Mitt Romney

Top Tea Partiers Bummed About Both Mitt And Newt

Sahil Kapur | January 23, 2012, 11:41AM

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich

Tea party conservatives are fearful that Mitt Romney could harm the Republican Party brand that the movement has sought to recast post-George W. Bush, a top FreedomWorks staffer tells TPM. He concedes that the reason conservatives haven't rallied behind one of his opponents is because they see no clear right-wing alternative who's also electable.

"If you nominate a Romney who is sort of a moderate and doesn't seem to believe in anything -- he's not authentic -- that can do a lot of damage to the brand of the Republican Party, which we are trying to rehabilitate," said Brendan Steinhauser, the director of federal and state campaigns of FreedomWorks, the 1.5 million member Dick Armey-led group that has played a key role in shifting the Republican Party to the right.

"If he gets nominated he could be like George W. Bush or John McCain and disappoint voters who are starting to warm to Republicans," Steinhauser told TPM.

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Mitt Romney

Tea Partiers To Protest Mitt Romney's Attempted Embrace Of Them

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 31, 2011, 9:28AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R-MA)

Mitt Romney may be trying to make new friends with the tea party, but it seems that some tea partiers are not interested in giving him a friendly welcome.

Freedomworks, which has made standing in the way of Romney's presidential ambitions a goal, will protest Romney's appearance at a Tea Party Express event in New Hampshire this weekend, according to Politico.

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John Boehner

CIVIL WAR: GOP Coalition Splinters Into Open Conflict Over Debt Ceiling

Benjy Sarlin & Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 27, 2011, 6:00AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Speaker Boehner

The Republican leadership's efforts to avert a debt ceiling crisis with a two-tiered set of cuts is turning into the most divisive wedge issue the party has confronted since President Obama took over in 2009.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) may have thought his face-saving plan, which he hoped to bring to the floor Wednesday, offered a path to victory. However, since treading upon it he's been beset from all sides. It's not just that the President is threatening to veto the bill, should it ever make it past the Senate; it's that Boehner's fellow conservatives are sniping at him with (not so) friendly fire. Now the vote he'd hoped to bring triumphantly to the floor Wednesday looks delayed until at least Thursday, and even then the outcome is uncertain.

That's because the GOP is teetering on the brink of a debt-based civil war. More traditional Republicans and big business types are desperate to avoid a recovery-crushing default. But their Tea Party colleagues are leading a rebellion of epic - perhaps even galactic - proportions. Cue the John Williams music and find out who stands where in this stand-off between the Establishment's storm-troopers and the Rebel Alliance.

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John Boehner

Why Boehner's Debt Limit Plan Will Have To Fail Before Endgame Becomes Clear

Brian Beutler | July 26, 2011, 5:17PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

High level discussions continue between Democrats and Republicans to make sure Congress raises the debt limit before the Treasury runs out of borrowing authority and has to slash public spending on a massive scale. But for the moment, we're in a period of repose. In public, few are willing to budge too far off their own party's plan to raise the debt limit. And members and aides are now believe that a viable solution won't emerge until one of the existing, partisan plans fails publicly.

In other words, things haven't moved a whole lot since yesterday. For the moment, most participants expect that the House GOP plan, authored by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will move first, and will fail, either in his own chamber or in the Senate. But they're now pessimistic that a workable plan will emerge before then, something party leaders were hoping against hope for yesterday.

"I think so -- probably that's the case," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

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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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Tea Party

The Tea Party's Atlas Shrugged: TPM Goes To The Movies

Jillian Rayfield | April 18, 2011, 9:39AM

What do you get when you cross Tea Party politics with a movie adaptation of a critically-panned but bestselling dystopian novel from the 50s?

TPM went to see Atlas Shrugged: Part One on Friday and found the answer: Nothing good.

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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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AZ-SEN

Flake Picks Up Tea Party Group Endorsement In Arizona

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 14, 2011, 6:46PM

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

Hours after Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced his campaign for the seat being vacated by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), tea party umbrella group FreedomWorks, best known as the arm of the movement led by former House Republican leader Dick Armey, endorsed Flake in an email blast sent by its PAC.

"Endorsing Jeff Flake is a no-brainer," FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe said in a statement. "He's principled, he's consistent, and he's fearless in the fight for lower taxes, less government, and more individual freedom. If the Tea Party is going to reduce the size of government, it will need more Jeff Flakes in the United States Senate."

The backing of FreedomWorks helps solidify Flake as the national fiscal conservative choice. He's already got the endorsement of the Club For Growth, which has promised to lend a hand in getting him elected.

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FreedomWorks

After Obama Appointment, Tea Party Calls For GE CEO's Ouster (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 24, 2011, 10:25AM

FreedomWorks, the arm of the tea party movement led by former Rep. Dick Armey (R), is launching a new national negative campaign ad today. The target is not a progressive politician, moderate Republican or President Obama -- the usual suspects when it comes to tea party commercials -- or even an elected official at all.

"In a world of 'too big to fail,' we the people cannot afford Jeffrey Immelt running G.E.," the ad's narrator says. "Tell Jeffrey Immelt it's time for him to go."

Among Immelt's crimes? Taking bailout money, speaking positively about cap-and-trade, employing Keith Olbermann (He's "allowed verbal attacks on patriotic Americans," the ad says) -- and of course, working in the Obama administration.

Last week, Immelt was appointed by Obama to head the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, an economic growth advisory panel. It was a move that most saw as Obama attempting to rekindle his relationship with the corporate world.

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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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Defense Spending

Conservatives & Tea Partiers To Congress: Cut Defense Spending

David Taintor | December 3, 2010, 8:41AM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

It looks like some conservatives and Tea Partiers are ready to go after a sacred cow of Republican politics.

A letter addressed to incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), posted at FreedomWorks, one of the nation's most influential tea party umbrella groups, is urging the Republican leaders to consider cutting defense spending.

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Michael Steele

RNC Candidates Meet The Tea Party At D.C. Debate

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 2, 2010, 9:40AM

RNC chairman Michael Steele

Four of the many candidates seeking to replace Michael Steele at the head of the Republican National Committee took a break from the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing of an RNC chair race yesterday to make their case to the tea party. Whether the tea party paid attention is still anyone's guess.

Former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis, former Ambassador and Missouri GOP chair Ann Wagner, former RNC chair Mike Duncan and recently departed RNC political director Gentry Collins gathered for a debate of sorts before an audience of tea partiers hosted by FreedomWorks in Washington. Of the four who appeared, only Anuzis and Wagner are official candidates, though Collins is expected to jump into the race officially at any moment. Duncan's appearance was something of a surprise, though he clearly came prepared to mount a run at the job he lost to Steele in 2009.

The movement that has come to define the Republican Party this year was invited by members of the GOP establishment to play a part in electing the chair. Establishment types hope that by bringing the tea party to the table, they can unite a party still fractured somewhat after nasty primaries. The debate featured a number of questions about how to go about doing that -- but few answers.

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Roadmap for America's Future

Tea Partiers Get Seat At Table To Pick Next RNC Chairman

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 30, 2010, 9:14AM

RNC chairman Michael Steele

With a host of candidates lining up to challenge embattled RNC chairman Michael Steele, one large group of voting RNC members' is bringing in FreedomWorks -- the branch of the tea party run by Dick Armey -- to help with the vetting of candidates.

Solomon Yue, an RNC member from Kansas and a co-founder of the RNC's Republican National Conservative Caucus (a 26-member group of the RNC's 168 voting members that has adopted much of the tea party's rhetoric and message), laid out his plan to bring FreedomWorks and the average tea partier into the process of selecting the next chair in a telephone interview with TPM.

Yue said including tea partiers in the vetting process was required to find the right person for the job. The next RNC chair "doesn't have to be a tea partier," Yue told me, but he or she "needs to be tea party compatible."

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Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Right Jabs Pilgrims For ... Communism? (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 25, 2010, 6:00AM

It's reasonable to assume that tea partiers, Fox News hosts and conservative bloggers look forward to today for the same reason most Americans do: the turkey (or tofurkey, depending on your preference) and the football (or cable TV marathons, depending on your preference.)

But those folks also look forward to Thanksgiving for another reason that it's equally reasonable to imagine most Americans don't: the celebration of capitalism's final victory over communist-leaning Pilgrims.

"Sadly, few Americans know the real story of the early colonists," FreedomWorks' Julie Borowski wrote yesterday. "For evidence of the failures of communism, we do not need to look to disastrous experiments in foreign lands. In fact, the Plymouth Plantation is one of the most apparent examples of the failures of collectivism."

FreedomWorks is, of course, a leading tea party organization headed by Dick Armey. But tea partiers aren't the only ones saying that by breaking bread together on that first Thanksgiving, the early American colonists were really breaking the back of socialism.

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Tea Party

Tea Party Group To Corporations: Support Obama And We'll Take You Down

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 23, 2010, 11:45AM

A tea partier holds a sign at a March 2010 health care protest.

The tea party movement has a new target: Corporate America. Leaders of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey's branch of the conservative revolution, tell US News' Paul Bedard that the tea party movement is now ready to go to war with companies that the group says endorse "President Obama's progressive agenda."

On the short list are General Electric and Johnson & Johnson. Their crimes: "Their initial focus" of FreedomWorks' anti-corporate war "will be on consumer firms that lobbied for passage of Obama's agenda items that helped their firms." Those items include: "healthcare reform, bailouts, cap-and-trade energy policies or other issues pushed by the administration."

How will FreedomWorks take out these corporate giants? Through what it says will be a series of massive consumer boycotts Bedard likens to past anti-corporate protests mounted by Jesse Jackson.

"[A] Tea Party boycott could be bigger and impact the political world in Washington where corporations are generally viewed as supporting Republicans," Bedard writes.

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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 Blame Mother Nature And Glenn Beck For Diminished 9/12 Crowd

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 2:01PM

At the 9/12 rally in Washington.

As we await the start of the speaking portion of today's tea party program here in DC, the 9/12 crowd has swelled from the small group gathered at the Washington Monument this morning. But even with the addition of new tea partiers, the crowd remains significantly smaller than all the other nationally-promoted, FreedomWorks-backed DC events I can remember.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Scenes from the 2009 9/12 rally]

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9/12

Tea Party's 9/12 Rally Looking Much, Much Smaller Than Last Year's

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 11:44AM

At the 9/12 tea party rally in Washington.

Maybe the tea party movement has had enough of DC's endless subway delays. An hour and a half in to FreedomWorks' second day-after-9/11 megarally, 9/12/10 is no 9/12/09. The thousands of angry Americans who packed Washington during the House vote on health care reform, who poured into town on Tax Day, and who came by the busload to heed Glenn Beck's call on August 28 just haven't materialized today.

The crowd is downright tiny by comparison to those past events. Sure, there are several thousand people here. But it's nowhere near the size of last year's 9/12 crowd. If FreedomWorks wanted a repeat of last year's traffic-halting protest, so far it looks like they've failed.

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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)

Republicans

Pence To Join Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus

Brian Beutler | July 19, 2010, 4:05PM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)

Michele Bachmann's freshly minted Tea Party Caucus has its first member of GOP leadership: Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence.

At a press availability this afternoon, Pence was enthusiastic. "You betcha," Pence said when asked if he'd join.

"I come out of a background -- I was chairman of the Republican Study Committee, I was chairman of...the House Conservative Caucus," he added. My hope is that this Tea Party caucus...will be an avenue for bringing some of the energy and the enthusiasm and the focus that I've seen, from the National March on Washington where I spoke on 9/12, to traveling around Indiana and all around the country, deeper into the well of Congress.

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Russ Feingold

Feingold Highlights His Support Among Far-Right Republicans

Brian Beutler | July 6, 2010, 2:19PM

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)

If you're wondering whether Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) thinks his seat is under threat this November, look no further.

Poised to face wealthy Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson in the general election this fall, Feingold is trying to draw attention to the support he's had in the past from some of the most conservative people and organizations in Republican politics.

In a release accompanying his first radio ad in Wisconsin, Feingold's campaign runs through a laundry list of conservative supporters. "The conservative group Americans for Prosperity, the 'nation's premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity' and a major backer of the Tea Party movement, praises Feingold, saying 'I applaud Senator Feingold for voting against the 2009 Omnibus Spending bill and truly respect his principled stand against wasteful earmarks.'"

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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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Capitol Hill Tea Party

Busting Rhymes In The Name Of Tea Parties

Christina Bellantoni | November 20, 2009, 5:07PM

Rapper Hi Caliber

Don't call Hi Caliber a Republican rapper.

He prefers conservative hip hop artist, and has lent his rhyme to the tea party movement.

Cal, who wouldn't give his full name because he says he's been threatened by "liberals," starred in a FreedomWorks-produced video called "Patriotic People."

He rhymes: "Politicians need the truth, it will set you free, and I hope you paid attention to the march on D.C. ...Liberalism is like a cancerous tumor, just look at Harry Reid, Pelosi and Chuck Schumer."

TPMDC caught up with Cal, 34, a resident of the Jersey Shore.

"I am not a fan of Bush, and I'm not a rank and file Republican. I'm a conservative," he said.

Cal said he meets Democrats and Libertarians at the tea parties, and said it's unfair for liberals to call the group racist or redneck.

"I support the tea party movement because I feel they are the only people in the America who are not following lock-step, rank-and-file one of the political parties," he said.

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