Two of the conservative movement’s largest grassroots organizations, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, have been key players in the Tea Party and town-hall rallies over the spring and summer. Created when the old Citizens for a Sound Economy broke up (it’s a complicated story, no need to rehearse it here), the groups have spent the past couple of years reconstituting themselves and developing active local chapters — always a key element of any effective grassroots organization.

This weekend, it will be FreedomWorks’ turn in the spotlight in the nation’s capital. Its Taxpayer March on Washington officially occurs on Saturday, but activists from across the country have already started to arrive and make their voices heard. David Weigel reports in The Washington Independent about yesterday’s Freedom Summit:

The hundreds of people who trekked in and out of the rally cheered and stomped their bleachers. The resilient “Tea Party” movement, seven months on from its first protests against the economic stimulus package, was proud of its success. Over three hours, they listened to three current Republican members of Congress, got briefings on cap-and-trade and health care legislation from conservative think tank scholars, and got chances to take the mics themselves–often to launch into several-minute-long rants about the threat of an encroaching government. Occasionally they’d get up to talk to other activists and check out a small table of free Dunkin Donuts sustenance and affordable merchandise–$20 shirts and hats commemorating the weekend, political books by [FreedomWorks head Dick] Armey and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), and T-Shirts that read simply “FIRE CONGRESS.”
“Not every member,” said a volunteer for the T-Shirt vendor, WeShouldFireCongress.com. “That fellow from South Carolina who spoke up at the president’s speech last night? We don’t want to beat him!”

Check in here for more details about FreedomWorks and the weekend extravaganza, which is also co-sponsored by the National Taxpayers Union, Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, Young America’s Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and a host of Tea Party and activist groups.