If We’re Going to Discuss the ‘Tea Party,’ Let’s Start Right Here

By
Greg Diamond
– December 26, 2012Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice
Matt Kibbee speaks to his FreedomWorks disciples

Welcome to Politics 2012. FreedomWorks Matt Kibbee (shown here with some of his disciples) was marched out of the building by Dick Armey and an armed guard, only to be saved by a wealthy benefactor’s $8 million. Some of the rest of us made signs and marched — and we’re the dangerous ones?

Some people assert that the Tea Party — and especially its leading institutional proponent, FreedomWorks — is an astroturf (aka “artificial grassroots) movement devoted to doing the bidding of its extremely wealthy contributors.

Is that fair?  Let’s start the discussion with this data point from an article in the Washington Post, which you really ought to read.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.

The coup lasted all of six days. By Sept. 10, Armey was gone — with a promise of $8 million — and the five ousted employees were back. The force behind their return was Richard J. Stephenson, a reclusive Illinois millionaire who has exerted increasing control over one of Washington’s most influential conservative grass-roots organizations.

…

The episode illustrates the growing role of wealthy donors in swaying the direction of FreedomWorks and other political groups, which increasingly rely on unlimited contributions from corporations and financiers for their financial livelihood. Such gifts are often sent through corporate shells or nonprofit groups that do not have to disclose their donors, making it impossible for the public to know who is funding them.

In the weeks before the election, more than $12 million in donations was funneled through two Tennessee corporations to the FreedomWorks super PAC after negotiations with Stephenson over a preelection gift of the same size, according to three current and former employees with knowledge of the arrangement. The origin of the money has not previously been reported.

I’d just like you to take a moment and imagine such a story of “lawyers, guns, and money” happening in any liberal — or even moderate, or even mainstream conservative — organization.  First, you’d be hearing a lot more about it — incessantly, most likely.  Second — it just wouldn’t.

This sort of banana republicanism is one reason that voters have become turned off to lobbyists, guns, and big money in politics.  And just think — Occupy is the group that got investigated by the FBI for violence and disrespect for the law.  (A story on that will be upcoming.)  To paraphrase the guy in the Old Spice commercial: “look at FreedomWorks, look at Occupy.”  Do you get the sense that maybe the Feds are simply afraid to mess with the likes of these people who can (at least try to) buy and sell politicians — and so they prey on the comparatively gentle and unarmed?

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)