Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, told the hosts of Fox & Friends Monday that they "deserve credit" for the success of the tea party movement, and that the movement could well dissipate if the economy improves.
"You guys deserve more credit for marshaling that anger than the tea partiers," Rendell told hosts Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, adding that he was "being serious" in making the claim and that "it's your right to do so."
In a long monologue during which the news hosts sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise, Rendell said that the tea party movement paled in size when compared to the anti-war movement during the Bush era, and that the tea parties "have been successful because the mainstream media, the media all over the country, has given them too much credit. I think they're sort of following the anger, rather than creating the movement."
Rendell said: "The anger is palpable and it is real. And is there a movement-- does that anger get acted upon by people? Sure it does. Anytime you've got people who lost their jobs, lost their 401k, lost their houses, people are going to be angry. But I don't think it's all directed at government spending or wasteful government. I think that's part of it, but I think there's a lot of anger just because we have a bad economy. If the economy continues to improve like it's clearly doing, I think you'll see a lot of that anger dissipate, even before the November election."
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0426/dem-gov-fox-outdid-tea-partiers/