Tea Parties

Conservative KFRU radio personality Renee Hulshof, earlier today: "I think if Republicans had been more fiscally conservative when GWB [George W. Bush] was in office, we wouldn't have the tea party cannibalism now." 

No word yet on how the Republican Congressman who represented Missouri's Ninth Congressional District for 100% of the time George W. Bush was in office responds to such speculation.

Tom Toles:

Tea Party darling Rand Paul on the hypocrisy of candidates like Roy Blunt:

Kentucky Senate hopeful Rand Paul chided fellow Republicans on Sunday evening for contributing to the massive federal budget deficit, candidly telling tea party supporters in his hometown that GOP lawmakers took "the easy way out" by failing to cut spending in the past.

Paul said Democrats share greater blame for rising red ink, but the tea party favorite said Republicans squandered past congressional majorities by presiding amid times of growing federal deficits.

Notice anything odd about this list of speakers for the upcoming "9/12" rally in St. Louis?

Wackadoo Steve King and Georgia Rep. Tom Price are on the docket, so event organizers clearly haven't created some sort of no-politicians-allowed policy. 

Peter Kinder's maniacal tweeting has made it abundantly clear that he lacks the judgment and grasp on reality required of public officials.  But has it also failed to win over the tea party wing of the Republican Party in St. Louis -- the true target of his outreach?  

Is Ed Martin's absence part of his campaign's desperate (and very recent) move to the center? He was in on the ground floor of the St. Louis Tea Party -- but now he may be absent from one of their big events, just weeks before the general election?

In a new radio ad, Sen. Chuck Purgason directly connects his candidacy to uberconservative primary victories in Utah, Kentucky and Nevada.  "We're the Show Me State, and these states just showed us how it's done."

These guys deserve each other. Watch all the way to the end if you can -- it's worth it.

Arlen Specter, John Conyers, Roy Blunt, Jim Sensenbrenner and Dubya in 2006

I'm not smart/dumb enough to draw broad lessons from yesterday's primary and special elections, but can't help but laugh at a couple of the immediate response posts in the Missouri blogosphere.  Yesterday, as you probably know by now, Rep. Joe Sestak beat Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate primary; Rand Paul beat the Kentucky GOP's preferred candidate, Trey Grayson; Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter are headed for a run-off to the Democratic nominee in Arkansas' Senate race; and Democrat Mark Critz defeated Republican Tim Burns in the PA-12 special election.

"Voters showed they were ready to sever ties with candidates too closely identified with Washington and its political leaders," declared the Wall Street Journal. "A growing wave of discontent with government crashed down on 'establishment' candidates running in primaries Tuesday," wrote USA Today.

But don't get caught up in any of this -- Missouri voters and Missouri elections are totally different.

Online polls are not exactly scientific instruments for gauging public sentiment.  But they can give provide some insight into the priorities and reach of campaigns' online and offline organizing efforts. 

For instance, the Missouri Sovereignty Project is an überconservative organization devoted to protecting "Missouri's states rights and her sovereignty as enshrined in the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights," and they conducted an online poll this week asking members who they'd support in the August Senate primary.

The results weren't even close. 

The Missouri Record and MPNblog.com both point to the surprising defeat of incumbent Utah Senator Bob Bennett this weekend at his GOP state convention. Politico's Dave Catanese wrote the following about the weekend's vote:

For Republicans who are measuring the drapes in anticipation of reclaiming power, Bennett’s loss should be sobering. If the anti-Washington and tea party winds keep blowing this strong, some of them could be measuring their own political graves...

The rejection of the three-term senator by the conservative core of his party also signaled that the seniority and backroom clout that incumbents once wielded as a sword and shield offered no protection. If anything, in Bennett’s case it proved to be a detriment.

In response, The Record's Patrick Tuohey warns that politicians need to "heed the lesson of the Tea Party movement and the cries of their base," and MPNblog's W.P. Johnson wonders aloud if Roy Blunt is among the "institutionalized candidates" who "should be worried."

Blunt's record of hypocrisy and unethical behavior in Washington is well documented. And the tea party crowd has made their frustrations with him known.  Just two months ago, tea party organizations in Missouri organized a conservative candidate forum to address the "restlessness and discord over the apparent anointment of Blunt."

Reading David Lieb's new story for the Associated Press, "Tea party leaders anxious about extremists," you'd think that there aren't any actual extremists or lunatics leading the tea party charge -- just a few fringe attendees and subversive liberals trying to make them look bad.  You'd also get the impression that the only folks a person might consider to be "extremists" are overt racists and birthers, and it's just a few isolated wackos making the whole lot smell rotten.

Today's story kicks off with a quote from Jim Hoft, a/k/a Gateway Pundit:

We don't want to be misrepresented, whether it's by someone who is not part of the group and has their own agenda, or whether it's by some fringe extremist who may actually be a racist.

Yet Lieb doesn't even attempt to talk about what Hoft actually does or says, or contemplate the idea that Hoft et al. are  managing to look like "fringe extremists" without any outside help. 

Sen. Chuck Purgason and Birther Rep. Ed Emery promoted their proposal to replace the state income tax with a higher sales tax at the the Americans for Prosperity rally yesterday.

At the beginning of his remarks, Emery implied that the state's existing tax structure is unconstitutional.  It's not, of course, but he made a point of noting that a much higher sales tax is constitutional. "We have to move to a constitutional basis for all that we do, especially taxation," he said.  Later, speaking about The Evil Libruls, Emery declared:

We're being invaded by those who do not like our Constitution or its provisions. They do not like our personal liberties. And they are determined to destroy them as the British was to put down the colonies.

Speaking at Saturday's Jefferson County Tea Party, local leader Ken Horton announced his endorsement of Chuck Purgason over Roy Blunt in the GOP primary for the US Senate.  An excerpt from video captured by  Reboot Congress:

Congressman Blunt -- he's been anointed by the GOP as the one who's going to take this seat and run against Robin Carnahan.  I am not speaking for the tea party movement, I am speaking for myself, when I say that I cannot support Congressman Blunt in the primary election.

Snapped at today's Americans for Prosperity-sponsored rally in Jefferson City.

I wonder why conservatives think that the new health care bill will kill people?  Could it be because Republican leaders are still talking about death panels?

Emboldened by his many recent successes, Peter Kinder is stepping up his attacks on the editorial board and reporters at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He cites specific concerns about the paper's decision to edit a letter to the editor more than he would have liked, but also declares their editorial board and newsroom to be dishonest and "thoroughly corrupt." Speaking this afternoon with Dana Loesch on 97.1 FM:

When you can't deal with the facts and you don't have logical arguments, you try to engage in fearmongering...

If the day ever did exist when the Post-Dispatch did honest, completely open, above the board, no-agenda reporting of the news, that day is behind us. They no ever longer have the integrity that we have every right to expect from a daily newspaper...

It's really sad, the loss of integrity and the loss of honor there.

Listen:
 

Appearing on on Larry King's show last night, St. Louis Tea Party activist Dana Loesch said she would "absolutely" support the end of Social Security benefits.

Loesch can say whatever she wants on the teevee and radio without any real consequences, but the Republican leaders who court her support have to actually explain their positions to voters.  

Via ThinkProgress, I happened upon a video of Reps. Todd Akin and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) captured outside of the U.S. Capitol last weekend.  In the footage, Akin calls on the crowd to "solemnly resolve" to "send that cart of socialists down to where they belong in the river down there."  I'll make the radical assumption that Akin's "cart of socialists" collected for deposit in the river is made up exclusively of Democrats. 

A day after refusing to answer questions at his own press conference regarding his desire to join a lawsuit to block the federal health care reform law, Peter Kinder availed himself to local right-wing radio host and activist Dana Loesch today for a series of on-air questions. 

A few thoughts on today's Loesch interview and yesterday's conversation with Fox's Neil Cavuto:

• Kinder wanted to announce his desire to participate in the lawsuit on Dana Loesch's program. This was Kinder's very first statement in the interview, and is a pretty good indication of what his effort is all about: Tea party outreach, not constitutional law.
• Kinder acknowledges "the odds may be long," and opponents have "a tough sell" with their lawsuit. Yesterday, even cheerleader Cavuto had doubts about the argument behind the lawsuit. "I have talked to some legal scholars, sir, who say that, with the best of intentions, this is not going to go anywhere," Cavuto said. "Well, we know it`s a tough sell," Kinder replied.

The Prime Buzz flags a horrifying, though not exactly surprising, poll:

A new national Louis Harris poll finds that a majority of Republicans believe that President Obama is a Muslim, while 45 percent agree with the so-called "Birthers" that the president was "not born in the United States."

The poll of 2,230 Americans, taken during last weekend's health care showdown in the House of Representatives, shows how successful Obama's opponents have been in demonizing the 44th president...

Another eye-opening finding: 38 percent of Republicans, and 20 percent of Americans overall, agree that Obama is "doing many things Hitler did."

Local FOX radio host and tea party leader Dana Loesch reaches new rhetorical depths in a BigGovernment.com blog post:

The Socialists Won A Battle; Now It is Our Turn

Yesterday was my son’s 9th birthday and for his present, the government jacked his future. As he sat in the floor and happily opened his gifts, Bart Stupak appeared on television and revealed that he’d sold his soul. The joy was sucked from the room, but my son didn’t notice – thank God for innocence. The faces of the adults in the room fell as Stupak held his presser, as Pelosi gained another YES vote for health control.

The scene was an eerie replay for me; eight-and-a-half years ago that same boy sat in his bouncy seat while cooing and kicking his legs as his father and I watched the twin towers crumble to dust on live television. The feeling was the same...

Earlier today:

African-American Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), a protege of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who helped organize the March on Washington, went to the House floor today to tell Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) that a Tea Party protester called him a "n-----."

Another Democratic source confirms to NBC News that openly gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) was called a "f--" by somebody in the Tea Party crowd.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), another African-American member, was apparently spit on by a Tea Party protester.