FreedomWorks' Long History Of Teabagging
We haven't written much about the Tea Party Movement, because it's always seemed fairly blown out of proportion. Conservatives compare it to an anti-tax version of the Iraq war protests, but those protests drew scores of thousands of people into the streets and the "tea parties" that have occurred thus far haven't been nearly that large.
But in recent days, a new angle on this story has emerged--one which casts some doubt on the degree to which these protests are in any way organic. Lee Fang of ThinkProgress and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have led the charge, calling the tea parties astroturf events--paid for and, perhaps, populated by, well-funded top-down organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.
Jon Henke of the website The Next Right defended the tea parties from the charge, writing that "[w]hat FreedomWorks and various other organizations are doing is not "astroturf" any more than the anti-war protests of some years back were astroturf because ANSWER and Moveon.org helped organize people around those events."
There are, of course, differences between MoveON and FreedomWorks. But his post nonetheless raises a couple interesting questions, such as: Who first proposed holding tea party events? When did major conservative organizations get involved? And how much support have they gained along the way?
The answer to the first question is "FreedomWorks." The answer to the second question is "right from the start." And the answer to the last question is "less than you'd expect, given the months of hype."
The first tea-partyish events occurred in February in Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, and Mesa, AZ around the time President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law, but they didn't have an explicitly tea-based theme. If they had a theme of any kind it was "pork" and government waste. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote a post about the Seattle protest called "From the Boston Tea Party to your neighborhood pork protest." And in Denver, protesters shouted, "No more pork!" By and large, though, the events lacked a unifying issue.
That all changed on February 19, when CNBC commentator Rick Santelli erupted in anger on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, and proposed a "Chicago Tea Party" for traders to protest the government's plan to provide mortgage assistance to distressed homeowners.
The idea took hold and on February 27, a handful of cities across the country hosted gatherings that involved genuine tea (or at least the use of the word "tea"). One of those tea parties occurred from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Friday February 27, in Tampa, FL, organized according to the website Tampa Bay Online, by "John Hendricks, a Tampa-based consultant."
John Hendricks turns out to be John Hendrix, who by phone earlier today described the events as completely spontaneous. "These are independent groups, not coordinated," he says, "and most of the people, including myself, have never done anything like this." He even said that two distinct groups in Tampa emerged simultaneously--both called the "Tampa Tea Party," each unbeknown to the other.
I asked him where the idea came from. "Tom Gaithens," Hendrix said. "He's with FreedomWorks."
"Oh really?"
"He sent an email out with his network of contacts to see who could help."
The event, Hendrix said, drew somewhere in the ballpark of 200 protesters, and there were, by his count, 88 people on hand at peak. That's not very many people. Henke may be right, in a sense, about the distinction between astroturf events and genuine protests--but this appears to be, at best, somewhere in between the two. There was certainly not enough burning furor about the stimulus bill or the bank bailouts in Tampa to drive residents into the streets without the help of Dick Armey's 501 group.
An email to Gaithens, and a call to Brendan Steinhauser, also of FreedomWorks, were not immediately returned.
Over time, the Tea Party Protest Movement (or whatever you want to call it) has grown. There were larger tea parties in March, and if you've been watching Fox News, you know that tomorrow (tax day!) Tea Parties are scheduled to occur in cities across the country. That growth has been facilitated in part by such favored grassroots techniques as robocalls, which readers have been tipping us off to for nearly a week, and early estimates suggest that the largest of tomorrow's parties will draw about 5,000 people
That's more than 200--and certainly enough to look impressive on a television screen--but significantly smaller than the March 2003 Iraq war protests, which occurred in cities around the world, and resulted in thousands of arrests in the United States.
All of which raises a question nobody seems to be asking: What will the media say if FreedomWorks hosts a bunch of Tea Bag Parties and nobody comes?
Late update: Additional tax-day teabag coverage here and here.
Josh
Matt
Eric
There was a story done by Playboy that outlined even more that perhaps Santelli was involved in this planning for months because of his soon to be expired contract with CNBC. It is another important angle to add on to this. Unfortunately, I'm at work and do not really want to risk googling "playboy"
April 14, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Playboy article has been spiked. Here's a rundown however:
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11934
April 14, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lest you missed it. Here's the link to Rachel Maddow's hysterical segment on teabagging. Google "teabagging" first if you're not familiar with the slang/definition.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30145811
April 14, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of the captions on "Countdown" last night: "GOP Bones Up on Teabagging".
April 15, 2009 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why was it spiked? Santelli's denial really never denied anything in it, just that he believed what he said.
April 14, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Playboy article was probably spiked because it was potentially libelous, and since Playboy isn't primarily a political rag I doubt they'd bother going into litigation over keeping it up. They were probably contacted by a CNBC lawyer and pulled it. It is still available at exiledonline.com
An interesting bit of supporting evidence which I haven't seen cited anywhere is available on Freedomworks own site. It's titled "FreedomWorks Launches Nationwide Tea Party Tour," and reveals that Freedomworks themselves claim to have "co-ordinated" the Tea Party movement.
April 14, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a listing of many more Bush protests, some in the millions.
http://www.thefoldblog.com/2009/03/delusion-is-first-sign-of-desperation.html
April 14, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
The media utterly ignored the Iraq protests. By contrast, Faux News is doing its best to promote the tea baggers.
Still, taking to the streets in America usually indicates powerlessness. It's like people are out there saying, "Hey, look at me, I'm completely marginalized!"
April 14, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Simple proof that the Republicans are organizing the Tea Parties at least in Colorado. Below is an email I received for being on a list for getting rally tickets for a friend, they still haven't figured out I am a senior Democratic Party member.
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:54:45 +0000
From: James@cologop.org (James Garcia from Colorado GOP.org)
TIRED OF WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING?
16 TEA PARTY EVENTS COMING SOON!
***APRIL 15th & 18th***
CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE BELOW TO
FIND A TEA PARTY NEAR YOU
Denver Metro Area
City: Denver
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Where: West steps of the Capitol, 200 East Colfax
El Paso County
City: Colorado Springs
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Where: Acacia Park at 225 N. Nevada
Mesa County
City: Grand Junction
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Where: 12th Street and North Avenue
Larimer County
City: Fort Collins
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Where: Fort Collins City Hall, 300 Laporte Avenue
and
City: Loveland
When: April 15, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: 205 E. Eisenhower Blvd., Loveland, CO 80537
Pueblo County
City: Pueblo
When: April 15, 4:00 pm
Where: Pueblo County Courthouse, 215 W. 10th St.
La Plata County
City: Durango
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Rotary Park, 1565 E. 2nd Ave.
Delta County
City: Delta
When: April 15, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Where: Delta County Courthouse
Garfield County
City: Glenwood Springs
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Garfield County Courthouse Lawn, 8th and Colorado Street
Teller County
City: Woodland Park
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Front of City Hall, 220 W. South Ave.
and
City: Woodland Park
When: April 15, 4:00 pm
Where: Front of Old Martini Hut, 209 E. Midland Ave.
Routt County
City: Steamboat Springs
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Where: Routt County Courthouse
Moffat County
City: Craig
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Front of County Courthouse
Archuleta County
City: Pagosa Springs
When: April 15, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Where: Victoria's Parlor
Huerfano County
City: Walsenburg
When: April 15, 5:00 pm
Where: Huerfano County Courthouse, 401 Main Street
Weld County
City: Greeley
When: April 18, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Where: Bittersweet Park at 35th Ave. and 11th St.
April 14, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's coverage and then there's sponsoring.
If FOX was a 'broad'casting company, instead of a cable narrowcaster, their sponsorship of these political events would hopefully get their FCC license yanked.
I think taking a page from the anti-abortionists might be in order: giant color blow-ups of the act of tea-bagging, just to assure that NO video of these events makes it onto the airwaves....
I can dream, can't I?
April 14, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The tea party web site was registered LAST AUGUST!!!
"Within hours of Santelli’s rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli’s "tea party" rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, a dweeby Twitter Republican and producer for a popular Chicago rightwing radio host Milt Rosenberg—a familiar name to Obama campaign people. Last August, Rosenberg...caused an outcry when he interviewed Stanley Kurtz, the conservative writer who first "exposed" a personal link between Obama and former Weather Undergound leader Bill Ayers. As a result of Rosenberg’s radio interview, the Ayers story was given a major push through the Republican media echo chamber, culminating in Sarah Palin’s accusation that Obama was "palling around with terrorists." That Rosenberg’s producer owns the "chicagoteaparty.com" site is already weird—but what’s even stranger is that he first bought the domain last August, right around the time of Rosenburg’s launch of the "Obama is a terrorist" campaign. It’s as if they held this "Chicago tea party" campaign in reserve, like a sleeper-site. Which is exactly what it was.
More at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/28/22188/9728/612/703154
April 14, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I remember running across a right winger on a non-political message board early last fall whose avatar said something about the Boston Tea Party. Other right wingers sometimes commented to him about the "tea bag movement," but at the time I had no idea what they were talking about. Only in the last month or so has it become clear to me what that was all about. But it was definitely in the works before Obama took office.
It annoys me that they are conveniently ignoring what the 18th-century protests were really about. They weren't about the level of taxation -- the tax that was imposed on tea was actually quite low. They were about the question of who levies the tax. Long precedent had been that the colonial legislatures, where the colonists had representation, levied the taxes for the colony. When George III ascended the throne in the wake of the Seven Years War and decided to take tighter charge of colonial affairs, his government insisted that the British Parliament, to which the colonists elected no representatives, could impose taxes on the colonies without going through the colonial legislatures. The colonists saw this as a usurpation of established rights and fought to keep colonial prerogatives.
Very different from the teabagging protests, where they're objecting to the actions of a duly elected legislature and a duly elected executive.
April 15, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
i got a robocall two days ago to participate in a local "tea party." i live in arlington, va, btw. it was a pretty long, detailed robocall. full of overblown rhetoric of course.
April 14, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
In a new developement Mark Foley will not be attending the events since it is during school hours. John Boehner has no comment and Dennis Hastert reportedly has no knowledge of this news.
April 14, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the thing that I can't get over, these people really are going to be using tea BAGS? Do they not know that teabags are a relatively modern invention and that Sam Adams didn't dump tea BAGS into the water? They get all dressed up in revolutionary war outfits and they are using tea bags? Loose tea, people.
April 14, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another question would be, how clueless do you have to be not to know that tea-bagging refers to the practice of dangling your testicles in the mouth of a kneeling partner?
April 14, 2009 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't know one had to kneel... I'm certain it isn't required for the operation.
April 14, 2009 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQjPoiVPf2Y
Fun for all.
April 14, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does anyone know if hoods will be available or do we have to bring out own?
April 14, 2009 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I toatally don't care about these things. They won't stop progress that we so desperately need.
April 14, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, so there's the (false) comparisons with Iraq protests. Anti-war protesters were protesting to end the war -- and actually before it started to prevent it -- clear enough. What are these lemmings protesting to achieve? No taxes in the U.S.? Most of these dolts don't even realize their taxes are going down with Obama in the White House, unless they make over a quarter mil a year. So are they rallying around more tax breaks for millionaires?
Methinks it's really just a pointless charade built around general frustration that the GOP is now largely a regional party with little national influence in real political terms. Of course, the GOP still lead the chattering classes around on a leash.
April 14, 2009 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of tea-bagging, check out the size of the flutists' bag on the homepage pic linking to this story.
That's nuts
April 14, 2009 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The guys at exiled online broke this story about astroturfing over a month ago. Just nobody was paying attention back then.
http://exiledonline.com/cnbc-bitch-slaps-santelli-into-line-freedomworks-admits-it-organized-grassroots-tea-parties-jon-stewart-cancels-santelli-megan-mcardle-queefs-on-our-founding-fathers/
April 14, 2009 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's another article from a bit earlier.
http://exiledonline.com/exposing-the-familiar-rightwing-pr-machine-is-cnbcs-rick-santelli-sucking-koch/
Sorry for the vulgarity in the links. It's how they do things there.
April 14, 2009 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone catch Olberman's "fellater" refrence; slid that one by the censors. Almost like Lou Abbot's genius "Fucrying out loud!"
April 14, 2009 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well the men's room, in Larry Craig circles, is called a Tearoom. It's the place to get your wide stance on. So I wonder if any tea bagging will take place at highway rest stops across the country.
April 14, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why does the movie "Idiocracy" come to mind?
April 16, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink