'Tea Party' gaining legitimacy

America's "Tea Party" has gained a touch of political legitimacy as the House of Representatives approved the creation of a caucus for the mainly white,anti-big-government movement.

Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann said Congress had given the green light for the caucus, which will join a host of other groupings on Capitol Hill ranging from ethnic groups to industry lobbyists.

"Just got word that the Committee on House Administration officially approved the House Tea Party Caucus," Bachmann, president of the new conservative bloc, said in a message on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The Tea Party movement sprung up in 2009 as a grass roots revolt against President Barack Obama's policies.

Taking its name from a revolt against British rule in colonial Boston in 1773, the group has emerged as a powerful force in nominating Republicans for November's mid-term elections.

The views of the movement came under attack earlier this month when a prominent African-American civil rights group, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), passed a resolution urging the Tea Party to "repudiate its racist elements."

First Lady Michelle Obama has provoked controversy by delivering the keynote speech at the annual convention of the NAACP, which accused the Tea Party of being "racist."

But many in the American political establishment are loath to write off a disparate grouping that could become an important political force. And Vice President Joe Biden came to the Tea Party's defense on Sunday.

"The president doesn't believe that the Tea Party is a racist organization," he told ABC's "This Week."

"I don't believe that. Very conservative, very different views on government and a whole lot of things, but it is not a racist organization."

AFP