The tensions at FreedomWorks, brewing for months, boiled over this summer when Armey balked at a deal that Kibbe struck with HarperCollins to write a book called “Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government’s Stranglehold on America,” which was released in June.
Armey was concerned that Kibbe structured the deal to personally profit from the book despite relying on FreedomWorks staff and resources to research, help write and promote it — an arrangement he and others at the group believed could jeopardize its tax-exempt status.
Politico
So Armey gets paid $8M to leave FreedomWorks. That's serious coin for going away.
So Armey declined to sign a memorandum presented to him in his capacity as a member of the board of trustees stating that the book was written without significant FreedomWorks resources and clearing the way for Kibbe to personally own the rights to the book and any royalties from it, multiple sources familiar with the arrangement told POLITICO.
Asked about his refusal to sign the memorandum, Armey, a former House Republican leader, said, “What bothered me most about that was that he was asking me to lie, and it was a lie that I thought brought the organization in harm’s way.”
I don't know who to laugh at more - Armey taking the $8M payout while worrying about FreedomWorks being used for profit, or the Kibbe asking Armey to perjure himself so Kibbe can profit from the work of others.
The important point, of course, is that "grass roots" organizations don't have this amount of money to throw around. Freedom Works is not grass roots; the Tea Party is not grass roots; and it's all a scam.
Just like the whole Republican Party.