New details have emerged yesterday about the events leading up to Dick Armey’s ouster as the head of the Tea Party affiliated FreedomWorks group.
Initially, all that was known about Armey’s exit was that it involved an “internal clash,” primarily between Armey and the group’s president Matt Kibbe.
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From Amy Gardner at the Washington Post, here’s what happened:
Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.
The overthrow lasted six days and at the end of it all Armey left FreedomWorks with an $8 million severance package. Evidently Richard Stevenson wanted Armey out and the fired staff in and was willing to pay for Armey’s exit.
It’s bad enough that Armey marched people out of their offices practically at gunpoint. Perhaps worse is the way the crisis was resolved. “Armey is set to receive $8 million in consulting fees over 20 years paid for by Richard Stephenson, a Republican fundraiser and founder of Cancer Treatment Centers of America,” the report says — i.e., he was bribed to step down and he took it.
Anyone who thinks these people have America’s best interests at heart and that they’re not just con artists looking out for themselves is a fool.
