"A fool and his money..."
Tea Partying for profit? "Tea Party faithful are paying a high price for admission -- more than double the cost of other similar national political conventions -- to hear former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speak at next month's Tea Party Nation Convention in Nashville, Tenn.
The $549 per person price tag for the sold-out Feb. 6-8 event -- which is closed to all but a "select," undisclosed group of media friendly to the movement -- has angered some activists. But they began to raise questions when it was revealed that, unlike those similar national events, the organizer of the convention registered the group behind the event -- Tea Party Nation -- as a “for profit” corporation.
The little-known organizer is Judson Phillips, a self-described "small-town lawyer." He is a former assistant district attorney now in private practice, specializing in driving-under-the-influence and personal-injury cases. He is organizing the convention with his wife, Sherry, his sister-in-law, and a handful of other volunteers.
A background check of various public records databases raises questions about how he has handled money in the past. The search shows that during Phillips filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in 1999 and during the past decade, he has had three federal tax liens against him, totaling more than $22,000..."
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/15/2175393.aspx