It is possible that a tempest in a Tea Party will emerge in Nashville, Tenn.

A three-day national convention that starts today and costs $549 for each participant seems to run counter to the objectives of the grass-roots Tea Party movement. The infusion of cash might hurt the chance to halt the colossal expansion of government.

Organizers claim the convention will help tea partyers build alliances designed to force the Democratic and Republican parties to change their big-spending ways. Hopefully, that will be the case because the movement is much bigger and more important than anything that will occur in Nashville this weekend.

The Tea Party doesn’t need money to energize people whose goal is to restore fiscal sanity in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. It is a source of energy unto itself. It is a fierce political wind that can lift freedom-loving candidates to crucial victories, a la Scott Brown in Massachusetts, or block ill-conceived bills like the current ones on health care reform and Cap and Trade. These bills are flawed edicts designed to make every American and every business a slave to the federal government.

Americans are more likely to profit from the Tea Party if it remains pure and devoid of big money. Its allegiance should be solely to the U.S. Constitution, not a corporation or a major political party. Any attempt to hijack it in order to make money should be resisted.

Long ignored, the Constitution is returning to vogue in large part because of tea partyers who share a disdain for Democrats and Republicans. They realize our leaders have basically spat on the supreme law of the land for decades.

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry will address this issue during a Feb. 23 speech at Citizens Meeting No. 8 at the Thomasville Municipal Auditorium. His message is sure to resonate with those who support a return to the principles of the Founding Fathers. He views the 10th Amendment as the key to reining in the federal government.

The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people. That is the fertile ground that is allowing the Tea Party movement to thrive. The addition of political fertilizer in the form of money is not needed and might stunt its growth.