Tea Party Response to Questions: Insults, Innuendo, and Accusations

The Hillbilly Logic radio program kicked off the current flurry of controversy in the St. Louis Tea Party simply by asking questions about how the Ensuring Liberty PAC worked. They hadn't heard of it before, and so asked their guest Gina Loudon about the structure of the organization, as well as the St. Louis Tea Party's relationship with national organizations. Rather than answering those questions, according to Hillbilly Logic member Kevin Harned, the tea party leadership responded with "insults, innuendo, and accusations."

Harned goes on to say, in response to a commenter Steve on his blog, that Steve was the first person in the tea party to respond in a way that didn't accuse him of being "the enemy." He mentioned that the tea party leadership treats anything that is not praise as an attack. And he says that they even accused him of "being a plant" simply for asking questions about how their organization works.

Again, and I know I've said this many times, why wouldn't the tea party respond simply by being more open and transparent about their records? They're attacking people who ask for clarification. Bill Hennessy is dodging questions about his new Ensuring Liberty corporation. They're eating their own. But why don't they simply answer the questions?