What Comes After The Tea Party?

ATLANTA, GA -- Roughly 800 tea party protests occurred Wednesday across the nation.

But what now that the party's over?

Organizers say perhaps more important than the 15,000 people who attended the downtown Atlanta rally are the 6-7,000 signatures they collected.

Those signatures included e-mail addresses and phone numbers; organizers plan to contact their new mailing list every time a major tax bill or budget comes up. They are also planning eight more tea parties before Election Day 2010, when they hope to wield some major influence.

"Our next tea party, we will have voter registration drives," said organizer Debbie Ellis Dooley. "And we will be watching legislation."

Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson (4th District) said he wasn't concerned about the momentum gathering from the fiscally conservative protests. The majority of Americans, he was quick to point out, supported both the election of President Barack Obama and the stimulus plan passed in February.

"This is essentially a political protest," Johnson said. "It certainly is an outgrowth of the right-wing philosophy."