Dick Armey: Tea Party Candidates Should Avoid Tea Party Label

Former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, one of the drivers of the Tea Party movement, is suggesting that Republican political candidates should shy away from the "Tea Party" label to avoid harsher scrutiny.

Armey's conservative nonprofit group FreedomWorks has facilitated Tea Party activists with guidance and resources, allowing for the growth of the movement that supports candidates like Kentucky's GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul and Nevada's GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle.

But Paul's and Angle's association with the Tea Party could be making their campaigns harder, Armey said, according to Politico. "Don't ask for more of what you really don't want," Armey said Wednesday at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "Since the left hates the Tea Party and they hate me, let's see if we can get 'em to double down on me by me claiming to be the leader of the Tea Party."

Democrats have tried to portray Paul and Angle as extreme candidates. Paul, for instance, came under scrutiny for questions about whether he supports the Civil Rights Act. Paul faced a litany of tough questions on the subject on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" -- going on the show in the first place was another mistake Paul made, Armey reportedly said.

"Rand Paul made an amateur mistake -- a freshman mistake, a rookie mistake," he said. "He thought MSNBC was a legitimate news operation. Bless his heart. If he had called me and said 'should I go on that show?' I would have said 'no, they're political hacks. They will abuse the truth purposefully for a political purpose.'"

www.cbsnews.com...

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on DICK....we know you're an honest man! I love your free trade, anti-american worker, pro big oil stances.

Say what you really are!!!

For those who don't know....Dick Armey is the Leader of FREEDOM WORKS....the organization GLEN BECK is now aligned with....they have a cozy relationship.

Check out Freedom Works website...they want you to partner with Glen Beck. Do it...do it for freedom!!!

www.freedomworks.org...

LET'S DEFEND BP SOME MORE!!!!!!!!!!!


[edit on 17-6-2010 by David9176]

No replies from tea party supporters...or anyone for that matter?

I am surprised to see no comments....although I understand people are mostly following the BP Gulf Disaster.

Whip up your troops to defend your corporate cause(s), after picking up the Tea Party standard from the political battlefield, but when your troops want to become political under a different Tea Party banner, you know you've lost control of your TP image and want it all to just go away, so you can use it for some future corporate interest. Sounds more like turf wars to me. Protect the good name of Dick Armey's TP.

Dick, you are one of the one's responsible for commercializing the TPM, the other (Republican) leaders cashing in on it and/or using it for (GOP) gain. And now, , when some of those GOP candidates are not quite what the party wanted (kind of like uninvited guests), you want it all to just go away.

Or maybe, Dick, maybe you are calling for more of the GOP "stealth" candidates like in the late 80's early 90's elections, complete with their shills (called "monitors" back then) in the townhalls. That's how we ended up with the likes of Jeff Gannon in Bush's White House press corps.

So much for transparency in government!

I agree, the "tea party label" is a bad thing. They will probably do some outrageous thing at an upcoming rally and blame tea party members for it. I think the tea party members should drop the tea party name.

I'd be more interested in listening to Penis Navy.

The Republican leadership has long considered the public as a whole to be gullible and stupid. The far right especially has been pretty successful at manipulating the fears and aspirations of the average citizen into votes for themselves and their extreme agendas.

I'm not surprised that Armey thinks the public will vote for extremist candidates as long as people don't call them that. I believe he, and many others in his party, have that much contempt for the American people as a whole.

IMO nobody is going to be fooled for very long. A candidate leaning very far to the right is apparent to me no matter what they may portray themselves to be and I'm sure they are apparent to others as well.

Originally posted by Sestias
The Republican leadership has long considered the public as a whole to be gullible and stupid. The far right especially has been pretty successful at manipulating the fears and aspirations of the average citizen into votes for themselves and their extreme agendas.

Indeed. And their strategy of 50%-plus-one to win created a gash so wide, a fracture so compound, to this country, that could take years to heal, unless this oil disaster wakes people up to just how far down the road politicians have traveled with corporations.

Funny, the same politicians who had no trouble running on a platform of peeking under the covers to make sure you were in bed with the right person are themselves guilty of shamefully being in bed with their corporate partners, taking corporate money in exchange for favors.

And little wonder Joe Barton etal have to suck up to BP. They'll no doubt be employed/compensated by these corporations after they leave office. So they refuse to bite the hand that will feed them in the future.

No, the TPM became just a megaphone through which corporate lobbyists could shout corporate pr.


reply to post by Marrr


And, Marrr, Admiral PN had to resign recently, when it was determined that females could serve on submarines.