Thread: Palin ruins everything: Tear Party

lol Palin....

and lol Tear Party, good thing I cant edit the thread title

TEA PARTY!

Latest tea party target: Its own convention - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

he convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage.

Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over.

Except it’s a tea party convention.

Billed as a pivot point to transition the tea party movement from a chaotic uprising to an organized and sustainable political force and featuring Sarah Palin as its star attraction, the first-ever convention in Nashville from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 is insead shaping up as a reminder of the problems inherent in holding together a fractious coalition of local groups resistant to authority and pursuing often-conflicting agendas.

Red State blogger Erick Erickson made it clear recently what he thinks of the coming event — pronouncing that it “smells scammy” and is inconsistent with the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement.

“I’m hoping for the best, but I’m prepared for the worst — that it descends into infighting and that the passionate activists who attend end up leaving disenchanted,” he told POLITICO.

At least two national groups that have emerged as major players in the movement rejected requests to buy sponsorships for the convention — which were going for as much $50,000 — while three other groups have recently withdrawn as sponsors, with two citing concerns over organizer infighting and questions about the convention’s unusual finances.

Meanwhile, about 50 local tea party leaders from across Tennessee are planning to attend a sort of counter-convention caucus set for this Saturday in Nashville, while some activists are discussing staging protests outside next month’s convention, which will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.

The tensions swirling around the convention are in many ways emblematic of the ones that have plagued the tea party movement as a whole since soon after disaffected conservatives — many new to politics and unversed in organizing — flocked to congressional town halls and marches across the country to protest the big-spending initiatives pushed by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress.

The national convention was envisioned as a way to move past the disputes by bringing together leading activists from across the country to share ideas, receive training and hear from tea party heroes such as Palin, the former Alaska governor, and Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

But perhaps befitting the movement it is trying to bring together, the convention is — well, unconventional and a bit chaotic.

It was the brainchild of Judson Phillips, a Tennessee lawyer who — as first reported by POLITICO — is running the event through a for-profit Tennessee corporation he controls called Tea Party Nation. Most political conventions are conducted by nonprofits. Yet Phillips originally intended to turn a profit from the endeavor, with the cash going to fund a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.

Read more: Latest tea party target: Its own convention - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

there are 2 more pages

^^ Thanks, R_Rex.

The Tea Party was genuine when it first began in 2007.

But as usual, TV talk show hosts jumped on board, the Tea Party became partisan,

and it's become a joke.