Latest tea party target: Its own convention

[cali]

The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage.

Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over.

Except it’s a tea party convention.

Billed as a pivot point to transition the tea party movement from a chaotic uprising to an organized and sustainable political force and featuring Sarah Palin as its star attraction, the first-ever convention in Nashville from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 is insead shaping up as a reminder of the problems inherent in holding together a fractious coalition of local groups resistant to authority and pursuing often-conflicting agendas.

Red State blogger Erick Erickson made it clear recently what he thinks of the coming event — pronouncing that it “smells scammy” and is inconsistent with the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement.

“I’m hoping for the best, but I’m prepared for the worst — that it descends into infighting and that the passionate activists who attend end up leaving disenchanted,” he told POLITICO.

At least two national groups that have emerged as major players in the movement rejected requests to buy sponsorships for the convention — which were going for as much $50,000 — while three other groups have recently withdrawn as sponsors, with two citing concerns over organizer infighting and questions about the convention’s unusual finances.

Meanwhile, about 50 local tea party leaders from across Tennessee are planning to attend a sort of counter-convention caucus set for this Saturday in Nashville, while some activists are discussing staging protests outside next month’s convention, which will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31816.html#ixzz0dMTrIYNw

[FSogol]

1. LOL, They are discussing protesting their own convention!

Tools!

[cali]

2. unrecced, eh? guess there are some teabaggers on DU

[stubtoe]

3. Corporate takeover of the Tea Party! Hah, it was so predictable.

:popcorn:

[guyton]

4. except that it was *never*

... a grassroots movement. It was astroturf from day-1.

[stubtoe]

5. Yes. But too bad the teabaggers didn't know it!

That's why it's so darned funny

[krabigirl]

6. but they don't mind corporations owning candidates, as long as they are GOPigs