Tea Party

Freedomworks Launches Tea Party Budget Commission

Benjy Sarlin | June 27, 2011, 1:49PM

William Temple, Chairman of the Tea Party Founding Fathers

Budget commissions are all the rage right now, and Dick Armey's Freedomworks have put together a Tea Party-flavored panel of their own to try and mark down a specific legislative goals for the movement.

According to the group, the Tea Party Debt Commission is modeled the White House's own commission, led by Erksine Bowles and Alan Simpson, which recommended about $4 trillion in savings through cuts and revenue increases and drew support from Democratic and Republican Senators who are now trying to negotiate a similar deal amongst themselves. Rather than relying on a blue-ribbon gathering of economists, former budget officials, and retired lawmakers, however, the Tea Party version will consist of 18 local activists from 2012 swing states and focus on finding a consensus among the grassroots.

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Budget

GOP to Newt: Leave Paul Ryan Alone!

Benjy Sarlin | May 17, 2011, 10:57AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

The melee ignited by Newt Gingrich's condemnation of the House GOP budget as "right-wing social engineering" is intensifying as Republican leaders, conservative editorial pages, and right-leaning pundits join together to condemn his remarks.

There's no question there was a misspeak here," Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told WLS radio in Chicago, according to The Hill. "Just to sit here while all but three House Republicans voted for the Ryan budget, to somehow portray that as a radical step, I believe, is a tremendous misspeak."

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Health Care

FreedomWorks Gives Health Care Repeal Pointers To House GOP

Brian Beutler | February 16, 2011, 1:22PM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

In a sign that the public is tiring of GOP efforts to repeal the health care law, the Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks is pressing Republican leaders to go on the offense -- double down on the repeal push while advocating conservative health care policies.

In a memo to House Republicans, the leaders of FreedomWorks, including former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, suggest that the public is souring on repeal because the GOP lacks a coherent set of reforms with which to "replace" the health care law.

"We're sending this memo because we believe your ultimate success depends as much on how you handle the "replace" as the "repeal" side of the strategy. We think it's time to start emphasizing what you're for as much as what you're against," the memo reads.

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2012 elections

Dick Armey: Mike Pence Is The Second Coming Of Reagan (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 27, 2011, 1:55PM

Dick Armey

FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey didn't hesitate when he was asked on Fox News today to weigh in on the 2012 presidential race. There's one man, Armey said, who can unite the fractured GOP. One man who can bring back Morning In America.

"I always thought I'd only get one Ronald Reagan in my lifetime," Armey said. "Maybe Mike Pence could be that second one."

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Dick Armey

Spitzer Spars With Dick Armey On Spending: 'I've Never Heard Such Hokum' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | January 6, 2011, 1:49PM

Eliot Spitzer wasn't buying what Dick Armey was selling about government spending last night on Parker Spitzer, telling the Republican former House majority leader and head of tea party umbrella group Freedomworks that "with all due respect, I've never heard such hokum, smoke and mirrors, and dancing on a complete flip-flop, lie, and deception in all my years."

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Tea Party Patriots

Tea Partiers Descending On D.C. To Pressure GOPers They 'Absolutely' Don't Trust

Jillian Rayfield | January 4, 2011, 8:41AM

Tea Party activists in Washington, D.C.

Various tea party groups are already amping up their efforts to keep Republicans in line as the new session of Congress kicks off, sending activists to D.C. to put pressure on newly sworn in Congressman as they take office on Wednesday.

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Dick Armey

FreedomWorks Memo Outlines Health Care Repeal Strategy

Jillian Rayfield | December 16, 2010, 1:33PM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

A memo from the Tea Party group FreedomWorks outlines the group's strategy to repeal health care reform and replace it with "a set of patient-centered" bills.

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Latinos for Reform

Maker Of Ad Telling Latinos Not To Vote Has Long History In GOP (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 19, 2010, 1:20PM

The man behind a new Spanish-language ad, encouraging Nevada Latinos not to vote is a veteran of Republican politics and now an advocate for what most would consider conservative, business-friendly immigration policy.

In an interview with TPM, Robert de Posada, founder of Latinos for Reform, said he's become equally disgruntled with both parties. His current goal, though, is to punish Democrats for failing to deliver on a promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. And his CV includes a long list of affiliations with conservative immigration reform groups.

In 1994, according to de Posada, he helped create the Hispanic Business Roundtable, which later became the Latino Coalition, where he was president until 2007. He served as co-director with Dick Armey on Americans for Border and Economic Security, on George W. Bush's Social Security Commission, and as director of Hispanic affairs at the Republican National Committee until becoming disgruntled with the GOP and settling into conservative advocacy.

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Tea Party

Dick Armey: This Is Your Country On Tea (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 6, 2010, 12:23PM

Dick Armey of FreedomWorks speaks with a tea party enthusiast

What does an American government "taken back" by the tricorn hat-wearing right look like? According to tea party prophet Dick Armey, chair of FreedomWorks, the federal goverment the tea party is hoping to create would have a highway system, an NIH and CDC (probably), a big-ol' (but also streamlined) Department of Defense -- but no money for higher education, the arts, national service programs or public broadcasting.

In an interview with the hosts of CNN's Crossfire remix Parker Spitzer last night, Armey laid out his vision for a tea-stained federal budget.

"How about we cut out a lot of nonsense like National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts? How about getting rid of Americorps, which is just obnoxious?" Armey said. "How about you get rid of the Corporation for [Public] Broadcasting?"

Here's a rundown of other federal programs (as listed by show co-host and disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer) and Armey's prediction of what would happen to them under a tea party regime.

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Social Security

Dick Armey: Social Security Is A 'Ponzi Scheme' (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | September 20, 2010, 5:28PM

Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey told bloggers at the Right Nation 2010 convention this weekend that the government takes people's money "under false pretenses." Social security? Huge Ponzi scheme, he says.

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DE-SEN

FreedomWorks Backpedals On O'Donnell, Too (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 16, 2010, 12:24PM

Despite what you may have heard, Christine O'Donnell was not universally backed by the tea party. Sure, O'Donnell rode to victory in the Republican primary for Senate in Delaware on the back of financial support from the Tea Party Express and endorsements from tea party favorites Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin. But some prominent tea party leaders were still wary of her political baggage in the days before the primary vote. Chief among them was Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks -- one of the largest tea party umbrella organizations out there. That all changed on Fox News today.

On Monday, Kibbe and FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey told reporters that the group wasn't getting behind O'Donnell, who Kibbe -- at the time -- said "can't win" the general election. Armey even took the establishment GOP position on the race best embodied (until extremely recently) by Karl Rove.

Asked by a reporter if, when it came to Delaware, "it's better for Republicans to lose with a tea party-backed candidate than to win with a mainstream Republican candidate, Armey gave a direct answer

"No," he said.

That was then. Now, after the ultra-right has spent close to two days crowning O'Donnell its new queen, FreedomWorks is having a change of heart.

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Dick Armey

Tea Party Group Wants Jews, African Americans And Hispanics

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 14, 2010, 8:30AM

Former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX)

FreedomWorks, the big daddy of the tea party-sponsoring organizations, is the latest to make an attempt at shedding the movement's all-white image. The group recently announced DiverseTea, a targeted advertising and outreach campaign aimed at extending the tea party's reach into minority communities. After a summer of attacks on the tea party (most notably from the NAACP, which accused the tea party movement of harboring racist elements -- a criticism tea partiers reject out of hand), FreedomWorks is the latest to get on the diversity train.

"We do need to reach out," FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe told me at a meeting sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor Monday. Kibbe said the new initiative will "build a platform" for tea party leaders from across the spectrum, including "African Americans, Jews, Hispanics," and others. Kibbe said that though it's important the group reach out, the talk of diversifying the tea party is more about changing the perception of the movement rather than the reality.

"There is this nagging perception that we are not diverse, and I disagree with that," he said. Kibbe told me after the meeting that the plethora of diverse voices on stage at rallies like Sunday's 9/12 meeting in Washington (where a virtually all-white crowd was regaled by numerous African American and Latino speakers) was part of a concerted effort to show minorities that they're welcome at tea party events.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Partiers Storm DC For Second (And Smaller) 9/12 Rally]

FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey -- the former congressman and bombastic public face of the organization -- was a bit more grumpy when it came to discussing the racial makeup of tea party crowds.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Dick Armey Backs Boehner's Strategy On Tax Cuts

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 13, 2010, 12:01PM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

Dick Armey, chairman of the tea party-backing FreedomWorks, got behind Rep. John Boehner's (R-OH) take-what-you-can-get talk about extending the Bush tax cuts at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor this morning.

Asked if Boehner made "the right move" with his suggestion that he'd vote for extending just the Bush tax cuts affecting the middle class if that's all that could reasonably pass the Democratic-controlled Congress, Armey said:

"One of the first things in politics is to do what is doable. And you have right now a Democrat president, Democrat leadership in both the House and Senate that's so ideologically-defined...the class-warfare malarkey that these guys live by has become theological to them."

"It's quite possible that John Boehner basically realizes that you simply can't get the Democrats emotionally prepared to deal with the fact that comprehensive continuation of the tax structure as we know it today after 10 years [of Bush cuts] is just."

2010 elections

FreedomWorks Says Thanks But No Thanks To Christine O'Donnell

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 13, 2010, 11:05AM

Dick Armey and Christine O'Donnell

Leaders of the influential FreedomWorks group -- one the largest and most powerful tea party forces in the country -- publicly distanced themselves from the latest tea party political star, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, at a breakfast with reporters this morning.

"We stay out of that race because we're not convinced O'Donnell can win," FreedomWorks president and CEO Matt Kibbe said at the Christian Science Monitor-sponsored event.

FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey shared the ambivalence toward O'Donnell, who's sparked a kind of GOP breakdown with her fast-rising candidacy against party stalwart Mike Castle, who most view as a shoo-in for Vice President Biden's old Senate seat should he win the nomination. Presented with polling data showing likely Democratic nominee Chris Coons beating O'Donnell in a general election, Armey was asked "if it's better for Republicans to lose with a tea party-backed candidate than to win with a mainstream Republican candidate."

"I'm going to give a quick answer," Armey said. "No."

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9/12

The Littlest Tea Party Mega-Rally: TPM's Day At The 9/12 March

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 7:28PM

9/12 Tea Party Rally

For the most part, the day was gray, wet and overcast. Though the threat was there, serious precipitation never came. That's not how the several thousand tea partiers gathered in DC for the second 9/12 rally today would describe things, though -- according to them, a hard rain fell on President Obama and his socialist cronies.

This was not the 9/12 rally of a year ago. The crowd was miniscule by comparison, with many tea partiers kept away from the nation's capital by competing 9/12 events in Sacramento and St. Louis, and many others not interested in shelling out for a return schlep to the city so soon after they packed the Lincoln Memorial for Glenn Beck's August 28 event.

Some tea partiers were upset at Beck for holding his own late summer tea party DC rally -- more than one told me they wished he hadn't held his overtly apolitical rally two weeks before 9/12, which is all about political organizing and getting set for November.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Partiers Storm DC For Second (And Smaller) 9/12 Rally]

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9/12

Tea Partiers Descend On DC For 9/12 Rally Today

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 8:23AM

Tea Party really in Washington, D.C., April 15th, 2010.

For the umpteenth time this year, swarms of tea partiers will descend on the nation's capital to rail against the Democrats who they say have set this nation on a path that ends with a hammer and/or sickle. Yes, it's 9/12, one of the biggest holidays of the year for the tea party movement -- maybe even the most sacred day on the tea party calendar, second, arguably, only to Tax Day, April 15.

Follow my live coverage of the event throughout the day here.

Today, thousands of angry conservatives will march from the Washington Monument to the front lawn of the Capitol where they'll be fired up by plenty of rhetorical lighter fluid from a conservative speaker corps including Andrew Breitbart, Dick Armey and Erick Erickson. Much like they did the last several times they headed to DC, the speakers are expected to declare the rally the end of the line for Democrats.

Thousands of the conservative faithful in DC? Big speeches from the most irascible public figures on the right? I know what you're thinking -- didn't we just see this movie two weeks ago? The answer is yes...and no. Glenn Beck's August 28 "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial was the Fox News star's sequel to last year's 9/12 rally (you know, that one that basically every American alive attended, according to Beck) and featured some of the same audience who attended last year's 9/12 event.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | September 10, 2010, 4:30PM

Austan Goolsbee, Chief Economist on the Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

• CBS, Face The Nation: House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), former 9/11 Commission Co-Chairman and former Gov. Tom Kean (R-NJ).

• CNN, State Of The Union: FreedomWorks Chairman and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R), former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS).

• Fox News Sunday: White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R)

FL-GOV

Dick Armey Endorses Embattled Bill McCollum In FL-GOV

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 22, 2010, 2:10PM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, reeling from a late challenge from anti-public option crusader Rick Scott in the Republican gubernatorial primary, just got a big boost in his quest to retain the support of Florida conservatives. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey -- the chair of tea party umbrella group FreedomWorks -- endorsed McCollum today, calling him the right choice for frustrated conservatives.

"Bill McCollum was 'tea party' long before there were tea parties," Armey said in a statement posted to the McCollum campaign website.

Armey praised McCollum's lawsuit challenging the federal health care law, and his past membership in the House leadership when Armey was majority leader.

"In the Florida race for governor, no one has done more to further the cause of conservatism than Bill McCollum," Armey said.

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KY-SEN

Dick Armey: Rand Paul Made 'Rookie Mistake' Going On Maddow

Christina Bellantoni | June 16, 2010, 1:03PM

Former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX)

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey told reporters today that Senate candidate Rand Paul is an "amateur" who made two big mistakes -- appearing on Rachel Maddow's show and declaring himself as a leader of the tea party movement.

"Rand Paul made an amateur, freshman, rookie mistake -- he thought MSNBC was a legitimate news organization," Armey said at a lunch today hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "These are not professional people. ... Bless his heart, he walked right into a buzzsaw."

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2010 elections

Dick Armey To GOP: Be 'Courageous,' Consider Social Security And Medicare Cuts (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | February 19, 2010, 10:08AM

FreedomWorks CEO Dick Armey at CPAC 2010

Former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey said in an interview that Republicans would be wise to talk straight about making cuts to Social Security and Medicare if they really want to cut the deficit.

TPMDC interviewed Armey at CPAC yesterday, and we asked him about Rep. Paul Ryan's budget roadmap we've been following that cuts privatizes Social Security and creates a voucher system for Medicare.

Armey (R-TX) was an architect of the Contract with America that helped Republicans win control of Congress in 1994. When we asked, he at first danced around the issue but then agreed "Yes," the Ryan plan is the smart way to go if the GOP is "courageous."

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FreedomWorks

FreedomWorks Looking To The 2010 Election Year

Eric Kleefeld | December 31, 2009, 3:40PM

Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks

FreedomWorks, the top-tier Tea Party organizing group run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), is gearing up for a very busy 2010.

The group sent out an e-mail yesterday to its list, "The Freedom Movement: A Historic 2009 Gives Way To A Busy 2010," promising an increased range of activities in the big election year of 2010. There will be sustained activism against the Democrats' health care bill, an April 15 Tax Day Tea Party at the White House itself, and electoral activity by the FreedomWorks PAC.

FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon told me that the PAC will enable the organization to get directly involved in elections, instead of the issue advocacy to which they've been limited. In addition, it will help activists in one state point their money and energies to targeted Democrats in other states, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) or Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), and help out favored Senate candidates like former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-FL).

What's more, FreedomWorks will help to mobilize a national grassroots effort that has been just taking shape this year. Tea Party groups have sprung up in large numbers; some have merged, some have died away, and the movement has gone through a process of formation, which will need to have a more orderly makeup going into a national election.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | November 6, 2009, 2:18PM

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: RNC chairman Michael Steele, DNC chairman Tim Kaine

• CBS, Face The Nation: Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), Republican political consultant Ed Rollins, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell (R-VA).

• Fox News Sunday: Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell (R-VA), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA).

Bill Owens

Conservative Party's Hoffman Unable To Answer Questions On Local Issues In NY-23

Eric Kleefeld | October 26, 2009, 11:55AM

NY-23 Candidate Doug Hoffman (Conservative)

It looks like Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the three-way NY-23 special election, doesn't actually know much about the district's local issues, the Watertown Daily Times reports.

Hoffman is opposing Democratic nominee Bill Owens and moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava on issues like abortion, gay rights, the stimulus bill, and other national hot-button topics. But at a Daily Times editorial board meeting, he couldn't answer questions about local transportation projects and other economic issues.

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NY-23

Dick Armey: Conservative Party's Hoffman Is 'The Real Republican' In NY-23

Eric Kleefeld | October 22, 2009, 12:15PM

NY-23 candidate Doug Hoffman (Conservative) and Dick Armey

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) formally endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election, further deepening the split on the right in this campaign for a GOP-held swing seat.

Hoffman is running against Democrat Bill Owens and the regular Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, who has been assailed on the right for her liberal positions on issues like abortion, gay marriage and the Employee Free Choice Act. A recent Siena poll; showed Owens narrowly ahead of Scozzafava in a three-way race, and benefitting enormously from the split in Republican ranks.

Said Armey: "Though Doug may not be running on the Republican line, Doug is the real Republican in this race and that's why I'm endorsing him today." Those are some strong words for a former House GOP leader, to be disowning his party's official candidate.

Check out the full Hoffman campaign press release, after the jump.

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NY-23

Dick Armey To Campaign For Hoffman In NY-23

Eric Kleefeld | October 19, 2009, 5:44PM

Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) is headed to NY-23, to campaign for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman -- and to send a message to the national GOP by stopping moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava.

"We win when we are us. We lose when we are Democrat lite," Armey told Erick Erickson. Armey also explained: "Big Government Republicans, though they call themselves Big Government Conservatives, do not win. I would tell the Republican Party leadership it cannot win if it insists on recruiting and supporting candidates out of step with the voters."

Armey's presence could provide an interesting counterweight to Newt Gingrich, who led the House Republicans with Armey in the mid-1990's, and who recently endorsed Scozzafava.

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