Seriously though, if this internecine Tea War makes a lot of sense to you, it probably means you're too deep into the teabagging thing. (UPDATE: Poor word choice.) All I can say is, well, duh, the Republicans are trying to exploit the Tea Partiers for their own aims, including fund-raising, even though the Tea Partiers are nominally non-partisan. Yeah, right. Just like they are nominally non-white.
Tea Party Patriots vs. Tea Party Express
By David Weigel
October 2, 2009 | Washington Independent
I reported yesterday that there was some friction between the Tea Party Patriots and Our Country Deserves Better PAC, the organization that launched the Tea Party Express. Today, I confirmed that the discord is real, and that Amy Kremer, formerly a national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, was pushed out last week because of her decision to join the upcoming Tea Party Express tour.
"As an organization, we do our best to be completely nonpartisan," said Mark Meckler, a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. "That's one of things that's allowed us to survive when we were called Republican tools. Tea Party Patriots are very dissatisfied with the Republican Party — we have nothing against Our Country Deserves Better PAC, but they raise money for Republicans."
Meckler did say that the antics of Mark Williams, the former radio host who has become a spokesman for Tea Party Express — and is often identified as a "Tea Party leader" because of this — played a role in the pushback.
"Williams has a tendency to go out to national media and say exceptionally inflammatory things," said Meckler. "That can lead to the Tea Party movement being painted by the left as a bunch of racists. And that's not the Tea Party movement."
[Of course not! Why, who would think such a thing, really?! - J]
Joe Wierzbicki of OCDB disputed my characterization of the group as "Republican-centric" and "late comers" to the Tea Party movement.
"We had 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Wayne Allen Root speaking in Las Vegas," said Wierzbicki, "had Independents AND Democrats speak at the various tea party rallies." And he provided evidence that OCDB had endorsed Tea Parties from the beginning. Still, members of Tea Party Patriots argued that they had brought OCDB into the actual day-to-day of the Tea Parties, and that Williams was taking credit for a movement he had not started.
Tea Party Patriots vs. Tea Party Express
By David Weigel
October 2, 2009 | Washington Independent
I reported yesterday that there was some friction between the Tea Party Patriots and Our Country Deserves Better PAC, the organization that launched the Tea Party Express. Today, I confirmed that the discord is real, and that Amy Kremer, formerly a national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, was pushed out last week because of her decision to join the upcoming Tea Party Express tour.
"As an organization, we do our best to be completely nonpartisan," said Mark Meckler, a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. "That's one of things that's allowed us to survive when we were called Republican tools. Tea Party Patriots are very dissatisfied with the Republican Party — we have nothing against Our Country Deserves Better PAC, but they raise money for Republicans."
Meckler did say that the antics of Mark Williams, the former radio host who has become a spokesman for Tea Party Express — and is often identified as a "Tea Party leader" because of this — played a role in the pushback.
"Williams has a tendency to go out to national media and say exceptionally inflammatory things," said Meckler. "That can lead to the Tea Party movement being painted by the left as a bunch of racists. And that's not the Tea Party movement."
[Of course not! Why, who would think such a thing, really?! - J]
Joe Wierzbicki of OCDB disputed my characterization of the group as "Republican-centric" and "late comers" to the Tea Party movement.
"We had 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Wayne Allen Root speaking in Las Vegas," said Wierzbicki, "had Independents AND Democrats speak at the various tea party rallies." And he provided evidence that OCDB had endorsed Tea Parties from the beginning. Still, members of Tea Party Patriots argued that they had brought OCDB into the actual day-to-day of the Tea Parties, and that Williams was taking credit for a movement he had not started.
1 comment:
Tom, to a certain extent I feel you, I really do, but let me copy-paste my comment from another blog entry to show you why I disagree:
"Trying to don my moderate, apolitical hat for a moment, I'd argue that this is not a good thing for America. We've only got 2 parties, which even on a good day is inadequate; but with 1 party on a metaphorical acid trip lost in the woods, that leaves the other party to run things pretty much as they see fit. That's great if you have total faith in that party and see no good that could come from a loyal, reasonable opposition. But it's not so great if you have big misgivings about the effects of absolute power -- and absolute access to lobbyists' campaign donations -- on America's money-driven political process."
http://what-is-is.blogspot.com/2009/11/gop-media-candidates-stoking-party.html
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