Tea Party

The Springfield News-Leader's Roseann Moring brings us an interesting tidbit of campaign news. Ike Skelton is running for office -- Todd Isaac Skelton that is -- as a Tea Party candidate in the 146th State House District. 

Maybe he is hoping for decades' worth of name ID to work in his favor?

But by the looks of his Facebook page, he fits the the stereotypical Tea Party mold. For instance, here he is with the "Tac Girls." He met them at the world's largest gun show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to his caption for the pic: "They have a website, and sell calendars."   

Like the headline says, not your parents' Ike Skelton. 

When we last heard from the uberconservative Missouri Leadership Project, they were working to oust Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) from the Senate leadership because it wasn't quite radical enough for their tastes.   This week, they're kicking off the new legislative session with a Jefferson City rally "to unite in a rally for the cause of liberty." The list of sponsors for the rally indicates that there will be talk about a state sales tax hike and other tea party fare. But an email sent to prospective supporters also focuses on the House Republicans' omnibus "ethics" legislation from last year -- the greatest ethics reform bill in the universe -- as a rallying cry.   

But somehow, event organizers completely forgot to mention the bill they dislike was rammed through the House by Speaker-elect Steve Tilley, Birther Rep. Tim Jones and then-Speaker Ron Richard over the objections of everyone who wasn't a member of the House GOP.   And it was tempered by moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate the Missouri Leadership Project's members hate so much.    Check out the full email below the break.

To be clear, the Missouri Leadership Project is right to oppose legislation and skullduggery like that perpetrated by Richard, Tilley, Jones and other House Republicans last year.  But they could be a little more honest about how it all came to pass. 

For more on last year's fiasco in the House, click here, here, here and here.  

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An email from someone close to Jim Talent someone calling himself/herself an "Angry Tea Partier"  blasted a memo to media types this morning pointing out that some trial lawyers have supported Sarah Steelman in previous campaigns. 

According to the emailer, "This is the first in a series of memos being distributed to select media outlets to expose parts of Sarah Steelman’s record that many may not be familiar with. The sole purpose of these memos is to explain why the Tea Party will never support Steelman."  It remains to be seen if this actually represents the sentiment of self-described tea partiers, if this is an effort to generate support specifically for former Senator/Representative/lobbyist Jim Talent, or something else entirely. 

Read the memo below the jump. 

Ed. note: An earlier version of this post indicated that the attack on Steelman was part of a larger tea party effort.  There's no evidence to support that notion at this point.

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UPDATE: The News-Leader reports that Reed's petition to create the party with the Secretary of State's office has been certified, and he just needs 10k signatures to get the party on the 2012 ballot.

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A new political party has been formed with the Missouri Ethics Commission: the "Tea Party of Missouri."  

The creator of the committee, Steven L. Reed, was an unsuccessful independent candidate for Missouri's House of Representatives in the 138th District this year. He was also the treasurer of a now-defunct "Citizens Supporting Steelman for Governor" committee in 2008.

On KMOX this afternoon, Senator-elect Roy Blunt continued his defense of the federal earmarking process, and accurately stated that angry tea party activists shouldn't be suprised by his opposition to an earmark ban. And not only should they not be suprised, Blunt said "they shouldn't be disappointed." Speaking with host Mark Reardon:

REARDON:  You signed this tea party agreement.  And I know that the tea party group has gone after you. They're disappointed in your stand because I guess they feel like it's a bait and swich.

BLUNT: Well, they shouldn't be disappointed on this.  I've been very clear on this, on your program and everywhere else, that I think there will always some things in the federal government that should be--  that are competed for, and I intend to compete for the ones that Missouri has a reason to compete for.

Listen:

A person could criticize Blunt for being dismissive and unimpressed with the tea party's complaints, but he's right.  We knew his position all along, and if they were too dumb to know what he was all about, that's their problem.   And why would he care about any of their hysterics if they don't actually follow through on any of their threats?

Incredible stuff from CQPolitics this morning about South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint's (R-Tea Party) public refusal to support hypocrites like Rep. Roy Blunt.

Senate Republican leaders and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) are quietly waging a battle over campaign strategy even as the two sides seek to show a united front after a divisive primary season.

Although the National Republican Senatorial Committee has begun spending millions of dollars on Senate candidates whom DeMint backed in the primary, South Carolina’s junior Senator remains dissatisfied with NRSC strategy in a handful of races. DeMint is taking what he deems corrective action by spending money in such races, drawing funds from his Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee and his own personal re-election account...

The Senator has made a decision not to transfer any of his excess campaign funds to the NRSC this fall because he does not want the money used to fund Republican Senate candidates such as Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (Ill.), veteran Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.) and challenger Carly Fiorina in California. Fiorina, supported by the NRSC in the primary, defeated the DeMint-backed state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

 I worked on Capitol Hill for a long time, and I do not consider myself naive about the inner workings of Washington. But even I was surprised by two revelations this week exposing the amount of money the oil industry is spending to buy political influence.

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More coverage of yesterday's protest of Lunatic Rep. Michele Bachmann's support for Congressman Roy Blunt yesterday:

Photos from this morning's Tea Party protest of lunatic Rep. Michele Bachmann's support for Rep. Roy Blunt...

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The Riverfront Times: "A coalition of Tea Party groups plan to picket tomorrow in Sunset Hills near the Republican Party's St. Louis headquarters.  The groups say they're protesting Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's decision to come to Missouri to stump for Senate candidate Roy Blunt. Bachmann is seen as something of a Tea Party hero. Meanwhile, local Tea Party groups says Blunt is anything but -- having aligned himself with big government principles like TARP and Cash for Clunkers."

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Here's a low-quality YouTube version...still searching for the high-res clip straight from MSNBC.

KMBC's Micheal Mahoney: "More that two dozen Missouri TEA parties  say a bid by US Senate candidate to capitalize on their movement has 'shocked' them...'Roy Blunt voted for TARP and Cash for Clunkers. For Michele Bachmann to come to Missouri and give the impression that all the Missouri Tea Parties support Roy Blunt is an abomination of everything we have been standing up for,' said Jedidiah Smith, a Tea Party leader in Franklin County, Missouri."

UPDATE: The coalition's full release is here, with statements from a number of tea party leaders.  From that release:

• Franklin County Patriots: "Roy Blunt, like other RINOs, wants to be associated with the Tea Parties for his own political advantage.  However, his record of voting for Cash for Clunkers, the TARP bailout, No Child Left Behind and other unconstitutional legislation does not reflect the conservative values of Tea Party Patriots.  In addition, Roy Blunt’s association with Washington D.C. lobbyists has earned him a reputation of being one the largest recipients of lobbyist support, including Fannie and Freddie."
• "In God We Trust PAC has not endorsed and would never endorse Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate. Roy Blunt does not stand for the conservative values and principles the Tea Party movement represents. He is a career politician and Washington insider who has sold out his constituents for special interest money. Roy Blunt is, in fact, what we are endeavoring to "purge" out of Washington."
• Jefferson County Tea Party: "Big spending Republicans that voted to increase the size and scope of Government during the Bush years are part of the problem, not the solution...If posing as a fiscal conservative were a crime, Roy Blunt would be on top 10 wanted list."
• Sikeston Tea Party: "We...do not endorse or even want Roy Blunt for our next Senator."
• SW MO Conservative Network: "We invited Congressman Blunt to several of our meetings over the last year and were told by his scheduler that he would not attend a candidate forum until after the Primary."

Blunt's upcoming event with Bachmann obviously won't the first time he's filtered his record for the tea party crowd:

• Blunt skipped the first tea party rally in Jefferson City in April 2009, even though he was in in the Capitol that day.
• He was not invited to the Springfield Tea Party in April 2009; organizer Vincent David Jericho said "we’re only inviting conservative politicians." 
• He was not allowed to speak to the July 4, 2009 Tea Party in Washington, MO, an even organized with the St. Louis Tea Party folks like Dana Loesch, Bill Hennessy and Jim Hof.
• He was the target of open criticism at almost all of the early tea party rallies, and
• Was described by Dana Loesch as the epitome of what tea partiers claim to hate: "the old-school Republican guard, the ones intent on enslaving us in the tunnel of Democrat-lite."
• Jefferson County Tea Party leader Ken Horton told an April 2010 gathering that "Blunt needs to be held accountable for his votes," and said he'd be endorsing state Sen. Chuck Purgason instead.

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KMBC's Micheal Mahoney has published the endorsements of the Jackson County TEA party.  The organization has awarded "A" grades to Sen. Chuck Purgason in the U.S. Senate race, former Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the Fourth Congressional District, Ambassador Thomas Schweich in the Auditor's race and Rep. Gary Dusenberg in the 8th State Senate District primary. 

Read the whole list here.

On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Only eight Republicans - we'll call them the "Enlightened Eight" - voted "aye." These Republicans were Mary Bono-Mack (CA-45), Mike Castle (DE-AL), John McHugh (NY-23), Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2), Leonard Lance (NJ-7), Mark Kirk (IL-10), Dave Reichert (WA-8), and Christopher Smith (NJ-4).

Republicans voting for cap and trade in the year of the Tea Party? You'd think that they'd be dumped in the harbor by now. Instead, they're all doing fine. In fact, to date, not a single one of these Republicans has been successfully primaried by the "tea party" (or otherwise). Instead, we have two - Castle and Kirk - running for U.S. Senate, one (McHugh) who was appointed Secretary of the Army by President Obama, and five others - Bono-Mack, LoBiondo, Lance, Reichert, Smith - running for reelection.

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Sometimes I think America is the proverbial child-star-gone-bad of nations: we have a crippling addiction, but we still won't go to rehab.

We are hooked on burning dirty fossil fuels like cavemen, and no matter how many times we hit rock bottom -- deadly coal mining accidents, the uncontrolled oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and American soldiers risking their lives overseas -- we won't embrace the safer, smarter, cleaner path of renewable energy.

Change shouldn't be this hard.

That is the message behind a new ad campaign launched by NRDC's Action Fund this week. The ad urges senators from both sides of the aisle to put America back in control of our energy future.

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Ed Martin held a Health Care Townhall last week. At the event, which you can see here, one tea party member had the following to say (starting at about the 55:40 mark of the video):

I wanna do a commercial for a friend of mine. Does anybody know who Joseph Farah is? He is what? He's an author, he's also an editor of World Net News. This gentleman spoke at the Tea Party convention in Nashville... It's about a 40 minute spiel: he talks about God, he talks about birth certificates, he talks about what the real motive is that this government has. It's to take us over. Period. One step at a time, and he's already got his foot in there...we knew all this before this man got elected, but we didn't want to believe it. There was more books out on what a rascal was running for the Presidency then I've read in my lifetime: and I've read em all...If you really want to know the facts, read some of the literature on this guy. He ain't been a nice guy for a long time, and he ain't gettin any better.

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 The Climate Bullies

 

When I was in 6th grade, I fell victim to the school bully.  I was new to the school and became an easy target for an 8th grade girl with a bad attitude.  She picked on me endlessly while other kids stood by and watched.  I was humiliated, scared and completely at a loss about what I should do. 

 

Thankfully I had eventually made some decent friends and one day when the resident bully showed up one of them stepped in and told her to stop. Others quickly backed her up; the bully went away and never bothered me again. 

 

My experience with bullying is far from unique. Bullies get away with their behavior over and over again....In our schools, in our offices and even in Congress.

 

What gives bullies their power? It certainly isn't the victim. And it isn't even the bully. Instead, those with the most power, the ones who can usually make the bullying stop, are the people on the sidelines. 

 

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In Poplar Bluff we are being treated to the next step of the tea party movement.  A constitutionalism rally at the Rodgers theater.  

Roy Blunt will be a speaker there.  I thought the tea baggers were critical of the old republican guard but I guess the next step is to go full circle and support the poster boy for the republican elite and pork barrel spending.

If I didn't know better I would think the whole tea bag thing was an attempt to get the republican base charged up and has nothing to do with reform or changing business as usual.

This republican rally is being called the next generation of the tea party. 

Looks like the old generation of republicans without any new ideas.