As Norquist Tries to Kickstart Tea Baggery 2.0, Dick Armey Jumps Ship, Resigns As Head of Freedomworks

Armey
Grover Norquist, the Republicans’ austerity czar, has issued a call to arms. It is time, he suggests, for tea baggers to get their tired old fat asses back up off their couches, dust off their poorly spelled, crypto-racist signs and hit the bricks again. The issue that will drive tea baggers into their patented spittle-spewing rage fits this time, Norquist claims, is Pres. Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy:

“Tea party two is going to dwarf tea party one if Obama pushes us off the cliff,” Norquist said on one of the Sunday shows last weekend. “Let’s not pretend who’s pushing us over the cliff.”

Meanwhile, in back in Realityville, there is no better evidence that the Koch brothers and other billionaire advocates of American oligarchy are done astroturfing tea baggery than the announcement that Dick Armey abruptly resigned as head of Freedomworks, the billionaires’ lobbying group:

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Tea Party Announces It Will Focus on Helping Republicans Win Senate

photo-teabag-liberal-demsAs you read through the Reuters story excerpted here, keep in mind that the two national tea party spokespeople quoted here are actually employees of Republican Party shadow groups:

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – With their favored candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination lagging or out of the race, many U.S. Tea Party activists are shifting focus to the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.

The fizz has gone out of the presidential contest for some supporters of the fiscally conservative movement now that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is not running and Texas Governor Rick Perry and congresswoman Michele Bachmann are slipping in polls.

“No one is going to get perfect in a general election candidate. That is why we think the Senate is a better place to focus,” said Matt Kibbe, president and chief executive of the libertarian FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group.

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Swing Voters, You’ve Been Had: Boehner, GOP-T Party Up to Old Tricks; Health-Care Repeal Written in Secret, No Hearings, $143 Bil Cost Unfunded

photos-boehner-armeyIn October 2009, John Boehner, now the House speaker-elect, complained to a reporter for the Washington Times, “[Democrats are] writing a health care bill in secret, even though the president called for all of this to be out on an open table and have C-SPAN cameras in the room.” Not surprisingly, the Washington Times, a right-wing propaganda daily owned by Sun Yung Moon, leader of the South Korean “Moonie” cult, published Bloehner’s comment without fact checking.

Boehner’s complaint was classic truthiness. The C-SPAN cameras weren’t allowed in to the hearing room, but otherwise he was lying:

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