Tag Archives: Tea Baggers

The Castle Purging Begins on Saturday

Apparently there is a Tea Party this Saturday in Dover.  I guess that it is being advertised on Stormfront or wherever those people get together online.  Last time they did this, there was a minor bruhaha about Tea Party barfly, Mike Protack and his demand for top billing.  This time, an actual candidate for an actual office is speaking.

This Saturday, November 7, at 1:00 p.m., U.S. Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell will speak at the Delaware Tea Party Rally to be held at Legislative Mall, in Dover. In her first campaign speech for election 2010, Christine will join participants to stand in opposition to the Obama-Pelosi liberal agenda that seeks to increase government authority and decrease individual freedom and liberty.

I wonder how Christine O’Donnell took the results of NY-23?  Is she emboldened by the ejection of Scozzafava?  I hope so.  Perhaps Mike Castle will be forced to burnish his conservative credentials and run to the right for a couple of months.  If so, his soft fleshy flank will be revealed for its Bush-enabling for 8 years and massive wounds will be opened by the Democratic opponent.

When you consider that Mike Castle may have no support from the NRSC until he wins his primary, this could spell trouble for a guy with anemic fundraising.  Do the money men want to be on the wrong side of the “true conservatives”?

Hey Dick Armey!  Mike Castle hates embryoes!  Come and get him!

Voter Intimidation In NY-23

Haven’t we seen the rhetoric from the right wing fringe getting more and more violent. I hope violence isn’t inevitable but I’ll bet you’re not surprised to hear that Hoffman supporters have been intimidating voters in NY-23:

I just got off the phone with former state Democratic Chairwoman June O’Neill, who informed me the police had been called to at least two polling sites in St. Lawrence County due to overzealous electioneering (O’Neill called it “voter intimidation”) by Doug Hoffman supporters.

“We’ve gotten reports that people are standing there, covered with Hoffman stickers and yelling anti-choice stuff at voters,” said O’Neill, a St. Lawrence native who has been running the party’s GOTV effort for Bill Owens in NY-23.

“Apparently, there’s some woman claiming to be a commissioner,” O’Neill continued. “Commissioner of what, I don’t know. She’s from Texas, I think, and she won’t leave.”

“This is not the way we roll in the North Country.”

O’Neill also said she had received anecdotal reports of problems at polling sites in Gouverneur, which is Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava’s hometown. But she couldn’t immediately confirm this.

I’ll be anxiously awaiting Fox News’s report on this.

Tea For One

Things are getting crazier out there.  And Paul Baumbach asks a great question.

What effect will conservative tea-party activists have on the GOP?

Well… given the increase in criticism from some big names in the party, I’d say the GOP is concerned.  Check out the latest blow-up.

Via Think Progress:

Ziegler attended the Western Conservative Political Action Conference in California this weekend, where he sat down for a scheduled interview with Keene. Ziegler began by telling Keene that his criticisms of Palin “sound like Keith Olbermann.” Keene stood by his views, arguing that Palin’s decision to quit as governor has shown she cannot “handle leadership and responsibility.”

The interview grew heated as Ziegler began lobbing personal attacks at Keene, facetiously suggesting he was “being paid” to issue critical statements of Palin. (Ziegler was referencing the fact that Keene’s organization was revealed to have asked FedEx for a $2-3 million check in return for helping the shipping company in a legislative fight.) “So your influence is either for sale or by lobbying,” Ziegler said. Upset over the direction the interview had taken, Keene got up and walked away, which led to a public showdown at the conference:

KEENE: You are a liar! … [grabbing the microphone] I said this is over! You got it? Over! … Get out of my face! … I’m not going to hit you, but I’d like to. … I’m not answering anything to you because you’re a jerk. … You’re a scumbag. … You’re an asshole. Got that on the air? Asshole.

Hmm… looks like there’s trouble in River City.  Seriously, did the GOP just notice the nuts?  Nah, they knew they were there, they just used them.  Of course, the rest of us knew they were creating a monster – a monster they no longer control.  Methinks they’ll need more than pitchforks.  Of course, killing the beast will kill any chance they have in 2010.  They need the nuts.  Quite a dilemma.  How will Republicans keep the tea partiers happy without scary everyone else to death?

We’ll have a chance to watch their impact on November 3rd.

Via WSJ:

In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.

Conservative politics has been given a boost with the rise of “tea party” activists. But WSJ’s Naftali Bendavid says the support could backfire on the Republican Party, as opposition mounts to a number of the party’s midterm election candidates.

Mr. Hoffman has siphoned so much support from Ms. Scozzafava that their Democratic rival has vaulted into the lead, according to a poll released Thursday.

Pass the popcorn.

Where Cries of Socialism Meet Racism

Christopher J. Lee, assistant professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has an interesting op-ed piece in the Christian Science Monitor looking at the racist undertones of the rightwing shouts of socialism.

Yet, as seen at various town hall meetings and the Tea Party rally in Washington Sept. 12, a deeper sign of racial tension has emerged with the reappearance of a different inflammatory expression: socialism.

In the context of American politics, socialism has seldom been about the economy or state power alone, despite its political-economic roots. Instead, it has been a slur, synonymous with the charge of communism, but with meaning extending beyond this term as well.

I’ll let you read the piece to see Lee’s examples, but for now, chew on this for a bit.

Understanding this history also informs the present. The passion surrounding the expression “socialism” has less to do with the actual meaning of the word, than its associations with foreignness, anti-Americanism, and racial difference. If its reemergence and use sound antiquated and anachronistic, the motivations for its revival become clearer when placed in a context of latent white anxiety toward a black president. The “birther” movement and its concern over Mr. Obama’s origins were but an earlier sign of these race-based, xenophobic sentiments held by some.