Colorado Tea Partiers Angry At Tancredo: You Spoiled Our Party

[CLANG]

Source: TPM

Tom Tancredo used to be something of a tea party hero. But not anymore, at least in Colorado. The ex-Congressman's foray into the state's gubernatorial race has essentially scuttled Republicans' chances in the contest -- and provoked outrage from local tea party members who feel betrayed after once counting Tancredo among their leaders.

Earlier this year, Tancredo was a featured player on the tea party circuit, giving an opening-night speech at Tea Party Nation's big February convention in Nashville. And in Colorado, Tancredo was a big force in the movement, helping to convince tea partiers to work within the Republican party structure instead of forming a new party.

Last December, Tancredo wrote an open letter to Colorado's 9-12 activists and tea party members, urging them to "think strategically" and arguing that forming a third party in the state was "suicidal and would only result in splitting the conservative vote and guaranteeing the re-election of liberals and socialists."

So tea partiers worked with Republicans, from the precinct caucuses to the county assemblies to the state convention and finally the primary earlier this month. The movement ended up helping a tea party candidate, Dan Maes, win the Republican gubernatorial nomination. (A plagiarism scandal that hit the frontrunner, Scott McInnis, didn't hurt). But before tea partiers could savor Maes' victory -- in fact, before Maes even won -- Tancredo declared himself unsatisfied with both Maes and McInnis, demanded they drop out after the primary so that the Republican party could pick a better nominee, and then decided to enter the race himself, under the Constitution Party banner. As a result, Tancredo and Maes are now splitting the Republican vote -- all but assuring a victory for Democrat John Hickenlooper. The TPM Poll Average shows Hickenlooper leading Maes and Tancredo 44.8%-26.3%-22%. And tea partiers are dismayed.

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/colorado-tea-partiers-angry-at-tancredo-you-spoiled-our-party.php?ref=fpb

[truthisfreedom]

1. Yay Tea Party! You're succeeding for us! You're everything we ever wanted...

Even better than Sarah and Michele.

[mike r]

2. Yep:

[CLANG]

3. WAAAAAAAAA!! You lied to us! (says the party of lies)

:rofl: :headbang:

[Pharaoh]

4. K&R Bro!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thereismore]

5. Hahaha! Tancredo: do as I say, not as I do, teabag suckers! nt

[tomm2thumbs]

6. well they better vote for Tancredo then - hostage voting at its finest

oh wait, but the Tea Party is a movement*.. bwhahahahahah


(*one better left flushed)

[Cognitive_Resonance]

7. Epic backfire

The one silver lining to the Tea Party is that the lunatics are too crazy to successfully organize anything. On balance they are doing tremendous damage to the Republican Party.

[mopinko]

13. i noticed that. i went to a town hall for the idiot who thinks

he can beat jan schakowsky. it was down right scary. but out of the 200 or so clowns that were there, there were no 10 that could talk an undecided voter into anything. hell, there were not 10 who could bribe anyone to do anything.

[w4rma]

8. It looks like the status quo in the Republican Party is working to shut down their grassroots

movement. Sort of like the DLC is doing inside the Democratic Party. Interesting.

Corporatists, all of them.

[JoeyT]

16. That comparison would be more valid

had the Teabaggers ever actually been a grassroots movement.
It's not like they were printing fliers in their basement and handing them out on the street to push a movement they believed in.
There were far too many professionally printed signs, expensive rented areas, chartered buses, and way too much media propaganda support to ever call them grassroots.

It's more like the Republicans finally figured out their base really IS that crazy, now they've got to try to put a lid on that lynch mob before they start blowing shit up.

[Bitwit1234]

9. DARN I thought it was spoiled before it even got off the ground all

those old used up tea bags, caused all kinds of virus.

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

:) - Thanks Tom, you self-righteous bastard!

[No Elephants]

11. "Liberals and socialists?" It would kill them to call us Democrats. What a maroon!

[librechik]

12. Tea Party discovering wedge issue can split two ways. Timber!!!

If a tea party falls in the middle of the woods, can anybody hear it?

[Vincardog]

14. The real question is why don't they go tea bag each other and leave US alone?

[Canuckistanian]

15. Yep

[Martin Eden]

17. Tancredo is a FUCKING MORON

In the 2008 Repuke primary his big counter-terrorism idea was to make it known to the terrorists that we would bomb Mecca if we're attacked again.