Community | February 19, 2011 | 20 comments

Tea Party Patriots Investigated: "They Use You and Abuse You"

source: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/tea-party-patriots-investigated

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ZiggyStrange
Two years ago, Tea Party Patriots got its start as a scrappy, ground-up conservative organization. Its rowdy activists demanded more transparency and less business-as-usual in the nation's capital, and they worked hard to elect candidates who they believed wouldn't succumb to the ways of Washington. But it didn't take long for the grassroots tea party organization to embrace the DC establishment—and some of its more questionable practices.

Lately, Tea Party Patriots (TPP) has started to resemble the Beltway lobbying operations its members have denounced. The group's leaders have cozied up to political insiders implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and have paid themselves significant salaries. TPP accepted the use of a private jet and a large donation of anonymous cash right before a key election, and its top officials have refused to discuss how the money was spent. And recently, the group has hired several big-time fundraising and public relations firms that work for the who's who of the Republican political class, including some of the GOP's most secretive campaign operations.

As TPP's leaders entrench themselves in Washington, local activists the group represents have accused them of exploiting the grassroots for their own fame and fortune while failing to deliver any meaningful political results. "Tea Party Patriots? I can't attribute one victory to them at all," says Laura Boatright, a former TPP regional coordinator in Southern California who has become an outspoken critic. "Where's the success with what they've done with all this money? My view is that it's just a career plan" for its national leaders—namely Jenny Beth Martin, who in 2010 was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Mark Meckler, now a regular commentator on Fox News. (Meckler and Martin did not respond to a request to comment for this story.)

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20 comments // Tea Party Patriots Investigated: "They Use You and Abuse You"

  • nanac
    • 0
      nanac  

    • The Republicans didn't fool anybody..I reconized them immediately in their stupid costumes, with their funny hats, and their racist mis-spelled signs..The only difference between the Tea Party and Republican Party, are the hats..They have the same scarry/dumb policies..The media wasn't fooled by these manipulators, they just pretended like they were a grass-roots organization..If four people showed up on a corner with a tea bag on a silly hat, the media was there.. Thousands of people have been protesting for days in Wisconsin, but the main-stream media treat it as a none story...The corporate media knew that it was business as usual, with the so-called Tea Party, and they should be investigated for not doing their job!

    • 1 year ago
  • ThirdSection
  • ThirdSection
  • ZiggyStrange
  • toyotabedzrock
    • +4
      toyotabedzrock  

    • What is maddening about this is that they just now are figuring it out.

      And they have yet to connect the dots that the people who are controlling their mailing list and stealing from them are also controlling the news they get from the mailing list.

      They know they are being conned for money yet they still accept that the news fed to them by these con artists is true.

      *Pulls out hair*

    • 1 year ago
  • ThirdSection
  • remanns
  • ZiggyStrange
  • remanns
    • +3
      remanns  
    • ZiggyStrange:

      Only the hoi-poloi dregs that form the base,....the scum that rises to the top is going to taste like money; sweet sweet dirty cash.. Uhm,.....that has GOT to be a "mixed" metaphor,....couldn't be helped.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • ZiggyStrange
  • ThirdSection
  • Colin_McCabe
  • ZiggyStrange
  • bambuu
    • +4
      bambuu  

    • I hope all of these nincompoops are investigated when they had their incoherent protest not one person, group or organization interfered with their bullshit. These people make me sick.

    • 1 year ago
  • ZiggyStrange
    • +4
      ZiggyStrange  
    • bambuu:

      The problem that becomes clearer every day is that these people will do "anything" to further their agenda. How dumb is the average Tea Bagger? They support the opposite of what they stand for and make believe it's not really happening.

      The Tea Parties have made a lot of noise. I hope this year we all wake up to the need for "Americans" to stand up and be counted. We are allowing the Koch brothers and the coalition of idiots control the game.

      We need to get in their face, just like they are getting in ours.

    • 1 year ago
  • ZiggyStrange
    • +5
      ZiggyStrange  

    • Hey Tea baggers! Are you going to hold your T.P.P. accountable? Or are you just going to admit what you are?

      Where is the bang for the money? Why are you allowing your leaders to do the same as those you disparage? Hypocrites.

      The Tea Parties are a joke, worse a bad joke.

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
    • +4
      kennymotown  

    • Now the Tea Party is protesting against Union Workers or what's left of the middle Class, I think we know who they are working for now!

    • 1 year ago
  • Milieu
    • +8
      Milieu  

    • 'My view is that it's just a career plan" for its national leaders—namely Jenny Beth Martin, who in 2010 was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Mark Meckler, now a regular commentator on Fox News"

      Hey, I hear the Kochs pay their agents very well in deed.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
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