Nashville, my former home town, is about to hold what is being billed as the first ever "National Tea Party Convention" with Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman as the headliners. Should the progressive movement be shaking in its boots?
Tea Party Nation, the for-profit company putting on the convention next month at Gaylord Opryland Hotel, is charging delegates $549 a pop for the privilege of attending. Politicoreports organizers are asking a whopping $50,000 for corporate sponsorships. According to one insider who's talked to Pith, Tea Party Nation hopes to clear $300,000--and he says that's after paying Palin's hefty $120,000 speaking fee. She doesn't come cheap.
So is there any doubt as to why Palin quit her low paying job as governor of Alaska? She may never run for President, but is she ever raking it in now, what with a best selling book and speaking fees in the six figures. Is this a great country or what?
Palin raised eyebrows by refusing an invitation to speak at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Well there's no mystery there; you want the star, you gotta pay the toll.
Tea Party Convention is being organized by Tea Party Nation, a for-profit company. They are
hoping to turn a profit from its convention so that it can "funnel money back into conservative causes" through a 527 group it plans to set up to get involved in campaigns, according to Judson Phillips, the group’s president.
Note, however, that no such group exists yet, and there are suspicions that the principal behind Tea Party Nation, Nashville criminal defense lawyer Judson Phillips may be out to score profits from the conservative populist movement.
The Tea Party Express -- which is run by a group of well-connected GOP consultants... will be at the convention. Perhaps even worse: though Phillips has said that Tea Party Nation isn't working with the Republican party, one activist told TPMmuckraker, with disapproval, that organizers had voted to invite RNC chair Michael Steele to speak.
Sarah, Michelle and our buddy Michael all at one convention? Does it get any better than that, If I could afford it, I would liveblog it.
I wonder how much money Steele is getting for his appearance? Not as much as Palin, I bet.
But what a spectacle. A whole band of leeches has appeared to suck the Republican base dry. Has a movement ever deserved what it is getting more?