Occupy Wall Street

Conservatives To Occupy Wall Street Protesters: Get A Job

Jillian Rayfield | October 12, 2011, 10:16AM

Conservatives love saying that Occupy Wall Street has no coherent idea of what it wants. But it is pretty clear that though demonstrators may disagree on the details, the protests are driven by a bad economy, growing income inequality and the fact that a lot of people can't get jobs.

So how have Republicans, tea partiers and Fox News hosts responded? By telling demonstrators to stop complaining and get a job...

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2012

Mitt Romney To Attend First Big Tea Party Rally

Benjy Sarlin | August 30, 2011, 3:32PM

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney will speak at a Tea Party Express rally in New Hampshire on Labor Day, his first appearance at a high profile event associated with the movement.

Romney's scheduled appearance, first reported on CNN, comes as he faces renewed pressure on his right flank thanks to Rick Perry's surging campaign. Perry was one of the earliest national politicians to jump on the grassroots bandwagon -- he made his famous "secession" comments at a Tea Party rally in April 2009 -- and is currently polling very well with self-identified Tea Partiers. He, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain will attend a forum with the Tea Party-leaning Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in South Carolina on Labor Day.

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Debt ceiling

Tea Party Leaders: If Default Hurts The Tea Party, So Be It

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 27, 2011, 11:23AM

Jenny Beth Martin

The tea party is so hell-bent on getting America's finances in order, they're willing to suffer the personal consequences of a government default. That's according to leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, who spoke with reporters in Washington this morning as the city remains gripped in debt ceiling stalemate.

Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots (the grassrootsier wing of the movement) agreed that default -- and the requisite end in government payments for the programs that go with it -- could hurt the thousands of tea party voters she represents. But she said her members are willing to take the hit.

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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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2012

Tea Party Patriots To Target Democratic Primaries?

Benjy Sarlin | June 13, 2011, 6:45AM

Tea Party Patriot's Mark Meckler

The Tea Party made its name rallying Republican voters in primaries and general elections around the country, but one influential leader is calling on the movement to turn its sights on the other side of the aisle in 2012.

Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, surprised attendees at this month's ultra-partisan Faith and Freedom Convention in Washington by insisting that there were Democrats deserving of the group's backing as well.

"There are Democrats out there who are our kind of Democrats," Meckler said. "There are Democrats out there who think what we think and it's our to job to find -- yes, sacrilege -- Democratic Tea Party candidates."

He went so far as to advise Republicans in Democratic districts to switch their affiliation and vote in the party primary in order to maximize their effect on the race. "It's your job to find the right kind of Democrat," he recalled telling one Tea Party voter frustrated with his Democratic-leaning district.

There's a certain pragmatic logic to Meckler's plan. With the GOP majority close to its high water mark following the 2010 wave, there may be few possibilities to expand the map any further into Democratic territory. And a more conservative Democrat in a safe seat is better than nothing.

"We've looked at the map, we know the numbers," he told TPM in an interview.

Meckler conceded that there are yet few examples of Tea Party activists influencing a Democratic primary. He said he was heartened, however, by the recent nonpartisan special election primary in CA-36, which unexpectedly saw a Republican advance to the general election in the heavily Democratic district. While the GOP candidate is unlikely to win, the results demonstrated that activists were willing to put in hard work even in a solid Democratic race.

For now, it's unclear the movement can ever be convinced to put the same effort into electing Democrats, let alone one who may hold individual positions anathema to conservative activists. To many observers, the movement is virtually indistinguishable from the Republican base. Nonetheless, there have been rare instances in which Tea Party groups crossed party lines. The Patriots' rival group, Tea Party Express, endorsed Democratic Rep. Walter Minnick in Idaho last year, for example, citing his votes against his party's leaders in Congress.

Lindsey Graham

Tea Party Leader Slams Lindsey Graham For Whining About $50,000 Cut to Home State

Benjy Sarlin | April 13, 2011, 10:24AM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went way off-message on Tuesday, threatening to "tie the Senate in knots" and hold up administration nominees unless lawmakers reverse just $50,000 in cuts affecting his home state that he claims would cost thousands of jobs.

Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler is not happy with Graham's sudden burst of pro-spending zeal, telling TPM that the senator "sounds like a petulant child."

"If it's that important to his state, perhaps Senator Graham ought to pay the $50K out of his own pocket," he wrote in an e-mail to TPM. "Or perhaps the citizens of his own state would like to volunteer to fund it. Or perhaps the companies who would benefit from the deepening of the port might want to fund it."

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Tea Party Patriots

Republicans Pump Up Tea Partiers At 'Continuing Revolution' Rally (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | March 31, 2011, 4:55PM

The Tea Party Patriots hosted a rally near Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon to encourage House leaders to resist compromising with the White House on the budget to avoid a government shutdown.

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James O'Keefe

Tea Party Patriots Rally Against NPR After O'Keefe Video

Benjy Sarlin | March 8, 2011, 1:30PM

James O'Keefe

The Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group for state and local Tea Party groups around the country, is rallying its supporters against NPR in response to hidden camera footage of an NPR executive, Ron Schiller, describing the movement's members as "seriously, seriously racist people."

The video was filmed by James O'Keefe's group, Project Veritas, and featured the group's members having lunch with Schiller while posing as a phony Muslim advocacy group interested in donating $5 million to NPR. In addition to his comments on the Tea Party, Schiller is shown in the video saying that NPR does not need federal funding, which the Patriots argue demonstrates that House Republican efforts to cut the news organization's funds are on the mark.

"Mr. Schiller himself candidly admits in the video that NPR doesn't need federal funding, and welcomes the opportunity to slant their reporting without the oversight of the taxpayer," Mark Meckler, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots wrote in an e-mail to supporters today. "At a time when the country is upside down by more than a trillion dollars, can we really afford to provide huge subsidies to entities that openly state that they don't need the money? Let's take his advice and pass legislation that would defund the clearly biased news organization that is out of touch with Americans across the country."

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Health Care

Tea Party Patriots Team Up With Steve King On Last Ditch Effort To Destroy 'ObamaCare'

Brian Beutler | February 14, 2011, 1:50PM

Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

The Tea Party Patriots are backing up Iowa Republican Steve King in a last-ditch effort to sink "ObamaCare" before the end of winter. But they're running out of options.

King wants his party to be bold, and attach a measure hacking $100 billion out of the health care law to legislation that will fund the government from March 4 through the end of September. He knows the Democratic Senate and the White House won't let that fly -- but for him larger principles are at stake here, and if the government shuts down because of this fight, so be it.

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Olympia Snowe

Meet Olympia Snowe's New Hard Rocking Tea Party Challenger

Benjy Sarlin | February 11, 2011, 12:02PM

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Maine moderate Olympia Snowe, whose Senate seat has long been considered vulnerable in a Republican primary, has a new Tea Party challenger: Andrew Ian Dodge.

The state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots in Maine, Dodge told TPM he will announce his entrance into the race Friday at a press conference at CPAC. He'll be the second to jump into the GOP primary against Snowe after businessman Scott D'amboise declared his run last year.

You may not recognize Dodge's name, but if you've read news coverage of the Tea Party over the last year you've almost certainly seen him quoted. Dodge's friendly relationship with reporters and off-beat analysis has made him one of the most frequently cited activists in the movement by mainstream reporters.

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Mark Meckler

Tea Party Leader: Left's Reaction To Shooting 'Sinks To The Level Of Evil'

Eric Lach | January 10, 2011, 12:13PM

Tea Party Patriot's Mark Meckler

A top Tea Party leader is accusing the left of using the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 others in Arizona this weekend for political advantage, and said he thinks it's "genuinely revolting."

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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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Tea Party

The GOP's New Transparency Rules Might Not Be That Transparent

Brian Beutler | December 23, 2010, 10:11AM

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) with members of the Republican House leadership

Ahead of the November elections, one of the House GOP's biggest promises to its base was that it would make sure legislation was publicly available online for three days before putting it on the floor for a vote. From the Pledge to America: "We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives."

However, in a draft of their proposed rules for the House in the 112th Congress, they reportedly left themselves quite a loophole: the powerful Rules Committee seemingly won't be subject to the transparency requirements and can amend and even replace any bill. As Politico reported Wednesday, "That would leave GOP leaders a significant exemption to make last-minute changes without such a long period of public scrutiny."

This does not please the Tea Party.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Tea Party Patriots Reject Tax Cut Deal, Call For It To Be Destroyed

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 9, 2010, 2:33PM

It seems President Obama's deal with Republicans on tax cuts has done something few may have thought possible: united the most progressive wing of the Democratic party with the most conservative of the Republicans.

In an email dispatched just minutes ago, the national office of Tea Party Patriots -- the largest umbrella for grassroots tea party groups in the country -- is calling on its millions of members to bombard Republicans on Capitol Hill with pleas to shut down the tax cut deal which House Democrats rejected earlier today.

"'The Deal' or 'The Tax Deal' as it is becoming known around the country between President Obama and Congressional Leadership is problematic," TPP's national coordinator team writes in the message. "This is a deal that needs to be opposed."

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Tea Party Patriots

Tea Party Fail: Patriots' Conspiracy Theory Leads To Mass Calling Of Reps' Personal Cell Phones

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 14, 2010, 10:07AM

9/12 Tea Party Rally

On Friday, the Tea Party Patriots lived up to just about every stereotype about the movement that its critics have about the tea party insurgency. In a single email, the Patriots acted paranoid, attacked fellow conservatives, alienated Republicans, sounded unhinged, got their facts wrong and had to sheepishly apologize to all involved. They also dished out the personal cell phone numbers of many incoming freshmen -- leading to a bombardment of calls from angry tea partiers.

Truly, it was a spectacular thing to behold. Suffice to say, it was probably not the way the tea party hoped to roll into DC.

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Tea Party

Tea Party Leader Slams Cantor For Taking Government Shutdown Off The Table

Brian Beutler | October 8, 2010, 11:23AM

Eric Cantor speaks at a rally opposing the health care plan.

Republican leaders may be growing squeamish about a showdown with the White House over the health care law next Congress. But if you think the conservative base is just going to sit back and give them a pass, you're sorely mistaken.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor was more explicit than any Republican leader has been thus far that the GOP will not force a federal government shutdown, if push comes to shove in their fight to defund health care reform.

"No," Cantor said. "I don't think the country needs or wants a shutdown." Broadly speaking, Cantor cautioned, Republicans will have to take a humble approach. Republicans, he said, "have to be careful about how we do it. We don't want to be seen as a bunch of yahoos."

That's completely unacceptable according to one Tea Party leader.

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