The Tea Party And The Remaking Of Republican Conservatism Part 10

27. Tyler Whitley, "Radtke Files for Senate," Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 29, 2010.

28. The Michigan Tea Party Alliance can be found at http://www.michiganteapartyalliance.com/ as of May 21, 2011.

29. See http://www.nctpp.net/tea-party-patriots-link-623.html for more information about this coordination effort. Available as of May 21, 2011.

30. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005); and Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All-Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer-And Turned Its Back on the Middle Cla.s.s (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

31. Hacker and Pierson, Winner-Take-All-Politics, chapter 5.

32. Robert Frank, "Top 1% Increased Their Share of Wealth in Financial Crisis," Wall Street Journal blog, April 30, 2010. Available at http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/04/30/top-1-increased-their-share-of-wealth-in-financial-crisis/ as of May 28, 2011. To see the growth of wealth inequality over time, see http://voteview.com/Wealth_top_1_Percent.htm.

33. See, for example, Wendy Zellner, "The Gates Effect," Fast Company, January 1, 2006; Joanne Barkan, "Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools," Dissent, Winter 2011; and Charles Piller and Doug Smith, "Unintended Victims of Gates Foundation Generosity," Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2007.

34. The power of the very wealthy has only been strengthened by the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down major portions of America's campaign finance regulations. The Kochs have funded a number of the organizations that argued in favor of Citizens United, including the Cato Inst.i.tute.

35. With $17.5 billion a piece, the two were tied for 24th on the 2010 Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people.

36. For a summary of the investigative reporting conducted about the Koch brothers by progressive bloggers in 2009 and 2010, see Jane Mayer, "Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who are Waging a War Against Obama," The New Yorker, August 30, 2010, p. 4.

37. Lee Fang, "In glitzy shadows, a health reform foe lurks," Boston Globe, December 6, 2009. See also Lee Fang, "MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met with Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck to Plot 2010 Election." Available at http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/20/beck-koch-chamber-meeting/ as of May 11, 2011.

38. Kevin Grandia, "The Big Money Behind Americans for Prosperity," Desmog Blog, February 26, 2009. Available at http://www.des...o...b..og.com/big-money-behind-americans-prosperity as of May 11, 2011. See also Lee Fang, "From Promoting Acid Rain to Climate Denial: Over 20 Years of David Koch's Polluter Front Groups," Think Progress, April 1, 2011. Available at http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/koch-pollution-astroturf-2deca/ as of May 11, 2011.

39. Sarah Owen, "David Koch Gives President Obama Zero Credit for Bin Laden's Death," New York magazine's Daily Intel blog, May 5, 2011. Available at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/05/billionaire_conservative_david.html as of May 11, 2011.

40. Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey, and Neela Banerjee, "Koch Brothers Now at Heart of GOP Power," Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2011.

41. Kenneth P. Vogel and Ben Smith, "Kochs' Plan for 2012: Raise $88M," Politico, February 11, 2011, p. 1.

42. d.i.c.k Armey and Matt Kibbe, Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto (New York: HarperCollins, William Morrow imprint, 2010).

43. "Koch Industries denies funding tea parties, but official filings say otherwise," Crooks and Liars, April 18, 2010. Available at http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/koch-industries-denies-funding-freedomworks as of March 22, 2011.

44. Background on AFP appears in Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, "Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition," Washington Post, Sunday, August 16, 2009; and Eric Lipton, "Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Budget Dispute," New York Times, February 22, 2011, A16.

45. FreedomWorks has not received Koch funding since splitting from CSE, but it has replaced those funding sources with other corporate dollars from telecommunications companies, Phillip Morris, and MetLife. Kate Zernike and Jennifer Steinhauer, "A Power Again in Congress Years After He Left It," New York Times, November 15, 2010, A1 and A16. Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, "Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition," Washington Post, August 16, 2009. FreedomWorks is led by d.i.c.k Armey, who after his term in the House became a lobbyist with strong ties to the oil, gas, pharmaceutical, and financial industries. "Oil and Gas Industries Fuel Unruly Townhall Meetings," Political Correction, August 6, 2009. Available at http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/200908060005 as of March 22, 2011. Amanda Terkel, "FreedomWorks, Run by Former Beverage Industry Lobbyist d.i.c.k Armey, Launches Attack Against Soda Tax," Think Progress, May 15, 2009. Available at http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/15/armey-soda/ as of March 22, 2011. Pat Garofalo, "d.i.c.k Armey's Clients Required the Bailouts that Army's FreedomWorks is Now Protesting," Think Progress, April 15, 2009. Available at http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/04/15/armey-financial-giants/ as of March 21, 2011.

46. Lipton, "Billionaire Brothers' Money," A16.

47. Amy Gardner, "Tea-party activists question if rebel political movement has changed for the worse," Washington Post, December 31, 2010.

48. Lipton, "Billionaire Brothers' Money."

49. "United States Congressman Paul Ryan to Receive Defender of the American Dream Award," AFP Wisconsin blog, available at https://americansforprosperity.org/united-states-congressman-paul-ryan-receive-defender-american-dream-award as of May 11, 2011.

50. Paul N. Van de Water, "The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report, July 7, 2010. Available at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&;id=3114 as of May 11, 2011.

51. DeLemus is a founder and director of the Granite State Liberty PAC. Because New Hampshire plays a key role in presidential primaries, DeLemus is able to attract attention and sometimes contributions from GOP politicians entertaining a presidential run.

52. See, for instance, TeaParty.org, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party magazine, and Patriot Action Network.

53. "Tea Party's Big Money," New York Times, September 24, 2010, Editorial, A24.

54. Emi Kolawole, "A Spam Metamorphosis," The FactCheck Wire, October 28, 2008. Available at http://www.factcheck.org/2008/10/a-spam-metamorphosis/ as of May 22, 2011.

55. Data from Federal Election Commission filings.

56. Data on 2010 campaigns from Federal Election Commission filings. For TPE's 2012 targets, see Josh Kraushaar, "Tea Party's First Target: Richard Lugar," National Journal, February 8, 2011, and Steve Peoples, "Tea Party Express Names Snowe as Its Next Moderate Republican Target," Roll Call, February 10, 2011.

57. Zachary Roth, "Majority of Tea Party Group's Spending Went to GOP Firm that Created It," TPM Muckraker, December 28, 2009. The article's findings are confirmed by Federal Election Commission filings.

58. Laura Myers, "Thousands Gather for 'Tea Party Express' Event in Harry Reid's Hometown," Las Vegas Review Journal, March 27, 2010.

59. Jenny Beth Martin, a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, derided the Tea Party Express as "five people on a bus" in an interview with Vanessa in spring of 2010. There have been significant legal tussles between TPE and TPP according to Stephanie Mencimer, "Tempest in the Tea Party," Mother Jones, December 30, 2009.

60. Before his involvement in Tea Party Patriots, Mark Meckler was a distributor for a dubious nutritional supplement company, Herbalife, that has been cautioned by the FDA for making false claims. Herbalife is widely promoted through "multilevel marketing," described by some as a pyramid scheme. Stephanie Mencimer, "Is the Tea Party Movement Like a Pyramid Scheme?" Mother Jones, October 19, 2010. Jenny Beth Martin's husband is also involved in Tea Party Patriots, serving as a treasurer for the group. Stephanie Mencimer, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated, Part 3," Mother Jones, February 16, 2011.

61. Ties between FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots have been doc.u.mented by Talking Points Memo and Rolling Stone, though it is unclear to what extent FreedomWorks remained involved with Tea Party Patriots after 2009. Zachary Roth, "FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High," TPM Muckraker, August 11, 2009. Tim d.i.c.kenson, "The Lie Machine," Rolling Stone, October 1, 2009. The importance of FreedomWorks in the development of Tea Party Patriots was confirmed by Jenny Beth Martin in an interview on March 11, 2010. According to Martin, FreedomWorks was crucial to the group's original launch and was a primary funder for their national rallies. Martin also reports that operational funding for Tea Party Patriots was scant well into 2010, limiting the capacity of the group to take independent action. FreedomWorks has a history of creating homespun-looking websites like the original site of Tea Party Patriots that promote nominally gra.s.sroots causes. Michael M. Phillips, "Mortgage Bailout Infuriates Tenants (And Steve Forbes)," Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2008.

62. Zachary Roth, "FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High," TPM Muckraker website, August 9, 2009.

63. See, for instance, Wayne T. Brough, Ph.D. "Proposed Regulations Pose Threat to Internet," FreedomWorks, January 15, 2010. Available at http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/proposed-regulations-pose-threat-to-internet as of May 11, 2011.

64. This claim is from the Tea Party Patriots' "About Us" page, available at http://www.teapartypatriots.org/AboutUs.aspx as of May 11, 2011.

65. From an interview with Jenny Beth Martin on March 11, 2010. The number of partic.i.p.ants on each call was confirmed by several local Tea Party organizers across the country who regularly partic.i.p.ate in the calls.

66. As of May 2011, information about the summit was available at http://summit11.org/.

67. Stephanie Mencimer, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated," Mother Jones, February 14, 2011.

68. A quick glance at the Tea Party Patriots' home-spun website might give a visitor the impression of an entirely gra.s.sroots, volunteer-run organization. But the organization's actual structure is kept from public view. As of March 2011, the Tea Party Patriots website offered the visitor no information regarding their national leadership and no listing of the Board of Directors or staff. Without public disclosure, most available information about Tea Party Patriots comes from TPP itself. In an interview on April 26, 2011, Martin was unclear about precisely how many people were on TPP's payroll, estimating around a dozen. The number of coordinators on staff has varied over the past two years. When we spoke with Jenny Beth Martin in March of 2010, she reported that the organization employed nine national coordinators to help guide and coordinate local groups' actions. Emails from Tea Party Patriots to their supporters suggest that those numbers have since been whittled down. In March of 2011, TPP emails were signed by a national coordinator team of only six people.

69. Bradford Plumer, "Can the Tea Party Be Controlled?" The New Republic, September 21, 2010. The anonymous donation to the TPP was announced at the National Press Club.

70. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones has done extensive reporting doc.u.menting Tea Party Patriots' financial doings. Tea Party Patriots has used accounting tricks to avoid having to file their taxes or financial disclosure forms for almost two years, an especially troubling fact given the questionable business practices of Tea Party Patriots' leaders prior to their Tea Party activism. See Mencimer's three part series, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated," Mother Jones, February 1416, 2011. See also: Stephanie Mencimer, "Is the Tea Party Movement Like a Pyramid Scheme?" Mother Jones, October 19, 2010.

71. Stephanie Mencimer, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated," Mother Jones, February 14, 2011.

72. "Americans for Prosperity Leader Speaks to Tea Party Tuesday," KearneyHub.com, November 27, 2010.

73. Information from the Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska website, which provides regular information on issues coming up at all levels of government and links to the national AFP website and to those of a full panoply of ultra-right, anti-government advocacy organizations.

74. Stephanie Mencimer, "Tempest in the Tea Party," Mother Jones, December 30, 2009.

75. Written as if from Ben Jealous, the president of the NAACP, the blog included lines like, "How will we coloreds ever get a widescreen TV in every room if non-colored get to keep what they earn?" The blog entry was removed from the original site, but a complete text of the letter is still available at http://gawker.com/#!5588556/the-embarra.s.sing-racist-satire-of-tea-party-leader-mark-williams as of February 27, 2011. In another instance, Williams claimed that Muslims worship a "monkey G.o.d." Bill Hutchinson, "Tea Party leader Mark Williams says Muslims worship a 'monkey G.o.d,' blasts Ground Zero mosque," New York Daily News, May 19, 2010. Williams had previously claimed that, "it's impossible for there to be a racist element in the Tea Party." Charles Blow, "Dog Days of Obama," New York Times, July 17, 2010, A19.

76. The TPE road show, the only aspect of TPE that most Tea Partiers see, typically has a far more diverse line-up than the audiences in attendance. After attending an event similar to the rally that one of us (Vanessa) attended on the Boston Common, New York Times columnist Charles Blow described it as "a political minstrel show." Charles Blow, "A Mighty Pale Tea," New York Times, April 17, 2010, A17.

77. There are, of course, many other conservative organizations that offer training and guidance to conservative gra.s.sroots activists. We have focused on those most a.s.sociated with the Tea Party in particular.

78. As we will see in Chapter 4, however, Fox News, and particularly Glenn Beck and his 9/12 Project, are far more frequently cited than any national advocacy organization.

79. When the Tea Partybacked candidate for the Colorado Governorship made similar claims tying bike lanes to a "very well-disguised" U.N. plot, he was quickly forced to recant, claiming his statements had been taken "out of context." The text of his August 9th, 2010, interview on MSNBC is available at http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/08/09/maes-bike-plot/ as of May 6, 2011.

80. According to their MeetUp blog, the Peninsula Patriots called for volunteers for various working subcommittees in the months following the January 24, 2011 lecture. Most subcommittees got few volunteers, but there were multiple volunteers for the antisustainable development group, as well as for the group to fight the Muslim threat in the United States. Interestingly enough, fighting ObamaCare got no takers.

81. Even conservative columnist David Brooks admitted that the Ryan plan was so politically unpopular as to create an "opening" for Democrats. "Shields and Brooks on Public's View of Libya Efforts, Debate on Ent.i.tlements," PBS Newshour, April 22, 2011. The Ryan plan was reportedly also unpopular locally. See, for instance, John Nichols, "Paul Ryan gets an earful as tour bombs," The Cap Times, May 4, 2011.

82. Stephanie Mencimer, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated," Mother Jones, February 14, 2011.

CHAPTER 4.

1. "Report: 'Fair and Balanced' Fox News Aggressively Promotes 'Tea Party' Protests," Media Matters for America, April 8, 2009.

2. Alex Isenstadt, "Town Halls Gone Wild," Politico, July 31, 2009. A Politico editor later bragged that his site had "been the first to establish the 'town halls gone wild' meme ...," according to Greg Marx, "An Oversteeped Tea Party?" Columbia Journalism Review, April 22, 2010.

3. Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, "Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition," Washington Post, Sunday, August 16, 2009.

4. Paul Steinhauser, "Retreat for New Lawmakers to Emphasize Tea Party Goals," CNN Political Ticker, November 11, 2010. For more accurate coverage of the retreat, see Amy Gardner, "FreedomWorks gathers GOP lawmakers to refocus on tea party goals," Washington Post, November 12, 2010.

5. Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph N. Cappella, Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

6. Michael Schudson, Discovering The News: A Social History Of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1981).

7. That conservatives dominate the talk radio format is agreed upon by both liberals and conservatives. John Halpin, James Heidbreder, Mark Lloyd, Paul Woodhull, Ben Scott, Josh Silver, S. Derek Turner. "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," Center for American Progress, June 20, 2007. Warner Todd Huston, "Top 100 Radio Host List, Dominated By Conservatives-Rush #1," NewsBusters, February 13, 2008.

8. See, for instance, Seth Ackerman, "The Most Biased Name in News," Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, July/August 2001. Available at http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067 as of May 12, 2011. The introduction of Fox News into the cable roster has been shown to coincide with an uptick in voting for Republican presidential candidates. Stefano Dellavigna and Ethan Kaplan, "The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2007.

9. "O'Reilly: 'Fox does tilt right'; said GOP 'very uneasy with Fox' even after Cheney, Ralph Reed touted Fox," Media Matters for America, July 21, 2004. Available at http://mediamatters.org/research/200407210007 as of May 12, 2011.

10. Danny Shea, "Fox News Dominates 3Q 2009 Cable News Ratings," Huffington Post, September 30, 2009. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/fox-news-dominates-3q-200_n_304260.html as of March 14, 2011.

11. "News Audiences Increasingly Politicized," Pew Center for the People and the Press, June 8, 2004.

12. Paul Fahri, "Limbaugh's Audience Size? It's Largely Up in the Air," Washington Post, March 7, 2009.

13. "Limbaugh holds onto his niche: conservative men," Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, February 3, 2009.

14. Ibid.

15. Michael Schneider, "TV viewers' average age hits 50," Variety, June 29, 2008; Michael Wolff, "Rush Limbaugh: The Man Who Ate the GOP," Vanity Fair, May 2009.

16. Danny Shea, "Fox News Audience Just 1.38% Black," Huffington Post, July 26, 2010, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/fox-news-audience-just-13_n_659800.html as of March 14, 2011.

17. Peter Dreier and Christopher R. Martin, "How ACORN Was Framed: Political Controversy and Media Agenda Setting." Perspectives on Politics 8(03): 761792 (2010).

18. Markus Prior, Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. 1st ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

19. "Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology," Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, May 4, 2011. Available at http://people-press.org/2011/05/04/section-3-demographics-and-news-sources/ as of May 14, 2011.

20. Charles S. Taber and Milton Lodge, "Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs." American Journal of Political Science 50(3): 755769 (2006).

21. David Barstow, "Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on the Right," New York Times, February 16, 2010.

22. Paul Lazersfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944).

23. Not just right-wing outlets, but also reporters at Huffington Post and Politico picked up the story via Drudge. So influential is the Drudge Report that these articles were actually covering the fact that Drudge was giving prominence to Santelli's performance on CNBC as much as the video itself. Jason Linkins, "Rick Santelli's Revolution: CNBC Reporter Freaks Out, Wants to Be Che Guevara," Huffington Post, February 19, 2009. Michael Calderone, "CNBC's Santelli fires up traders," Politico, February 19, 2009.

24. Mich.e.l.le Malkin had earlier sent a tray of pulled pork to feed the dozens of attendees at one of the first anti-Stimulus protests in Seattle, weeks before the term Tea Party gained national currency. Mich.e.l.le Malkin, "Gimme, gimme, gimme: More scenes from the anti-Obama ent.i.tlement backlash," Mich.e.l.le Malkin blog, February 19, 2009. Available at http://mich.e.l.lemalkin.com/2009/02/19/gimme-gimme-gimme-more-scenes-from-the-anti-obama-backlash/ as of May 11, 2011.

25. Video of this speech was available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2121564008630451568# as of May 12, 2011.

26. Video of this speech comes from Mike Gallagher's YouTube feed, and is captioned, "Mike appeared at a Tea Party in Greenville, SC sponsored by his radio affiliate News Radio WORD where more than 1000 people attended this very spirited event in the upstate of South Carolina." Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDrqlOMAFd4&;feature=related as of May 21, 2011.

27. "Backlash Against Those Suffering From Mortgages They Can't Afford," CNN Newsroom, March 5, 2009.

28. Greta Van Susteren, Fox on the Record with Greta Van Susteren, February 27, 2009. Glenn Beck, Beck, March 18, 2009.

29. Newt Gingrich, Fox on the Record with Greta Van Susteren, March 27, 2009.

30. Glenn Beck, Beck, April 7, 2009.

31. Sean Hannity, Fox Hannity, April 7, 2009.

32. Sean Hannity, Fox Hannity, April 8, 2009. Glenn Beck, Beck, April 8, 2009.

33. Glenn Beck and Arthur Laffer, Beck, April 13, 2009.

34. "Hosting the Party: Fox aired at least 20 segments, 73 promos on "tea party" protests-in just 8 days," Media Matters, April 15, 2009. Available at: http://mediamatters.org/research/200904150033?f=h_latest as of March 21, 2011.

35. Glenn Beck, Beck, April 6, 2009.

36. In the graphs below, peak CNN coverage of Tea Party activity is actually slightly higher than Fox News coverage; the may be due in part to the slightly more limited transcripts provided by Fox News compared to CNN. Three regular Fox News shows are not included in the transcripts available by either Lexis Nexis or Factiva: "Huckabee." "Fox and Friends Weekend," and "Red Eye with Greg Gutman."

37. Vanessa Williamson, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin, "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," Perspectives on Politics 9 (1) (March 2011).

38. In the first two years of the Tea Party, both Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly actually referred to the Tea Party on more shows than Glenn Beck did. Moreover, fully half of the over 1800 transcripts referring to the Tea Party were not hosted by any of these top names.

39. The 9/12 Project was launched on-air on Beck's March 13th, 2009, show on Fox-about two weeks after the first tea parties were held.