Palin Will Star at First Tea Party Convention

(Jan. 7) -- Amid this week's speculation about potential Tea Party leaders comes word that Sarah Palin has agreed to deliver the keynote speech at the movement's first national convention next month.

It will be Palin's first political speech in months, and The Washington Independent's David Weigel thinks it's significant that she chose the Tea Party event after twice passing on chances to address the well-established Conservative Political Action Committee.

The Feb. 6 appearance in Nashville gives Palin the opportunity to "take up the mantle that has been waiting for her as the movement's most visible and popular hero," said The Atlantic's Chris Good.

Among the other conservative luminaries who will speak at the convention is Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who has been a headliner at other Tea Party events (and won't repeat her line comparing the movement to the doomed "light brigade" this time). But Palin is by far the event's biggest attraction. And she'll take center stage at a time when the Tea Party is showing it can influence election results.

When Jim Greer quit as chairman of the Florida Republican Party this week, it was seen as a Tea Party coup. Greer was an ally of the state's moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who's struggling in his Senate primary race against Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio.

With Democrat Chris Dodd stepping down, Linda McMahon has the chance to make the jump from running a pro wrestling empire to becoming a Republican senator from Connecticut, Larry Kudlow predicted on National Review Online -- if she "runs a tea-party/free-market/populist/no-bailout/cut-taxes-and-spending/tough-on-terrorism/pro-Gitmo campaign."

The Tea Party is also becoming a factor in the Texas governor's contest. And public opinion polls indicate it's more popular than either the Republican or Democratic parties. But it isn't a formal political party, and some members of the loosely organized confederation of big-government foes are wary of turning it into one.

Dan Riehl is one conservative blogger who's not cheering Palin's decision to address the Tea Party convention. He called it "the beginning of the end" of the grassroots movement and predicted the Tea Party will become like other money-driven partisan groups.

"The tea party movement does not need one 'leader' or figurehead. It strives to avoid being a cult of personality driven by one person's ego or ambition," Pajamas Media's Andrew Ian Dodge said in a post firing back at David Brooks' pointed op-ed in The New York Times about the Tea Party's future. "In fact ... the Tea Party movement has distanced itself from a whole myriad of self-proclaimed 'leaders.'"

While it remains to be seen who, if anyone, will become the face of the Tea Party, it appears the movement has found its theme song. "We the People," a new tune from Ray Stevens (of "Everything Is Beautiful," "The Streak" and "Ahab the Arab" fame) is a hit among tea partiers, CNSNews reported. Sample lyric: "You vote Obamacare, we're going to vote you out of there." Click below to hear the whole song.