Stick a fork in it, it's done. Over. Toast. Influential Nashville blogger Adam Kleinheider declared the tea party movement dead this weekend, hijacked by corporate interests, money-hungry opportunists, and Sarah Palin.The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down and Sarah Palin drove a stake right through its heart live last night on C-Span in front of an unsuspecting audience.
Sarah Palin didn’t give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address. It was a purely political speech designed to position her for a presidential run in 2012 or 2016. Period. She wasn’t there to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she did.
Who's Judson Phillips? He's a guy from Tennessee who's -- brace yourself -- a trial lawyer! This makes him evil incarnate. He's also a force behind the National Tea Party Convention that was held this week. Seems that some people saw charging $350 and up to attend a "grassroots" convention struck some as profiteering. Before the convention was even held, it was already generating controversy among the teabagger believers... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
