Eh. Sounds cool in theory, or at least it would have if they had pulled in grassroots people to speak too and spent more time promoting it. As it is, this smells like a joint campaign event to remind the base who the real fiscal cons are ahead of a likely Sanford presidential run and Perry’s re-election bid against Kay Bailey Hutchison. Slapping the Republican brand on “tea party” won’t please partiers who want the events to remain bipartisan either, but I suppose that rubicon was crossed when Fox News went whole hog to promote the protests.

Hoping to recapture the grassroots energy of last month’s “tea parties,” Republican Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas will host a tele-town hall Thursday that’s being dubbed “Tea Party 2.0.”

The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to participate in the town hall, which will take place roughly one month after the much-publicized anti-tax tea party rallies held in hundreds of locations across the country on April 15, the tax filing deadline.

Sanford and Perry will each speak for several minutes before opening up the town hall to up to an hour-long question and answer session…

The RGA, Ayers said, is hoping to use the town hall as a springboard for organizing support and fundraising for key gubernatorial races this year in Virginia and New Jersey.

I might watch just for the entertainment value of seeing them field questions about secession and the inevitable ranting from Paulnuts about the Federal Reserve, but I’m guessing the informational value of this will be relatively low. What do you think, photo op or something more? To the extent that it puts grassroots conservatives in mind for better organizing, it’s all to the good.