Latest tea party target: Its own convention

[Modbert]

Latest tea party target: Its own convention - Yahoo! News

The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage.

Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over.

Except it’s a tea party convention.

Billed as a pivot point to transition the tea party movement from a chaotic uprising to an organized and sustainable political force and featuring Sarah Palin as its star attraction, the first-ever convention in Nashville from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 is insead shaping up as a reminder of the problems inherent in holding together a fractious coalition of local groups resistant to authority and pursuing often-conflicting agendas.

Red State blogger Erick Erickson made it clear recently what he thinks of the coming event — pronouncing that it “smells scammy” and is inconsistent with the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement.

At least two national groups that have emerged as major players in the movement rejected requests to buy sponsorships for the convention — which were going for as much $50,000 — while three other groups have recently withdrawn as sponsors, with two citing concerns over organizer infighting and questions about the convention’s unusual finances.

It was the brainchild of Judson Phillips, a Tennessee lawyer who — as first reported by POLITICO — is running the event through a for-profit Tennessee corporation he controls called Tea Party Nation. Most political conventions are conducted by nonprofits. Yet Phillips originally intended to turn a profit from the endeavor, with the cash going to fund a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.
But Phillips now concedes he didn’t fully grasp the complexities of pulling off the convention and is merely hoping to break even, despite recently selling out the last remaining tickets. In addition to 600 tickets at the $550 level, which will admit attendees to the convention and Palin's speech, Tea Party Nation offered an additional 500 tickets to Palin’s keynote for $350 each.

POLITICO has learned that Phillips obtained a $50,000 loan to pay a deposit towards the $100,000 fee Washington Speakers Bureau charged to secure Palin as the keynote speaker at the convention. Much of the loan came from Bill Hemrick, a baseball card tycoon whose loan contract didn’t call for interest but did set a deadline last week for repayment, which Phillips missed.

Erickson worries that by associating herself with Phillips and the convention, Palin “might be ruining herself unintentionally.”
She has already taken some heat for the $100,000 contract Tea Party Nation signed with Washington Speakers Bureau — which Hemrick said requires either first-class airfare or a private jet to fly her to the event.

After she was criticized for the fee, Palin told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that she “will not financially be gaining anything from this.” Instead, she suggested she would “turn it right back around and contribute to campaigns, candidates and issues.”

But the only way she could do that under federal election law would be to make maximum contributions of $2,400 to candidates, $5,000 to political action committees or $30,400 to national party committees (she could make larger contributions to independent 527 groups, but those are barred from directly supporting or opposing candidacies).

Sound like a scam to anyone else?

 

[California Girl]

A lawyer trying (and failing) to make a buck off the back of hard-working, decent, Americans. How unheard of.

Remind me again, isn't the POTUS a lawyer?

 

[Modbert]

A lawyer trying (and failing) to make a buck off the back of hard-working, decent, Americans. How unheard of.

Remind me again, isn't the POTUS a lawyer?

As is most of Congress. But trying to connect this to Obama somehow is a pathetic smear on your part. Go back to your partisan politics fishtank.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Latest tea party target: Its own convention - Yahoo! News

The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage.

Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over.

Except it’s a tea party convention.

Billed as a pivot point to transition the tea party movement from a chaotic uprising to an organized and sustainable political force and featuring Sarah Palin as its star attraction, the first-ever convention in Nashville from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 is insead shaping up as a reminder of the problems inherent in holding together a fractious coalition of local groups resistant to authority and pursuing often-conflicting agendas.

POLITICO has learned that Phillips obtained a $50,000 loan to pay a deposit towards the $100,000 fee Washington Speakers Bureau charged to secure Palin as the keynote speaker at the convention. Much of the loan came from Bill Hemrick, a baseball card tycoon whose loan contract didn’t call for interest but did set a deadline last week for repayment, which Phillips missed.

Erickson worries that by associating herself with Phillips and the convention, Palin “might be ruining herself unintentionally.”
She has already taken some heat for the $100,000 contract Tea Party Nation signed with Washington Speakers Bureau — which Hemrick said requires either first-class airfare or a private jet to fly her to the event.

After she was criticized for the fee, Palin told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that she “will not financially be gaining anything from this.” Instead, she suggested she would “turn it right back around and contribute to campaigns, candidates and issues.”

But the only way she could do that under federal election law would be to make maximum contributions of $2,400 to candidates, $5,000 to political action committees or $30,400 to national party committees (she could make larger contributions to independent 527 groups, but those are barred from directly supporting or opposing candidacies).

Sound like a scam to anyone else?

Good...it does sound like a set-up by someone hoping to discredit them. I hope they don't attend...the movement isn't about steak and lobster dinners and fancy hotels. It's about Americans taking back their government.

 

[Modbert]

Good...it does sound like a set-up by someone hoping to discredit them. I hope they don't attend...the movement isn't about steak and lobster dinners and fancy hotels. It's about Americans taking back their government

It's good to see the tea partiers standing up to this though.

And I'm thinking it's someone looking to profit rather than discredit.

 

[California Girl]

A lawyer trying (and failing) to make a buck off the back of hard-working, decent, Americans. How unheard of.

Remind me again, isn't the POTUS a lawyer?

As is most of Congress. But trying to connect this to Obama somehow is a pathetic smear on your part. Go back to your partisan politics fishtank.

How can an independent be partisan. Jeeeeez, Dog, lighten up. You clearly posted it with a view to criticizing the TEA partiers..... you need to learn to take a joke. Even one about your Messiah.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Good...it does sound like a set-up by someone on the left. I hope they don't attend...the movement isn't about steak and lobster dinners and fancy hotels. It's about Americans taking back their government.

So you're saying that Sarah Palin got tricked by someone hoping to discredit them?

I'm thinking it's one of the many people on the right who are using the tea party name to pervert in order to profit.

It's good to see the tea partiers standing up to this though.

Notice my edit....

 

[Modbert]

Notice my edit....

Duly noted and edited.

 

[Modbert]

How can an independent be partisan. Jeeeeez, Dog, lighten up. You clearly posted it with a view to criticizing the TEA partiers..... you need to learn to take a joke. Even one about your Messiah.

Actually I'm proud of the tea partiers in this case. But I'd rather have one thread be Obama-free. And you must of missed my bashing of him earlier.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Back to your point...Sometimes I don't think Palin thinks things through clearly enough. In this day and age the ability to do that in politics is what makes "winners".

 

[California Girl]

How can an independent be partisan. Jeeeeez, Dog, lighten up. You clearly posted it with a view to criticizing the TEA partiers..... you need to learn to take a joke. Even one about your Messiah.

Actually I'm proud of the tea partiers in this case. But I'd rather have one thread be Obama-free. And you must of missed my bashing of him earlier.

I know, and you're not actually any more partisan than I am but if I'm nice to you, everyone will expect me to be nice to them too.

 

[Modbert]

Back to your point...Sometimes I don't think Palin thinks things through clearly enough. In this day and age the ability to do that in politics is what makes "winners".

Ain't that the understatement of the year.

 

[Modbert]

I know, and you're not actually any more partisan than I am but if I'm nice to you, everyone will expect me to be nice to them too.

We could be friends, or least not rivals.

I mean if Jerry Seinfeld and Newman could get along.

You must of missed this gem:

"The Daily Show's" Obama Bio: The Lion King, The Messiah, The Son Of A Goat Herder (VIDEO)

 

[California Girl]

I know, and you're not actually any more partisan than I am but if I'm nice to you, everyone will expect me to be nice to them too.

We could be friends, or least not rivals.

I mean if Jerry Seinfeld and Newman could get along.

You must of missed this gem:

"The Daily Show's" Obama Bio: The Lion King, The Messiah, The Son Of A Goat Herder (VIDEO)

You are the Conan to my Leno.

 

[Modbert]

You are the Conan to my Leno.

So what you're telling me is you're going to act like my friend for a few years before deciding one day that you want my things and then proceed to kick me out of my own house that you sold me in the first place?

 

[California Girl]

You are the Conan to my Leno.

So what you're telling me is you're going to act like my friend for a few years before deciding one day that you want my things and then proceed to kick me out of my own house that you sold me in the first place?

You'll notice the strap under my screen name? Pretty much says it all. I'm actually considering changing my screen name to that.

 

[California Girl]

Back to your point...Sometimes I don't think Palin thinks things through clearly enough. In this day and age the ability to do that in politics is what makes "winners".

Ain't that the understatement of the year.

No, it isn't.

 

[Modbert]

You'll notice the strap under my screen name? Pretty much says it all. I'm actually considering changing my screen name to that.

I thought you were going for the female version of Richard Nixon.

 

[ihopehefails]

My reaction is "and so". When did it become a crime to fund political fund raisers with big fancy dinner plates. I'm pretty sure most organizations do this in some form but what you are tying to do is to paint it as an evil when some of us don't see anything dishonest about it.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

My reaction is "and so". When did it become a crime to fund political fund raisers with big fancy dinner plates. I'm pretty sure most organizations do this in some form but what you are tying to do is to paint it as an evil when some of us don't see anything dishonest about it.

Perception is everything. If you claim the government is taxing you to death and then gorge yourself on lobster and filet mignon in a 5 star resort....you will be seen by the Democrats as having a little to spare and then say "what the fuck are you bitching about fat cat!!!!'