Tea Party Holds Astroturf Pep Rally for Disgraced Matt Blunt Chief of Staff

The tea party likes to claim that it's a grassroots movement independent from the Republican Party. That might be somewhat true in certain areas, but in St. Louis the movement was astroturf from the start, being kicked off by Republican politician and corporate lobbyist Carl Bearden and Fox-News-playing radio station host Dana Loesch. From the beginning, the primary goals of the St. Louis tea party leadership were to put the same old Republicans who screwed up our country last time back in power, and to protect the excessive power of the wealthy to control the legislative process. Or, as Bill Hennessy would say it, to "destroy the left."

The Jefferson County Tea Party seems to be content to blindly follow the lead of the St. Louis Tea Party. They're holding a tea party this Saturday that amounts to little more than a pep rally for Ed Martin, the disgraced former chief of staff to Matt Blunt who had to resign in shame after an ethics scandal. For those who don't recall, Ed Martin represents the values of extreme government secrecy and violation of sunshine laws, using positions of political power to punish those you disagree with, and abusing the public trust by misappropriating email lists. Aren't those the values the tea party claims to stand for? Oh wait, no, they really aren't.

Just another example of the complete disconnect from reality that underlies the cynical leadership of our local tea party.