In what will be one of the biggest thematic swings in my reporting career, a week after getting back from Haiti I’m heading to Nashville, Tennessee to cover the first ever National Tea Party convention.

As with any kind of grassroots movement, holding a national convention is somewhat of an oxymoron. Before dispatching me, my boss, Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy, reminded me of John Sayles’ excellent essay, the Anarchist’s Convention. And while, the contrast isn’t so sharp – the Tea Partiers don’t believe in chaos over order — it is striking to see grassroots groups whose only common theme is, arguably, small or limited government come together in a bureaucratic exercise.