Tea Party

Poll: Tea Party Is Wildly Out Of Touch With America

Posted by on October 5, 2010 at 3:23 pm. 5 Comments :

Fox/GOP Tea PartyA new poll (pdf) by the Public Religion Research Institute reveals what most conscious observers already knew: The views of the Tea Party are wholly removed from those of the rest of the American people.

The differences between the Tea Party and everyone else are so stark that it should give pause to any media outlet that contemplates treating the so-called movement as if it has any relevancy to current public affairs. The survey identifies a number of examples of what has been considered conventional wisdom and blasts them out of the water.

The first example of note is the notion that the Tea Party itself represents a significant segment of society. The truth is that there are just 11% of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Partiers. Only 24% say that a Tea Party affiliation would make them more likely to vote for a candidate, while 31% say it would make them less likely to give that candidate their vote.

Another example is the belief that Tea Partiers have an independent, Libertarian point of view. The survey shows that that is not the case. The Tea Partiers are predominantly Christian, social conservatives who oppose abortion and gay rights. And they are also far more likely to vote Republican (83%).

Tea Party views on public figures are also outside the mainstream. Seventy-five percent have an unfavorable view of Obama (25% favorable), while the rest of us view Obama favorably by 58% (40% unfavorable). On Sarah Palin the Tea Partiers are 80% favorable (14% unfavorable), compared to 52% unfavorable (40% favorable) for the rest of the country.

A couple of other interesting results in the poll that are not widely recognized: A majority of voters (54%) say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported health care reform. And nearly 6-in-10 (58%) Americans favor a policy that provides a future path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for several years. On that subject, 64% of Tea Partiers think that immigrants are a burden on society, while only 48% of Americans overall have that view.

Some things we already knew, or could reasonably guess, about the Tea Party were affirmed in the survey. They are overwhelmingly white: 80%, compared to 69% of the population at large. They are concentrated in the south with 43% of their numbers residing there. And they are glued to Fox News. While only 23% of Americans overall regard Fox as their most trusted news source (about the same as CNN and the broadcast networks), two and a half times that many (57%) Tea Partiers do. That’s an even higher number than Republicans (48%) or Christian conservatives (39%).

The conclusion that is abundantly clear is that the Tea Party is a fringe cadre of extremists who have little in common with average Americans. So why do they get so much attention in the press? Well, partly because the press loves controversy, even if they have to invent it. And partly because the Republican Party is anxious to hitch its wagon to the Tea Party express in hopes of enhancing their electoral prospects.

But the main reason the Tea Party gets so much attention in the press is because they have their own press (i.e. Fox News, talk radio, etc.) that pours out their propaganda in a flood of fury, fear, and foreboding.

In the face of that Apocalyptic onslaught, it is comforting to see that majorities of Americans have not bought the snake oil being peddled by the Grand Old/Tea Party. And there is obviously still hope that the American people will surprise the media lackeys who would rather stir the pot than tell the truth.

Tea Party Coloring Book Causes White Crayon Shortage

Posted by on September 30, 2010 at 12:37 pm. 3 Comments :

A new coloring book has hit the shelves that is based on the Tea Party and openly advocates for the principles espoused by the right-wing movement. The publishers say that sales are brisk. But this has resulted in an unforeseen problem that could dampen demand for the book.

There is now a worldwide shortage of white crayons. In order to properly fill in the Tea Partiers portrayed in the book, kids have exhausted the current supply of white drawing implements. America’s children are eager to represent the movement accurately, and this has caused a run on many toy stores. Parents have begun advertising on Craigslist and other sites in a frantic search to satisfy the desires of their kids.

Some parents, in a fit of desperation, are trying to to persuade the young artists to use other colors. “That’s why they call them ‘colored people,'” one anxious mother vainly tried to explain to her crestfallen son.

In addition to the marketplace chaos, the coloring book’s content has political connotations. I wonder what Sean Hannity would have to say about this. He, and many other Fox News shoutcasters, have railed against President Obama for what they called “indoctrination” of children whenever the administration spoke to students or distributed learning materials to schools. And it didn’t have to be a government entity to stir up the Foxies wrath. Private companies and non-profit groups received the same treatment and were likened to Nazis poisoning the minds of our youth. Yet this book has not generated the same criticism despite its explicit advocacy of partisan opinion, as seen in this excerpt from the book:

“When taxes are too high, the high tax takes away jobs and freedom. In 1773 we had a Tea Party and this led to freedom from high taxes. Today we are having another Tea Party and this will lead to freedom from high taxes again!”

The reaction to this book from Fox News isn’t nearly as hostile as their response to anything similar from the White House or those who published more liberal fare. In fact, Fox provided valuable airtime to promote the book and its publisher, which should serve to boost sales. The selective outrage exhibited by Fox and other conservatives demonstrates that indoctrination is not regarded as threatening if it is coming from the right.

Revised and corrected cover of the The Tea Party Coloring Book:

What You Missed At The Beverly Hills Tea Party

Posted by on September 27, 2010 at 10:37 am. 24 Comments :

In lieu of the next 1,000 words…


The much ballyhooed Beverly Hills Tea Party took place yesterday and exceeded all expectations – for lameness. It was the epitome of a Beverly Hills Flop. The turnout was a paltry couple of hundred in a city of four million. And, not surprisingly, it was almost exclusively white.

Just to underscore the significance of that, the population of Los Angeles, which surrounds the tiny patch of real estate that makes up Beverly Hills, is only 49% Caucasian. It would be nearly impossible to snap a photo at random anywhere in L.A. County without capturing a fair representation of people of color. Only at a Tea Party could this homogeneity be accomplished. [Note to Tea Partiers: Relax, that’s not a gay reference. Look it up]

What they hope to achieve by staging an anti-tax rally in the heart of one of the most affluent communities in the country is difficult to surmise. The denizens of Beverly Hills are the prime benefactors of Republican policies that favor the rich and well-connected. And since those are the same people who bankroll the Tea Party you can’t help but notice a certain conflict of interest. The sad part is that the Tea Partiers have fallen for this crusade on behalf of the enfranchised insiders and truly believe that these elitist millionaires are fighting for the interests of working and middle class citizens.

The festivities were led by ancient pop crooner Pat Boone. And it just got better from there. The speakers roster included the terminally choleric Andrew Breitbart, the neo-fascist David Horowitz, and internationally renowned political analyst Victoria Jackson, who sang her big Tea Party hit “There’s a Communist Living in the White House.” That’s just a representative sample of the reality-based insight emanating from the 90291 stage.

And what Tea Party would be complete without Fox News pumping up the propaganda volume? William La Jeunesse covered the event for Fox like a giddy high school newspaper correspondent at a Justin Bieber concert. After a perfunctory acknowledgment that L.A. is predominately liberal, as are many actors, directors, etc., he says that behind every one of those celebrities are numerous grips, electricians, and production people, who he implies would sympathize with the Tea Baggers. Had he spent more time in Hollywood he would know that those people are mostly union workers who support health care reform, Wall Street regulation, taxing the rich, and other Democratic initiatives that form the basis of the Tea Party’s grievances.

To be sure, there are celebrity types who embrace conservative causes, including those held by the Tea Party. They include inspiring contemporary artists like Chuck Norris, Jon Voight, and Ted Nugent. But if they think that their little soiree in the park adjacent to Rodeo Drive is an indication of their widespread acceptance, they are even more delusional than was previously believed.

Tea Party Convention: Failure To Launch [Update]

Posted by on September 18, 2010 at 3:51 pm. 3 Comments :

The Tea Party Nation appears to be coming apart. Plans for the National Tea Party Unity Convention have been in turmoil since it was first announced last February. Their original date was in mid-July, but that was scuttled for a variety of reasons that all sounded like excuses to me. So they rescheduled for October. At the time I wrote that the convention’s prospects were dim and I predicted their demise.

“This looks bad for the Tea Party Convention and for the Tea Party in general. If they can’t whip up enough excitement to populate their big ‘unity’ conference, they are going to have a hard time motivating voters who are not nearly as engaged as the sort of people who flock to these gatherings. Time will tell if the rescheduling has the desired effect. If not, the next press release we see may be the one announcing that the convention was canceled.”

Tea Party CrusadeGuess what? The web site for the convention is gone. Disappeared. Ceased to be. There is no remnant of it or explanation. There is no announcement of its demise, nor that of the event. The site and the convention have dissolved into the ether. There is also no mention of the event on the site of its sponsor, Tea Party Nation. (Here is a cached copy of the convention web site).

Raven Brooks, the executive director of Netroots Nation, dug a little further and confirmed the that Tea Partiers have indeed been left high and dry. He called the hotel who told him that “the room block had been canceled and the Mirage had no record of the event.” Netroots Nation, it should be noted, recently held a very successful convention in Las Vegas. Perhaps the Tea Party Nation would like to contact Brooks and get some advice on how it’s done.

I also called the Mirage and they told me the same thing they told Brooks. In addition, I asked if the event had been canceled or if it had never been scheduled in the first place. They told me that they had no contract at all for the event. The cached copy of the convention web site has the Palazzo as the event’s hotel, although that was the first location in July. The October booking was for the Mirage. I called the Palazzo anyway and they also had no record of the event.

This is beginning to sound like a scam. The promoter, Judson Phillips, was broadly criticized when he mounted his first convention for turning the Tea Party movement into a for-profit affair and for paying Sarah Palin $100,000 to read platitudes off of her hand. So it would be interesting to find out what will happen to any registration fees that were collected for the convention (at $400.00 a pop)? Were the speakers, who included Sharron Angle, Lou Dobbs, and Andrew Breitbart, paid for committing to appear? Will the sorry dupes who shelled out for hotel room deposits or airfare just have to eat their losses?

Back in June I wondered about the possibility of a future press release announcing that this convention would be canceled. I guess I gave them too much credit because it appears they’ve decided to just pretend it never existed. That’s pretty much what we’ll be saying about the Tea Party in a couple of years.

Sunday Funnies: Fuck Tea

Posted by on August 15, 2010 at 2:42 pm. 8 Comments :

The Agenda Project brings us a delightful and lilting smack down of the most over-hyped, non-movement since Heaven’s Gate.

I dare you to get that chorus out of your head the rest of the day. This is the sort of catchy jingle you might get if Karen Carpenter were reincarnated as a lefty activist. I’m sure it will set off some fireworks in the Tea Bagger’s domain where the profanity alone would bring on the vapors. And the Culture Warriors, from Sarah Palin to Bill O’Reilly, will come utterly unglued and declare this a harbinger of the decline of western civilization.

Stay tuned for the upcoming cover by Justin Bieber or maybe Lady Gaga.

America Hates The Media – Thank You Fox News

Posted by on August 14, 2010 at 12:39 pm. 5 Comments :

A new survey by the Gallup organization reveals that Americans have all but given up on old media services like newspapers and television. Only about 25% of respondents say that they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in either. This puts the legacy media on a par with perennially hated institutions like banks, HMOs and congress.

It isn’t difficult to surmise the reason for this deep distrust. While the media has long been held in low esteem, there was a noticeable decline that began in the mid-1990s. Since that time confidence has dropped about 30%. And just as a point of interest, Fox News launched in 1996.

There isn’t really anything coincidental about it. Fox News has always had as its purpose the discrediting of news as an institution. I made the case for this last year in Fox News Confidential: The Truth Behind Its Secret Mission:

The real mission of Fox News is [cue trumpets] to so thoroughly tarnish the practice of journalism that majorities of the public would recoil in disgust at all of it. Murdoch and Ailes knew that the introduction of a single cable network would have a difficult time enshrouding the whole of the mediasphere in their veil of lies. So rather than try to change people’s minds, they would endeavor to poison the relationship that people have with the press.

Mission accomplished. By trivializing journalism with tabloid-style sensationalism, and diluting its authority with speculation and hyperbolic opinion, Fox has succeeded in producing large majorities of the American public who are now repulsed by the “mainstream” media that barges into their homes every day. The lies Fox News spews are secondary to the campaign of defamation that they launched against the media as a whole. As a result, their fictional accounts of current events are more enduring because people are paying less attention overall.

The saddest part of this scenario is that the non-Fox media have essentially cooperated with Fox’s disparagement of them. Rather than defend themselves and the integrity of their profession, they went along and allowed Fox to create the negative impressions that are now dominant in society. Even worse, they actually helped to reinforce those impressions.

The Washington Post apologized for not covering more of the fakery of Andrew Breitbart. CNN bent over backwards to endorse the wacko wing of the right by hiring RedState’s Erick Erickson. MSNBC continues to host disreputable characters like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan. And everybody persists in covering non-entities like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. With respect to the latter, Sarah Palin just came in fourth (pdf) amongst Republicans in a preference poll for 2012. And the Tea Party registered a measly (pdf) 30% favorable rating with an even smaller percentage (25%) saying they would vote for a candidate with a Tea Party affiliation. Yet these two subjects get wall-to-wall coverage across the media spectrum.

Perhaps if newspaper and television reporters would cover issues that actually address the interests of their audience they would not be so universally reviled. If they could manage to resist the melodramatic minutiae that Fox News has embraced they could recover some of their lost respect. And above all they need to put objectivity and honesty at the top of their agenda, not ratings and revenue.

In other words, if they deliver a product that is informative and useful, and contributes to people’s lives, profits and popularity will follow. If they continue to pursue the Fox model they will only succeed in further damaging their reputation and their prospects for the future. To say nothing about the damage they are doing to a country whose democracy relies on a well-informed population.

The Breitbart Saga Whines On (And On)

Posted by on August 1, 2010 at 10:28 am. 16 Comments :

Poor Breitbart
Cowardly Andrew BreitbartThe chronically choleric Andrew Breitbart now sees himself as the aggrieved party in the Shirley Sherrod affair that he instigated. This pathetic attempt to curry sympathy is uncharacteristic of Breitbart who ordinarily blusters his way through criticism and fiercely attacks his critics. Why the change in behavior? Could he be worried about Sherrod’s forthcoming lawsuit? This is what he told Newsweek:

Newsweek: Can you understand how this has been difficult for her to get caught up in that?
Breitbart: As difficult as it probably was for her, it’s been difficult for me as well, especially to hear her hurl an accusation of racism at me, when my motivation is absolutely pure and is driven by a desire for this country to move beyond its horrid racist past.

Was his motivation “absolutely pure” when he posted a deceptively edited video and portrayed Sherrod as a racist? Breitbart also admitted to Newsweek that the video took Sherrod out of context, and given two separate opportunities to apologize, Breitbart declined and made excuses instead. That didn’t stop him from expressing his desire to meet with Sherrod in private. If she takes him up on that she had better go wired for sound and video. I bet she could get some juicy clips.

The Wall Street Jackal
It’s interesting that Sherrod’s announcement the she intends to sue Breitbart has not been reported as a news item on Fox News, so far as I have been able to determine (if someone has evidence of such a report, please pass it along). But what Fox may be trying to sweep under the rug, the Wall Street Journal has taken on in the form of a defensive editorial by the editor of their online op-ed pages, James Taranto.

Taranto begins by surmising that Sherrod’s lawsuit would probably fail. His reasoning centered on his assertion that she was a public official and involved claims about the performance of her public duties. Sherrod was indeed an employee of the Department of Agriculture. That may make her a public official of sorts, but she was clearly not a public figure. By Taranto’s logic anyone working for the Post Office would be exempt from protection against defamation. Furthermore, Taranto was wrong in stating the the incident involved claims about the performance of her public duties. There was nothing of the sort in Sherrod’s speech before the NAACP. She was relating events that occurred 24 years earlier, before her employment with the USDA.

Finally, Taranto implied that it would be difficult for Sherrod to prove malicious intent on Breitbart’s part. It seems to me that Breitbart’s malice is fairly evident. By his own account, he had the video for months but never attempted to ascertain its validity or acquire an unedited version before posting it. Plus, he confessed to Newsweek that he knew it was out of context. Add to that his lack of remorse and his defiance in the face of evidence that his actions were defamatory, and you have a pretty good case for malice.

Taranto found it strange that Sherrod “issued this threat” of litigation before the National Association of Black Journalists. But Sherrod did not issue a threat. She answered a question. Taranto continued to be confused by the applause Sherrod received when she indicated her intention to sue Breitbart. This spurred Taranto to ask…

What kind of journalist would applaud the threat of a defamation lawsuit?

How about a journalist who takes pride in his work and is offended by pseudo-journalists who tarnish the profession? Taranto went on to make this absurd claim:

Journalists have an institutional interest in maximizing the scope of First Amendment protections, and that means keeping it as hard as possible for plaintiffs to sue for defamation.

I have no idea where he came up with that bit of lunacy. Reputable journalists who refrain from defaming people have no problem with defamation suits. It is part of the process of keeping them honest. Taranto’s argument would have gun owners opposed to laws against murder. But just as most gun owners support laws against murder, most journalists support laws against defamation.

Steele Interrupted
A scheduled fundraising event by Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee that was to feature Breibart has been “postponed.” The event was to be held at the swanky Beverly-Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills in just two weeks. This last-minute cancellation is curious considering the complex logistics in putting together a high-profile affair like this. It may or may not have had anything to do with Breitbart’s participation and the embarrassment that may entail, but when you also know that Steele backed out of an appearance before the same convention of black journalists that Sherrod attended, it does raise suspicions.

Uni-Tea: More Like Whi-Tea
Breitbart was a featured speaker at the Uni-Tea rally in Philly yesterday. The event was designed to promote the racial and ethnic diversity within of Tea Party. They did manage to assemble a pretty diverse roster of speakers, but reports from the field say that the crowd, which was far smaller than expected, contained few people of color. Thus, Breitbart spent twenty minutes assuring the predominately white Tea Baggers that they weren’t racists. I’m sure they feel better now.

Coming Attractions
Look for Breitbart’s highly anticipated appearance at the National Tea Party Unity Convention in Las Vegas in October. This event was originally scheduled for mid July, but was postponed due to lameness. Also appearing will be Sharron Angle, Lou Dobbs and Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily. This lineup up just screams unity.

Following that, Breitbart is amongst the seafarers embarking on a three-hour eight day post-election cruise sponsored by the National Review. If you ever dreamed of being shipmates with Breitbart, as well as Karl Rove, Phyllis Schlafly, Jonah Goldberg, Tony Blankley, Scott Rasmussen, Thurston Howell III, and more, then you probably awoke mopping up sweat. By the way, isn’t Rasmussen supposed to be a non-partisan pollster?

FYI: Here is a composite view of the National Review Cruise’s itinerary and the path of the Gulf oil spill:

Looks like they’re taking the scenic route.

Is The GOP Ashamed Of Its Tea Party Base?

Posted by on July 28, 2010 at 9:06 am. 5 Comments :

This morning the Fox Nation has placed as its top story an article on the Democrats’ new campaign to tie Tea Partyists to Republicans. Is that supposed to be a criticism? I thought the GOP and the Tea Baggers were best buddies. Republican candidates across the nation have embraced the Tea Party and enthusiastically sought their support. Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Paul Rand in Kentucky have been lauded as heroes within the GOP. Now, all of a sudden, they are complaining that Democrats are calling attention to the affection these conservative comrades have for one another.

When did the Republicans come to view the Tea Party as a liability? Why would this ad rattle them? Recent polling shows that 79% of Tea Partyists identified themselves as Republicans. And some of the top Republicans have been pandering to the Baggers in the most overt manner possible:

John Boehner, House Minority Leader: There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the tea party activists believe in.

Sarah Palin, 1/2-term governor/Fox News contributor: The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible because this is the future of our country. The Tea Party movement is the future of politics.

Sen. Jim DeMint, GOP Chair Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, and more, share these sentiments. However, the Fox Nationalists seemed to be worried about the association with extremist elements of the Tea Bagging faction. The posting links to an article on The Daily Caller that goes into more detail about this troublesome trend. But the article doesn’t support the contention that it is the Tea Party that worries them. The Caller asserts that the Democratic effort is…

“…a swipe at House Republicans for not offering more specifics of how they would govern if they retake the House. But it’s also an attempt to force the GOP to own proposals by Rep. Paul Ryan.”

Are they worried about the Tea Party or their own Republican agenda? Paul Ryan may be a Tea Party sympathizer, but he is also a Republican leader and the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Why would the GOP need to be “forced” to adopt the budget proposals of their own budget committee chief? Why are they ashamed to endorse their own platform and people? That’s all the Democrats are putting forth in their video and on the web site dedicated to the Republican Tea Party Contract on America. The site is a summary of the Republican agenda as stated by Republicans, and is fully annotated to document their positions.

While Fox Nation is serving the interests of the Republican Party by seeking to mock the Democrats’ campaign, the Fox Nationalist citizens of the web site (which hilariously just added the words “All Opinions Welcome” to their logo) are not as anxious to distance themselves from the Tea Bagging contingent. Here is a sampling of comments from these completely sane and reasonable folks:

Wolverine Oathkeeper: I do not think it is necessary to puke the reasons why I am not voting for ANY DemonRats especially Obama “The man from Kenya who scammed our country”. My core thought is that they do not represent “One Nation under God, Indivisible With Liberty and Justice For All”

Judgment: Decent People have the common sense to know that the Democratic party has become a Servant of Satan and is using all his favorite ‘tools’ of lies and deception to decieve the people.

Muslim socialist democrats …….taking lying to a whole nother level !: These muslim socialist democrats are runnin scared…………….There is no antidote for the socialist policies of the muslim moron ! America is fed up with these morons and there is nothing the muslim socialist democratic party can do !

WHITE&PROUD2: Hey Liberals, who gives a f–k what you do? Your time is up and you are irrelevant!!

s-t-g: I like the ad. I wish the republican party was more conservative and would enact much of what the tea party stands for.

Exactly! This ad is not the least bit derogatory from the perspective of the Tea Bagger. It is a documentary exposition of the current state of the Tea-publican establishment. No Tea Partyist would find this ad objectionable. So the question is…why do the Republicans and their media mouthpieces?

Update: House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is ashamed. He announced today that he would not be joining the Tea Party caucus in Congress recently founded by Michelle Bachmann (R-TP).

Fox Nationalists Oppose Tea Party/NAACP Summit

Posted by on July 19, 2010 at 12:54 pm. 4 Comments :

Over at the Fox Nation this morning they are asking their readers: Should Tea Parties Hold Racism Summit With NAACP? Here is a sampling of the response:

No, absolutely not. It would be like attending a abusive spouse seminar after someone asks you if you still beat your wife.

No. It would be a moot point,meaningless to people like that, who live to cry raceism,victumhood,it’s all about me mentality. The accusations would not stop.

No, proverbs state that if you try to reason with a fool, you only end up hurting yourself.

Why should we associate ourselves with the NAACP. We do not associate ourselves with the dark side.

The answer is NO. The Tea Party should do all it can to distance themselves from people who are openly racist. Which is more than I can say for the NAACP.

Absolutely not. Why would the Tea Party want to tarnish it’s image by associating with a known racist organization like the NAACP?

WE DON’T OWE THEM AN APOLOGY…THEY OWE US!!!
Are you f**king kidding me??? Grovel before the NAACP??? For what?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! We have nothing to defend, the NAACP does! No longer silent! They owe the nation and apology for their vile racism and black supremicist behavior!!

Meeting with the NAACP will only validate their witch hunt. The NAACP is an irrelevant, racist organization.

Why….naacp is no longer the organization it started out as. They stand for racism now. After all the minorities are more important than the whites.

Well…that clears that up.

Ironically, according to the article to which Fox Nation links, it was the leader of the Tea Party Federation who suggested the summit between themselves and the NAACP. Apparently the Tea Bagging rank and vile won’t hear of it. At the time of this writing there was not a single affirmative response to the notion of a summit. But there was quite a bit of hatred directed at the nation’s largest civil rights organization.

If these people don’t like being called racists, the best way to prevent it would be to stop acting like racists.

Tea Party Caucus Forms As Tea Party Fractures

Posted by on July 18, 2010 at 1:24 pm. 6 Comments :

Michelle Bachmann (TP-MN) has received acceptance of her request to form a Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. In a report on Fox News it was heralded as a “victory in Congress for the Tea Party.” It was further stated that the approval was acquired in record time for a new caucus.

I’m sure that Democrats around the country are sending their congratulations and best wishes to Bachmann. This may be a masterstroke of self-destruction for the Minnesota Republican. She would be wise to consider why the Committee on House Administration, with six Democrats and three Republicans, would so quickly sign off on her collective.

It will be interesting to see how many of her colleagues she recruits into her caucus. Membership will present a measure of risk as the decision to join will require a difficult political choice: Do you associate yourself with a controversial army of right-wing extremists and radicals by joining? Or do you suffer their unforgiving wrath by snubbing them? That dilemma is likely going to limit the growth of Bachmann’s Baggers.

Tea Party RacismAlliance with the Tea Party is becoming more hazardous with every day. The NAACP just passed a resolution calling on Tea Party leaders to renounce the overtly racist elements of their movement. That was met by flurry of outraged Tea Partiers who insisted that there was not even a trace of racism in their curiously mono-toned ranks. Then they switched to offense asserting that it was the NAACP that is racist.

In the course of this debate, the founder of the Tea Party Express, Mark Williams, posted a “parody” on his web site that was so offensive he was summarily booted out of the Tea Party Federation. Only right-wingers have the audacity to swear up and down that there are no racists among them even as they are kicking out a leader for being a racist. And Williams isn’t the first racist Tea Party leader to get the hook. Dale Robertson, founder of TeaParty.org was ousted earlier this year for sporting a sign with the “N” word (misspelled). We have yet to see Williams’ response to his ouster, but it may provide some more fireworks.

So as Bachmann is putting together her congregation of Tea-publicans in DC, a fissure is widening in the heartland. And they were never a particularly harmonious faction to begin with. Earlier this year there was a Tea Party convention that was roundly criticized by fellow Tea Partiers for being a for-profit event. They even committed the sacrilege of bashing keynote speaker Sarah Palin for participating. Bachmann herself was scheduled to speak, but bailed out with a lame excuse blaming the House Ethics Committee.

The followup to that convention was supposed to have been this past week in Las Vegas, but they claim to have rescheduled it for an unspecified date in October. That was a month ago and they still have no announced venue or dates.

It is notable that the Tea Party advocates responded to charges of racism by denying them, feigning ignorance (OK, maybe not feigning), and hurling back similar charges. I’m going to let Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP show them how it ought to be done. When confronted with allegations about the New Black Panther Party’s offensive and racist rhetoric, Jealous unhesitatingly replied…

“You know, bigots come in all colors. We absolutely denounce the New Black Panther Party. But they aren’t in our group. These folks are in your groups.”

What would have been so difficult for the Tea Baggers to simply respond that they don’t believe that racism is rampant in their movement and that they agree with the NAACP’s goal of stamping out racism wherever it is found? The reason they do not respond in that way is that they know that racists are a prominent and influential component of their coalition and they don’t want to alienate them. The action they are taking now is merely a consequence of the bad PR they are hoping to constrain.

As the truth about the Tea Party continues to be revealed. Bachmann’s campaign for legitimacy will flounder. And while she is getting attention from the press for her promotion of the Tea Party, I’m more interested in whether they will provide the same level of coverage a few weeks or months from now when her caucus meets and she brings her gavel down on an empty room.