Tea Party Lacks sublty

[Big RR]

Sue--isn't that part and parcel of all political organizations and, especially, the major parties? Which one(s) really care about their rank and file members?

[Gob]

Mebyon Kernow does, but still no one votes for them.

[Sue U]

Although now bereft of the talents of Dave Weigel, the local Capital-area advertising circular is somehow managing to report (via telegraph "wire service") on the battle for control of the Tea Party even as the Tea Party battles for control of the GOP:

Tea party group on defensive over blog about NAACP

By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press
Monday, July 19, 2010; 9:36 PM

JUNEAU, Alaska -- An official with the Tea Party Express on Monday blasted its expulsion from a national coalition over its refusal to oust a former chairman who satirized the NAACP in a controversial blog posting.

The political action committee that raises money for Republican candidates was booted from the National Tea Party Federation for refusing to rebuke spokesman Mark Williams, whose posting referred to NAACP president Benjamin Jealous as "Tom's nephew and NAACP head colored person."

Tea Party Express coordinator Joe Wierzbicki said it was "arrogant and preposterous" for the federation to expel his group.

"Circular firing squads of groups within the tea party movement attacking one another accomplish nothing, and on this issue the Tea Party Federation is wrong," he said in a statement. [Ha ha ha! Way to shoot back, Joe!]

The friction highlights fault lines within the loosely jointed tea party movement, which has no formal organization or bylaws. Internal squabbling could weaken its political clout, and it comes at a time when the NAACP and other have sought to discredit the movement.

The tea party - thousands of community groups that promote limited government, free markets and other conservative and Libertarian principles - has resisted any notion of centralized control.

Other Tea Party Express officials tried to distance the group from Williams but stopped short of expelling him.

Williams "may speak on behalf of us in some circumstances, in some situations, and we may agree on some things," Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer said during an appearance in Anchorage to help U.S. Senate hopeful Joe Miller. "This is not one of the things that we agree upon."

Williams stepped down as chairman of the Tea Party Express about a month ago and remains listed on the group's website as a spokesman. The voicemail on his cell phone was full Monday and not taking any more messages.

In a blog posting Sunday, Williams said he was refusing media interviews because he did not want to further inflame the situation. He noted he had pulled his "inflammatory (and arguably over the top - just ask my wife) criticism of the NAACP."

Kremer didn't say whether Williams would continue as a spokesman. She said Tea Party Express does not condone racism.

In Idaho, the lone Democrat to win favor with the Tea Party Express rejected its endorsement, citing the blog about the NAACP.

U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick told the group in a letter he had no choice but to decline after it refused to oust Williams.

Minnick, who represents Idaho's 1st Congressional District, called the blog post "reprehensible."

Christina Botteri, a founding member of the National Tea Party Federation, said the organization was "interested in moving the whole Mark Williams thing behind us," to focus on fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets.

Earlier, Tea Party Express coordinator Wierzbicki claimed the federation had "enabled and empowered the NAACP's racist attacks on the tea party movement, and they should be ashamed of themselves." [Good one, Joe! NAACP is racist against racists! Ha ha, again.]

The NAACP approved a resolution last week calling on activists and others to "repudiate the racist element and activities" within the tea party movement.

Tea Party Express expects to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Miller take on U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in next month's GOP primary in Alaska.

The group also helped Sharron Angle overcome her long-shot status to win Nevada's GOP primary. Angle is set to face Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November.

Miller, a Fairbanks attorney making his first statewide run for public office, reported having about $125,000 in campaign funding on hand as of June 30, compared to Murkowski's nearly $2.4 million. Miller also has the endorsement of Sarah Palin, whose political action committee has reportedly given Miller $5,000.

The Tea Party Express and the federation have each faced criticism within the grass-roots movement.

Some local activists depict the Tea Party Express as little more than a front for a Republican-linked group to make money because its chief strategist is former Reagan White House aide and longtime GOP consultant Sal Russo. Others say the federation is trying to gain influence in a movement that has resisted formal leadership.

Mark Meckler, a California attorney who is a national co-founder of the 2,300-chapter Tea Party Patriots, said he warned the federation about Williams' reputation for incendiary commentary.

The federation is "a bunch of self-important folks who decided they need to speak for the tea party," Meckler said. "We wanted nothing to do with them."

WaPo! (emphases added)

[Lord Jim]

I have long felt that the Tea Party Movement would be a relatively short lived political phenomena, and that article really illustrates some of the reasons why....

First of all, it's fully to be expected that an organization who's fundamental principle is that nobody should be able to tell you what to do, would fall to bickering amongst themselves...And since there's no central organization with any authority to resolve any of this, the problems just multiply and fester...

Second, you've got such a broad and disparate group of folks involved in this, with their own agendas, from dedicated local grassroots activists, to DC based con men out to make a quick buck, it's always going to be difficult for them to agree on much of anything...

What I suspect will happen next, (it's already started to happen) is that the Tea Party will begin to splinter as various local chapters have falling outs with the national group or each other. Each splinter group will be smaller and less effective. Also a lot of folks who got involved because they sincerely believed they could make a positive difference, will get disgusted with all the bickering and internecine warfare and leave the organization.

It may have enough energy to have some influence for perhaps one more election cycle beyond this one, but I really expect it to decay as a political movement fairly rapidly.

[Andrew D]

It may have enough energy to have some influence for perhaps one more election cycle beyond this one, but I really expect it to decay as a political movement fairly rapidly.

No loss there ....

[Lord Jim]

The group also helped Sharron Angle overcome her long-shot status to win Nevada's GOP primary. Angle is set to face Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November.

We've discussed the possibility of moving to Nevada a few times, (Lady Kelly grew up in Reno and she also has family in Vegas) but I have to say I am really happy that I don't live in Nevada now, and am not faced with a choice for the Senate between Sharon Angle and (Lord, gimme strength)

Harry Reid....

I am trully thankful that I don't live in Nevada now and find myself confronted with their horrific choice for the US Senate...

It's almost beyond the confines of human imagination to conceive of the Republican party rendering up a candidate so unbelievably awful that I might actually consider voting for Harry Reid....

This is the second worst choice that voters have been confronted with for a major office on a state-wide basis in modern American political history...(The worst was the choice Louisiana voters faced a few years ago in a Governor's race between the Neo-Nazi ex-Klan leader David Duke, and the brazenly corrupt Edwin Edwards)

In Nevada, the choice now comes down to the odious, oily, dishonest Washington lobbyist whore Reid, and a certifiable lunatic....

It's a tragedy that Nevada had no provision for a nomination runoff if one candidate failed to achieve a majority; had that been the case, Angle would be history. Lowden or Tarkanian would have beaten Reid easily, probably by double digits.

Angle has done one thing that demonstrates that she's not completely insane....

She is refusing to give any interviews to members of the mainstream press, or even to answer their questions on the campaign trail....

While I believe this may be unprecedented for the state wide nominee for a federal office, it's a very wise move on her part....

The less people know about what she has going on in her head, the better chance she has of winning...(it's a measure of just how despised Reid has become in Nevada that the latest polls show her in a neck and neck race with him...she might very well win)

In her latest pronouncement, she revealed that she believes that God told her it was her destiny to run against Reid...(unfortunately, a very persuasive argument could be made that God is actually on Harry's side, since He gave him the one opponent that he actually might be able to defeat...)

If I lived in Nevada, I think that at the end of the day what I would probably do would be to visit my local public establishment, fortify myself with a couple of cocktails, and then go into the voting booth and pull the lever for Angle...

Based on the idea that having one kooky junior Senator (who would probably vote the way I wanted her to more often than not) was less worse than returning a lying, senior Democratic machine pol with a lefty streak to the Senate.