Tea Party Patriots Investigated: ‘They Use You and Abuse You’
As TPP’s leaders entrench themselves in Washington, local activists the group represents have accused them of exploiting the grassroots for their own fame and fortune while failing to deliver any meaningful political results. “Tea Party Patriots? I can’t attribute one victory to them at all,” says Laura Boatright, a former TPP regional coordinator in Southern California who has become an outspoken critic. “Where’s the success with what they’ve done with all this money? My view is that it’s just a career plan” for its national leaders—namely Jenny Beth Martin, who in 2010 was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Mark Meckler, now a regular commentator on Fox News.
Much, much more at link. Splitters!
Part 2:
Tea Party Patriots Investigated: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
The nation’s largest tea party group, Tea Party Patriots, made a name for itself through raucous protests demanding more government transparency and fiscal responsibility. But the high standards of transparency and financial restraint that TPP’s leaders expect from the Obama administration don’t seem to apply to their own organization, a Mother Jones investigation has found.
TPP leaders have used dodgy accounting tricks to avoid publicly disclosing financial information. They’ve refused to share this information with the group’s members. Tea partiers who’ve tried to pierce the veil of secrecy have found themselves threatened with lawsuits or shut out of the organization entirely. And the group has tried to buy the silence of former employees and disillusioned board members, offering sums as high as $20,000 to sign confidentiality agreements. (National TPP coordinators did not respond to requests for comment for this story.)
