[JaK_MarkoV_Pi]

Meanwhile, Dick Armey and his FreedomWorks group beat both of them to the punch, holding an event in Baltimore on Thursday and Friday.

Most prominently, FreedomWorks, the Washington advocacy group that was active in building the Tea Party movement, held a day-and-a-half retreat here on Thursday and Friday with about 25 new Congress members and one newly elected senator, Mike Lee from Utah.

Among the topics: how to get your legislation passed; guidelines to undoing the health care law; Monetary Policy and Economic Theory 101; and tips for keeping your family together while you are in Washington, as told by Dick Armey, the former House majority leader who now leads FreedomWorks, and his wife, Susan.

“There will be pressure for all legislators to hear the mandate of the people,” said Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, while new members met on their own for an hour, impromptu, to map out their agenda for working in concert. “All of us feel an obligation to follow up on what’s been promised.” The group represents about one-third of incoming freshmen.

Mr. Kibbe said his organization’s goal would be to support the newly elected officials — whom he refers to as “legislative entrepreneurs” — with help from grass-roots groups on their pet causes and, if need be, pressure from those same groups to stay on the Tea Party page. “Our primary role is connecting legislative entrepreneurs with outside groups who have the same values,” he said.

Other groups are trying to exert a similar influence. Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group for Tea Party groups across the country, has accused another group, the Claremont Institute, of claiming to be the official orientation for new Tea Party-blessed lawmakers and derided the group for planning a function at exactly the same time as its own. Other groups are also organizing training sessions of sorts. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/us...er=rss&emc=rss