Having attended a Tea Party rally in Philadelphia that was organized by an African American and in which 9 of 13 speakers were African American and Latino, I keep trying to reconcile Harry Reid's view of the Tea Party with my own firsthand experience.

Saying it's time to rebuild America by working together to create jobs, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday prepared for Congress' return to Washington this week with a warning to Republicans to leave Tea Party "extremism" behind and "learn what legislation is all about."

My conclusion is simple.  Harry's view of extreme is, well, extreme.  Where else but in the extraordinary mind of Harry Reid would a balanced budget be extreme?  Where else but in Washington DC would the idea of cutting public funding for a Cowboy poetry reading and the studying shrimp exercising be extreme?  Are the Tea Party extremists so heartless as to expect Cowboys to fund their own poetry reading?  Do these Tea Party extremists really expect shrimp to exercise unsupervised? Most assuredly, forcing shrimp to exercise without public funding, borders on cruel and unusual; at least in the mind of Harry Reid.

Mr. Reid's call of Tea Party extremism comes most peculiarly, at a time President Obama is under scrutiny for his illegal appointments of people who could not be approved even by a Democrat controlled Senate.  Could Mr. Reid's call of Tea Party extremism be nothing more than a diversion to Mr. Obama's appointments of people too extreme even by the standards his own party? Or perhaps is Mr. Reid's extremist rant a diversion from Mr. Obama's call to increase the debt limit, by yet another $1.5 trillion?

Extreme? Let's take a look;

$16.5 trillion in debt vs. a balanced budget. 

Zealots at the EPA circumventing Congress by making a law fining companies $6 million for not using a fuel that doesn't exist vs. smaller government, transparency and accountability.

The unchallenged, unlimited spending of a President vs. the passing of a budget by Congress, something that has not been done in more than one thousand days.