More Tea Party Rifts

A group called “Tea Party Patriots” has put together a National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Sarah Palin is the headline speaker and tickets are pricy, at $549 per person. Part of the reason for the high price is that Sarah Palin is charging $100,000 speaking fees.

Not all activists are thrilled about the convention, or its cost. One of the convention doubters is Erick Erickson of Red State:

RedState founder Erick Erickson — an important voice in conservative activist circles — is wary of the convention too. He writes:

…I think this national tea party convention smells scammy.

Let me be blunt: charging people $500.00 plus the costs of travel and lodging to go to a “National Tea Party Convention” run by a for profit group no one has ever heard of sounds as credible as an email from Nigeria promising me a million bucks if I fork over my bank account number.

I am led to believe a number of the sponsors who lent their names early on have grown wary of the event. That lines up with what I am hearing.

…

The tea party “leaders”, if there are any, are actively at work in their home towns changing things one letter to the editor, one contribution to a candidate, and one protest at a time. They are not on bus tours headed to Nashville licking their lips at the $500.00 per person payments coming in to their for profit company.

Erickson is right, they’re in it for profit:

The convention’s prime organizer, Nashville criminal defense lawyer Judson Phillips, founded Tea Party Nation, a for-profit company that runs a networking site for activists. Phillips, a former local prosecutor, didn’t respond to several requests for comment, but he told Politico that the convention was intended to make a profit so that Tea Party Nation can “funnel money back into conservative causes” through a 527 group it plans to set up.

Some activists have even called on Sarah Palin to boycott the convention.

Criticism of the convention is not the only setback for Tea Party groups. Another group called The National Tax Day Tea Party called for a protest at the Detroit auto show in protest of the auto company bailouts. However, Michigan activists protested the protest and the AP reported only 2 protestors showed up.

The Michigan Messenger reported on Michigan tea partier and ex-GM employee Joan Fabiano Facebook campaign urging her fellow protesters to stay away:

“In conclusion it is my opinion that this protest is ill-conceived and quite frankly an attempt at attention grabbing grand standing by those outside and unfortunately inside of Michigan. … Why must some Americans boycott G.M. and throw INNOCENT people, such as myself, out on the street trying to find another job in this economy? Did I do something wrong? Would you like to see yourself out of a job if your company’s leadership made the errors and you had NOTHING to do with it?”

As the Messenger reported, Fabiano, like most tea partiers, is opposed to the government bailouts of banks and the so-called “out of control spending” in D.C.. But when it comes to General Motors and Chrysler — two companies bought out by the government in the depths of the economic downturn — Fabiano said the protest could hurt the business climate in the one of the worst states for unemployment in the country.

Yes, it’s easier to see the purpose of government intervention when it’s your job they’re saving, isn’t it?

Think Progress reports that at least 16 GOP candidates have challengers from Tea Party groups. I guess a bunch of Republicans are getting Scozzafava’d.

I know the conventional wisdom right now is that the GOP will make big gains in the 2010 elections. Fractures in the party, motivated activist and depleted fundraising will all make the election year difficult for Republicans.