{"id":4022,"date":"2011-03-08T18:57:46","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T02:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4022"},"modified":"2011-03-08T19:08:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T03:08:42","slug":"tea-party-losing-ground-and-desperate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4022","title":{"rendered":"Tea Party: Losing Ground And Desperate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TeaThe ongoing conflict in Wisconsin between an intransigent, union-busting governor and the representatives of average, working Americans is trending consistently toward the position of the people. Despite millions of dollars of Koch Industries lobbying funds, the Republicans and union bashers are, in their own words, “losing ground.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an excerpt from a recent fundraising letter<\/a> sent by Tea Party Express (TPE) to supporters:<\/p>\n

“Friends, new polls coming out in Wisconsin show that the Obama-Labor Union ad campaign against him is having an impact. Governor Walker has started losing ground…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, the old polls were showing that as well. What is new is that even reliably right-leaning pollsters like Rasmussen<\/a> are now showing that Governor Scott Walker is viewed unfavorably by nearly 60% of his constituents. The despondent correspondence goes on to say that…<\/p>\n

“If we lose in Wisconsin then Republican Governors across America will take the lesson that they should give in and capitulate, and all the progress we have seen from the tea party movement will be undone,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. Both sides of this debate recognize the impact that the conclusion will have on similar debates across the country. It’s interesting that TPE is so concerned about a defeat in Wisconsin that they believe it will undo “all the progress”<\/em> they’ve made. But what is even more interesting is that they are directing this concern to only Republican governors.<\/p>\n

That focus is something that I have been addressing for months, and that the media needs to acknowledge: There Is No Tea Party!<\/strong><\/p>\n

When will they get this through their barnacle-encrusted skulls? There are no Tea Party candidates; no Tea Party policies; no Tea Party voters. They are all Republicans. They run as Republicans and vote for Republicans. To pretend that it is something distinct is delusional. And this isn’t just me talking, it’s…<\/p>\n

Republican Party spokesmen:<\/u>
\nJohn Boehner, House Minority Leader:<\/strong> There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the tea party activists believe in.<\/p>\n

Tea Party spokesmen:<\/u>
\nMark Skoda, Tea Party Leader:<\/strong> This movement is beginning to mature … not as a third party but a force to be reckoned with in the traditional party structure.<\/p>\n

Media spokesmen:<\/u>
\nCarl Cameron, Fox News:<\/strong> They plan to establish separate spin off political action committees to fund raise for candidates who back Tea Party goals and the official Republican National Committee platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See? Everybody agrees that there is no Tea Party. It is journalistic fraud to persist with the charade. This is especially true of Tea Party Express, which was created by the Republican consulting firm of Russo\/Marsh. Sal Russo runs TPE as a revenue center for his firm, funneling most of their donations right back into his wallet. And for some inexplicable reason this is the corrupt, phony Tea Party clan that CNN has hooked up with<\/a> to host a Republican (of course) presidential primary debate.<\/p>\n

This is madness. If the press treats the Tea Party as a separate entity and gives them a voice distinct from their Republican source, they are in effect giving the GOP twice as much exposure as the Democrats. To be fair and balanced they would have to regard MoveOn.org<\/a> or the SEIU as a separate party and hire their spokespeople as news analysts and feature their responses to official GOP dogma – in addition to that of actual Democrats. I don’t see that happening.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Tea Party is growing noticeably more desperate. Their latest fundraising appeal is evidence of how seriously they take their declining popularity in Wisconsin and the impact of that nationwide. They have never really been a popular movement as most polls have pegged their support in the teens with pluralities having no opinion. And their views have been shown to be wildly out of touch<\/a> with mainstream Americans.<\/p>\n

The media has to be pressed to justify their misrepresentation of Tea Partiers. Either that or put me on every panel where they have a Republican posing as something that doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing conflict in Wisconsin between an intransigent, union-busting governor and the representatives of average, working Americans is trending consistently toward the position of the people. Despite millions of dollars of Koch Industries lobbying funds, the Republicans and union bashers are, in their own words, “losing ground.” This is an excerpt from a recent fundraising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,684],"tags":[42,834,301,874,534],"class_list":["post-4022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","tag-cnn","tag-koch-brothers","tag-republicans","tag-scott-walker","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-12S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29190,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29190","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":0},"title":"Scott Walker Promises To Ruin …er… Turn America Around","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/13\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest passenger in the Republican Presidential Clown Car is Wisconsin's union-busting governor, Scott Walker. His announcement address today was rife with the routine braggadocio required by all aspirants to high office. Among his laundry list of campaign pledges was the promise to \"fight and win\" for the \"born and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Scott Walker (Lumbergh)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/walker-lumbergh.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/walker-lumbergh.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/walker-lumbergh.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3893,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3893","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":1},"title":"Fox News Spin Doctor Frank Luntz Insults Wisconsin (And American) Workers","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/18\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Republican pollster and \"Word Doctor,\" Frank Luntz, was interviewed today on Fox News' Your World to discuss the effect of the Wisconsin protests on America's perception of unions. What transpired was one of the most vigorous attempts at spin I've seen since at least the last time I saw Frank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29704,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29704","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":2},"title":"Scott Walker Officially Launches Campaign For Vice-President Of The United States","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/21\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Today Wisconsin governor Scott Walker began laying plans to snag an appointment to be the Republican nominee for vice-president. He did that by suspending his futile aspirations for the presidency. Now he will be free to brown nose whichever remaining candidates he thinks will be best positioned for the nomination\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Koch Brothers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/koch-brothers-pick.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/koch-brothers-pick.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/koch-brothers-pick.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/koch-brothers-pick.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3939,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3939","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":3},"title":"Why The Anti-Union Message Doesn’t Sell","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/25\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox Nation is featuring a new video from Minnesota Majority, a Tea Party group that is radical even by Tea Party standards. The video plays ominous music behind a series of claims that they must think will dampen the growing movement for labor and working families in America. However, like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7287,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7287","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":4},"title":"The Real Post-Wisconsin Right-Wing Agenda: Kill The Unions","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"During the long and bitter recall campaign against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, the Republicans insisted that their sole purpose was to cut wasteful spending and bring down government deficits. Most of the working families of Wisconsin knew that wasn't true. Walker's agenda was aimed squarely at collective bargaining rights that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4034,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4034","url_meta":{"origin":4022,"position":5},"title":"Fox News Hypocrites Bash American Workers","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/10\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night Wisconsin Republicans orchestrated an anti-democratic coup to reverse 50 years of worker rights. The legislative trickery produced a fierce backlash by opponents of Governor Scott Walker's union-busting agenda. Here's how Fox News presented this story on their Fox Nation web site: The headline \"Rabid Leftists Storm Wisconsin Capital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4022"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4027,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions\/4027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}