Grubs in Your Grassroots? Get Astroturf!

Well, frumps, nothing can spoil a good Tea Party faster than a catfight.  And that appears to be exactly what’s going on in the wonderful world of teabaggery.  It was bound to happen sooner or later, this bane of “grassroots” movements down through the ages.  At the bottom of it, of course is money (or the lack of it, as the case may be).  Actually it appears that the “Tea Party” movement was, perhaps, too successful (i.e., attracted too much attention, too fast) which made the accidental movement ripe for conquest by down-on-their-luck political parties in search of loud-mouthed, headline grabbing constituents.

Think about it: this time last year, tea parties were for little kids, spinsters and fictional grinning cats.  Today, if you enter the words “tea party” in a Google search you get back 35,000,000 entries – now that’s viral!  Whether you love ‘em or hate ’em, teabaggers or Tea Party Patriots, as they prefer to be called, are suddenly a farce force to be reckoned with on the American political scene.

A Brief History of 21st Century Teabaggery

There’s still a lot of confusion about exactly whom we should blame for the Tea Party movement.  Some historians feel that the movement really started with the Libertarian movement of Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign.  It’s not too much of a challenge to pick up some sort-of libertarian, quasi anti-government threads running through the current Tea Party rhetoric. Certainly it was interesting to watch those pumped up post-election Libertarians trying out various entities like the militias and patriots of various persuasions including the Tea Party gang.

Many will point to an event a little later, in early 2009, in which CNBC’s Rick Santelli delivered an on-air rant about government funds being used to bailout folks who were losing their homes to foreclosure.  Santelli felt that his tax dollars shouldn’t be used as a safety net for his “less fiscally responsible” neighbors.  Santelli said he felt like throwing a protest, right there in Chicago, similar to the Boston Tea Party.

Whether it was a case of right place/right time or something more calculated, young Eric Odom jumped on that sentiment and set up the official Chicago Tea Party website to get the ball rolling and described himself as a point man and organizer for the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party.  That worked out well so he went on to set up a web portal for people all over the country to organize Tea Parties of their own.  From there, it was only natural to set up RecessRallies.com to organize anti-health care reform protests over the August Congressional recess.

Odom described himself in the recent past as a “stealth style eActivist” and a “Chicago-based, libertarian Web strategist.”  He is the Executive Director of the American Liberty Alliance – or was, I guess – until yesterday when he announced that he is rejoining the Republican Party, further underlining the growing rift between Libertarians and the GOP.

According to Odom, when John McCain became its presidential nominee, Odom left the Republican Party for the Libertarian Party and supported Bob Barr’s presidential bid saying, “I might have taken a different approach if I wasn’t voting in Illinois where it didn’t really matter.” Once Sarah Palin came onto the scene, though, Odom became (and remains) a stalwart Palin supporter. He even registered the website ThanksToPalin.com.  Oh! And did I mention, Eric Odom is only twenty-nine years old so he has plenty of time to decide he’s a Democrat somewhere down the line.

Maybe the teabaggers were a little too unfocused or ill-mannered or unread for the Libertarians’ taste, in the end, but, for whatever reason, real Libertarians didn’t tarry long with the Tea Party Patriots.  Lo and behold! now there are signs of increasing tension between Republicans and Libertarians.

Just recently, the Republican Party of Florida announced that they were “purging” the party of members belonging to the Republican Liberty Caucus, (some were actually holding elective office) and they’ve been told that they will be ineligible to hold GOP positions for four years.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta

Amy Belle

Concurrent to all of that actual political jockeying, out of the blue came two grassroots southern belles,  cooking up their own tea party organization. They were Amy Kremer and Jenny Beth Martin.  Amy and Jenny Beth are co-founders of Tea Party Patriots.  Both appear to have been politically animated by a shared desire to keep Barack Obama out of the White House.

Jenny Belle

Post-election and still smarting from the unexpected progressive surge that delivered the presidency to Obama, Amy and Jenny Beth discovered Eric Odom’s April 15th Tax Day Revolt and discovered they had a flair for activism.  Both were bloggers and new media savvy networkers who very quickly pulled together a large, loud contingent of virulently anti-Obama factions with an axe to grind and time to do it.

Odom’s male approach got things done quickly but was also subtly pitched to a certain generation and it had a lot of “rules.”  The Southern Belles, threw the doors open and greeted all comers with a heaping dose of Southern Hospitality.  And it worked . . .

You Say You Want a Revolution?

I’m sure if you asked Amy and Jenny Beth who they are, they would both tell you that they are the greenest of grassroots – just everyday Moms, wives, scrap-booking aficionados and PTA members, who have reluctantly mobilized to fight the creeping Socialism that threatens to poison the tree of American Liberty.   Just two of a kind . . . but, inevitably, this is where things get strange . . . and catty.

From everything I’ve been able to dig up, Amy Kremer probably is closer to what the rest of us might describe as “grassroots.”   She is, I think, a dynamic, enthusiastic personality not averse to the limelight.  As such she is vulnerable to rash moves, to being swept off her feet and to having words put in her mouth.  I suspect that this “tea party thing” is the most fun and the most attention Amy’s had in her life and “dang it, she’s going to enjoy it.”  And the more, the merrier . . .

Way back in May, 2009, Amy was making statements to NewsMax like this:

“We do not want it to be a GOP movement, there are many organizations that are trying to hijack the movement.”

At that time, the group’s immediate concern was a nationwide “Fight for Freedom” teleconference hosted by the Republican Governors Association (RGA) and led by GOP governors Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina.  The event was dubbed “Tea Party 2.0.” Some 30,000 participants were expected to participate in the free event.

Amy protested thus:

“We think that by them holding this teleconference and titling it Tea Party 2.0, [it] is a testament to our success, of the Tea Party movement’s success around the country.”  And while we welcome their support of the Tea party movement, they are not representative of the movement, and we just want to make that clear.”

And, in case anyone didn’t “get it”:

“Our concern is this is a nonpartisan movement, there are a lot of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, libertarians — many types of people are involved in this movement.”

Over this action-packed year for Tea Party activists, Amy Kremer has demonstrated an ideological openness to new people and perspectives – like the Birthers.   Amy threw in with the Birthers early.  In September of 2008 she was frantically blogging (on her personal website, Southern Belle Politics) to avert the “LOOMING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS” of a “furriner” in the White House.

And then there was Amy’s unfortunate endorsement of Dr. David McKalip.  Dr. McKalip is the now notorious Florida physician, who created and distributed his “Obama as Witch Doctor” poster that received a lot of media attention during the August Recess anti health care reform tea parties.  When public outrage mounted against McKalip, Amy sent her support thus:

“David, we all support you fully and are here for you. I can assure you of one thing and that is we will protect our own. We all have your back my friend!”

When she realized that she was backing the wrong horse, Amy tried to reel that one back in.

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, she said that despite her pledge of support for McKalip on the listserv, she had been traveling and had not actually seen the original email McKalip sent.

Amy on Tour

So it is that when the Tea Party Express crowd came barreling down the road in a jazzy looking bus, Amy, with her usual panache, was “on the bus” – literally.

Which was evidently “a bridge too far” for her Co-Founder, Jenny Beth Martin.

Throw Amy Under The Bus

Now, as uncomplicated as Amy Kremer seems to be, Jenny Beth is another matter.  Jenny Beth Martin is a born politician.  She describes politics as her passion and, indeed, she is, by her own admission, a sometimes-paid Republican operative.

JB’s LinkedIn profile lists these items on her resume:

· Director of Political Operations at Smart Girl Politics, Responsible for Congressional Outreach and Outreach with other conservative Republican elected officials.

Since SGP’s conception in late 2008 hundreds and hundreds of conservative women who are interested in donating money to and getting involved in conservative political campaigns have come together in our new online community called Smart Girl Politics. That membership number continues to grow rapidly with our organized and successful efforts to penetrate every layer of social networking on the internet. Very soon, Smart Girl Politics will be the preeminent resource for conservative women to exchange information, organize our efforts, educate each other, and connect to promote our causes in the United States and internationally. [Smart Girl Politics is a story all its own, but for now, just check it out.  You have to see it to believe it]

· Cherokee County Campaign Chairman at Saxby Chambliss for US Senate

Jenny Beth lists “creating, organizing, and executing political campaign strategies” as an area of expertise.

She is a member of the Junior Service League of Woodstock,  Georgia Republican Party,  GaGOP,  and the Cherokee County Republican Party.

And these are some of the people and organizations that Jenny Beth has “fanned” on Facebook:

* Sean Hannity

* Michelle Malkin

* Newt Gingrich

* Sarah Palin

* John McCain

* Bobby Jindal

* Fred Thompson

* David Shafer

* Republican National Committee

* The Heritage Foundation

* The GOP Comeback by the Republican Governors Association

* Tea Party Patriots

* The FOX Nation

* Keep America Safe (Liz Cheney’s Website)

* GOP TechSummit – Grassroots

* Young Gun Conservative Network

Not so terribly grassroots and not so terribly non-partisan.

P.S.  While Amy was busy decrying the fact that TPP was being hijacked by the Republican Governor’s Association event called Tea Party 2.0, it would appear, from the list above, that Jenny Beth was busy becoming the RGA’s fan on Facebook.

Schism in Paradise

Whereas we have Amy stating that, as Tea Party Patriots:

“We do not want it to be a GOP movement, there are many organizations that are trying to hijack the movement.”

And:

“Our concern is this is a nonpartisan movement, there are a lot of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, libertarians — many types of people are involved in this movement.”

At the same time, we have a somewhat different and more recognizably Republican brand of “non-partisanship” coming from co-founder, Jenny Beth who says:

“. . . the message (my italics) of the Tea Party is intended to be non-partisan . . .  and “while many people involved in the protest are Republicans and Libertarians, Democrats are invited, too.”

Not exactly Amy’s “come one, come all” approach.

An incoming barrage of support then came from:  American Solutions for Winning the Future, a non-partisan organization created by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Eric Odom’s DontGo Movement and Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot) as well as conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, radio host Dana Loesch and GOPUSA.

By the time the 2009 Atlanta Tea Party had come off, Jenny Beth was in GOP heaven and told the crowd:

“Thanks again to everyone who joined us for the Atlanta Tea Party to send the message to the liberals in the US House, the US Senate, and the White House that if they fail to repeal the “stimulus” bill then we will retire them in the next elections.”

So, despite the fact that this “grassroots” movement is less than a year old, the signs are pretty clear that the “tea party” might be over for someone.

Have a Nice Life, Amy . . .

Sure enough, even as Amy was bussing cross-country on the bad voodoo Tea Party Express tour, meeting up with even more diverse folks to invite into her movement, back home the GOP was distancing itself from TPE and its backers, the ever-weird Howard Kaloogian and Sal Russo, and flirting with TPP.  Not coincidentally, Jenny Beth and the TPP Board of Directors were preparing to excommunicate their erstwhile road warrior in her absence.

The bad blood between TPP and TPE is that TPE is  “Astroturf” and, as Jenny Beth described TPP’s position:

“Right now, we can’t be involved with PACs. We want to make sure the organizations we align with are in line with our core values–that they’re not just supporting one party over the other.”

Hmmmmmm . . .  not those PACs, anyway.

Amy received the TPP Board’s letter, on the road, and did what any other southern belle in her shoes would do:  she proceeded to lock down the TPP email accounts, listservs, databases, etc (that she had been instrumental in setting up).  At that point, Jenny Beth and the Board sued Amy for “theft of intellectual property” (a stretch, I know) and started soliciting donations from TPP members for the legal funds to do it.  (Keep in mind that this is the same Jenny Beth Martin that found it shocking that TPE solicited, and got, huge donations from its membership to keep the TPE bus tour rolling.)

The usual on-line badmouthing, formal statements and rebuttals, and a choosing up of sides  ensued –  it’s the American way.

What You See Is Rarely What You Get

The only thing that raises this business to agon level and makes it an instructive tale is what emerges when one looks a little closer at the comparison between Jenny Beth’s political positions and Jenny Beth’s life, as she lives it.

Let’s switch back, for a minute, to what really got the whole tea party notion rolling – out-of-control  government spending, too high a deficit and bailouts to save the evil banks that created the economic meltdown.  Some Americans were supposedly angry that their tax dollars were being used to help people who were losing their homes, who had not been “fiscally responsible.”  Whether you agree with that position or not, that was the stated target of the tea party movement.

Part of Jenny Beth’s “grassroots” rap has been, in fact, that she and her husband Lee are such everyday Americans that they themselves have been hurt by the recession.  Lee’s temp worker agency went south (because of “partner problems” and less demand for temp workers).  Nothing was coming in from the business, the Martin’s had racked up over $70,000 in debt and declared bankruptcy.  They also lost their home.  They have been reduced to being renters.  They have shared this sad story bravely, on a Fox Nation interview to name one, and stated their intention to battle their way back without handouts or bailouts.

What they don’t say is that they also owed the IRS $510,000!  And that was after they had paid $16,000 in July.  Now I don’t know about you frumps, but, in my experience it takes a lot of living to rack up half a million in back taxes.  I know, when I die, I won’t have paid anything close to that in personal income tax – in my entire life.  This did not happen to the Martin’s overnight.

I know that bad things happen to good people and sometimes folks are understandably delinquent on their federal taxes and work things out with the IRS.  No harm, no foul.   But, I’m sorry, this is not an “everyday American, grassroots” tax bill.  This looks more like a pattern of living large and evading taxes for quite a while.

The good news is, the Martin’s got a bailout (imagine that).  The bad news is that that $510,000 shortfall in IRS revenue has to come from somewhere and that “somewhere” is out of the pockets of people who do see fit to pay their taxes.  I have no problem with calling the government on bad budgets, earmarks, and pork that might mean more would be available for more essential services and jobs.  I’m also willing to accept an argument that says one woman’s pork is another woman’s bread and butter.

But there’s a limit Jenny Beth and you and your beloved conservatives ought to get better acquainted with it.  Some of us are interested in fixing the foreign and domestic problems that the previous administration left behind.  That’s going to take a lot of effort and a lot of money.  If you and your hubby are not into paying your taxes (and obviously you haven’t been for some time now) you forfeit any right to tell the rest of us how you’d like to see Federal tax dollars spent.  Get it?  So shut up and sit down.  You are part of the problem so don’t meddle with the solutions.

Technorati Tags: Jenny Beth Martin, Amy Kremer, Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express, Eric Odom, Libertarians, Republicans, GOP, Atlanta

Tagged as: Amy Kremer, Atlanta, Eric Odom, GOP, Jenny Beth Martin, Libertarians, Republicans, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots