tea party movement. It is also a breach of their privacy.

One of the biggest challenges in recruiting individuals to run for office is their fear that they will have to surrender their entire private lives to serve. (Trust me, I’ve had to recruit people to run for office.) It is always fashionable to criticize lawmakers, but it is also important to remember from time to time that we do ask quite a lot of them. I’m not shedding a tear for them, just recognizing this fact. It is our biggest obstacle to recruiting small businessmen and regular, average citizens to run for office. It is a big reason we are usually left only with a pool of lawyers who have been dreaming about political power since they were toddlers.

And TPP has just made this problem much worse. Even Congressmen are entitled to some semblance of a private life. Even Congressmen are entitled to some zone where they can easily communicate with their family and close friends or others, at their choosing.

It should be quickly noted that this breach of privacy was made to urge the members to attend a conference. This isn’t exactly fate-of-the-Republic stuff.

TPP needs to acknowledge their mistake and apologize swiftly and very publicly. I’m not suggesting that anyone there have to resign, but the public and, especially, the new members of Congress need to understand that something like this will never happen again.

TPP are good people. I’m sure this was a rookie mistake made in the hot cauldron of today’s politics. But, the days ahead will only get hotter. TPP must ensure that some adults are in charge when those days come.