Gina Brown described herself in the April 12 Pilot as a grandma who has never been involved in any movement before joining in the TEA effort.

A simple Google of her name puts her on the Moore Republican Women Web site as the coordinator of the Southern Pines tea party and treasurer of the MRW.

She is quoted as saying, "I have a checkbook, and I don't write a check for more than I have in it, or I would expect to go to jail," she says. "I think it's teaching people values, and in Washington, D.C., inside that Beltway, there's another culture, and I think we need to have fiscal responsibility."

I guess her Republicanism overcame her instincts as a treasurer and kept her from protesting the squandering of the Clinton surplus and the trillion-dollar deficit spending by George W. Bush for the past eight years.

But, it took only 80 days of the Obama administration to get her off the sofa and out on the street with tea bags hanging from her hat. I'd love to know what she thinks the difference is.

Gina, you gave the Republicans eight years and 80 days to get it right, and they didn't. Do you think you could cut the new president a little slack to clean up the mess?

Peter Mulcahy

Pinehurst