Gateway Astroturf Initiative Badmouthing Tea Party To Other Conservative Groups, Claiming They Have "Alchohol Problems"

Jen Ennenbach, one of the co-founders of the new Gateway Astroturf Initiative (aka GIGLI), previously wrote the following about the St. Louis Tea Party:

For a movement that screams ”transparency, transparency, transparency!!!!” I certainly see none here. I see: Executive Director who was recently seated to the Board which stroked her ego; an unemployed lawyer, Benjamin Smith Williams (aka Ben Evans), who holds his Bar in New York, not Missouri, but still likes to act as legal counsel here; a loose cannon, John Burns who has been out of the Tea Party movement for over a year; another huge-headed blogger who likes to distort truth and is too chickenshit to put his name to half of what he publishes (Darin Morely); Co-founder Bill Hennessy, standing by silently, but driving this all behind the scenes.

But it looks like what she's saying about them behind their backs is even worse. Here's a message from Ennenbach to C. Steven Tucker, a leader of the Chicago Tea Party:


So very classy of Loesch's group to publicly pretend to be staying above the fray while privately smearing their former friends.

Update on St. Louis Tea Party Civil War

Bill Hennessy's wife Angela has written a new blog post defending Bill Hennessy from the Loeschbot attacks. As I suspected, Bill did most of the legwork on starting up the local tea party (though certainly with help from others), and probably would have been justified in just calling himself the founder rather than the co-founder, but graciously extended the title to Dana Loesch to help attract a different audience. Here's what Angela Hennessy had to say:

I know that I am shocked at the shameful display of infighting and hypocrisy. I am confused as to how people that I have called my friends can, at a moment’s notice, decide to pretend as if I don’t exist. I’ve let you into my home, my life, and have called you friend and without warning I am a nonentity. The end result is the establishment, political machine has fired up its work in discrediting the Tea Party, and those involved. I was, and am broadsided by this. This alone, speaks volumes about character.
I know that my husband has worked tirelessly for this organization, which he began. So we are clear, the creation of the St. Louis Tea Party in Feb. 2009 was wholly due to him; it began with a blog post. I know that he enlisted the help of many people and has called them friends and co-founders, and they are. They agreed, after being contacted by him, to stand hand in hand on the banks of the Mississippi River on that fateful day. The St. Louis Tea Party, the community, and my husband are forever in their debt. That being said, I find it disingenuous that Mrs. Loesch believes her meteoric rise has not been helped by the St. Louis Tea Party and all of us who have supported and stood behind her—but I digress.

You can read the whole thing here.

In other breakup news, the Official Dana Loesch Fan Club (aka Jimi971 on Twitter) released a statment saying that Loesch is so principled and so famous that she could walk across the Mississippi River if she wanted to, which she doesn't. Oh, and he thinks that this quote in the original tea party press release was a horrible, mean-spirited insult:

The St. Louis Tea Party certainly benefited from Dana’s rising stardom and talent. And we can’t help but think our energetic and effective grass roots have propelled Dana’s career.

The nerve of some people!

Jen Ennenbach really elevated the discussion with this post:

For a movement that screams ”transparency, transparency, transparency!!!!” I certainly see none here. I see: Executive Director who was recently seated to the Board which stroked her ego; an unemployed lawyer, Benjamin Smith Williams (aka Ben Evans), who holds his Bar in New York, not Missouri, but still likes to act as legal counsel here; a loose cannon, John Burns who has been out of the Tea Party movement for over a year; another huge-headed blogger who likes to distort truth and is too chickenshit to put his name to half of what he publishes (Darin Morely); Co-founder Bill Hennessy, standing by silently, but driving this all behind the scenes.

Finally, for those who are really into this stuff, Loesch was interviewed by 97.1's Glover on Tuesday about the breakup. She basically said that she felt like she had emotionally left the tea party a long time ago. It seems clear from her discussion of this and her behavior afterward that she really doesn't care that much about leaving the group. Just like the times she decided to throw the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, Craig Mayhem, and Gina Loudon under the bus, she has no qualms about leaving the tea party once she decided it was no longer useful for her career.

Tea Party Founder on When It's OK to Disregard Reagan's 11th Commandment

Republicans generally take Ronald Regan's 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican," pretty seriously. But in the context of the current tea party chaos over Ed Martin and ultimate GOP insider Ann Wagner, St. Louis Tea Party founder Bill Hennessy had this to say:

Since Ronald Reagan handed down the 11th Commandment—thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow Republicans—every Republican seems to hide behind it.

“You can’t talk about the people I poisoned! It violates the 11th Commandment.”

...

Never let blind allegiance to a misunderstood principle prevent the people from knowing their choices.

Read the whole thing here.

Jen Ennenbach: St. Louis Tea Party Should Be Called "The St. Louis Ed Martin Coalition"

Former St. Louis Tea Party spokesperson Jen Ennenbach on her blog Cry Liberty:

It seems the Board of the St Louis Tea Party Coalition have hijacked the organization, and divided the movement, all in the name of a candidate. They should legally change their name to “The St Louis Ed Martin Coalition”...

(I guarantee you Darin [Morley] or Bill [Hennessy] doesn’t have the stones to pull this one over to the site!)

St. Louis Tea Party Leaders Slam Gateway Pundit!

Obviously, I have no love for Ed Martin. And I'm on record as being critical of the St. Louis Tea Party for claiming to be principled while supporting Roy Blunt over Chuck Purgason and Ed Martin over John Wayne Tucker. But I have to say I actually do have some sympathy for the core group that, unlike Dana Loesch and Jim Hoft, is at least attempting to move forward by holding true to their ideals and opposing the GOP establishment. Though I think they're wrong in believing that Ed Martin is a principled conservative, it is at least clear that they felt like voting for Blunt was merely an imperfect step towards their ultimate goal, and that they would have to try to more actively oppose the crony capitalism of the modern Republican party in the future if they really wanted to live up to their ideals.

On the other hand, Dana Loesch, who voted for Mitt Romney in the 2008 primary and explicitly said that she liked RomneyCare before realizing that it was more profitable to be a "tea party spokesperson" on national television, is unsurprisingly abandoning Ed Martin in favor of Roy Blunt's 2010 campaign manager, GOP insider Ann Wagner. And Jim "Gateway Pundit" Hoft, writing on Loesch's website Big Journalism, also recently launched an attack on Ed Martin. However, members of the St. Louis tea party leadership Michelle Moore, John Burns, and Ben Evans wrote a recent post dismantling Hoft's attacks on Martin. You can read the full post here, but I'll share a few highlights:

• First, they point out that Martin didn't turn the race ugly; he was actually the target of an attack from Dan Riehl earlier in the year on Breitbart's Big sites (where Loesch is an editor).
• They reiterate Darin Morley's point that it was ridiculous for Hoft to try to imply that Ed Martin is more connected to Roy Blunt than is Ann Wagner.
• They criticized Hoft's attempts to pretend that Wagner's husband is no longer involved in advocating on behalf of Enterprise Rent-a-Car:

  As everyone in the Tea Party knows Ray delisted himself in preparation for Ann’s campaign; however, he is still Enterprise's Government & Public Affairs Vice-President. In that capacity, he oversees Enterprise's lobbying and he helps determine where their campaign funds go. Again, Jim knows this, but deliberately ignores it in the post.

• They point out that Chip Gerdes, a familiar creepy scuzzbucket for readers of this blog, said that he wrote Dan Riehl's original attack on Ed Martin as a "warning shot:"

  As mentioned at the top, Hoft was quoted in the first hit piece against Ed Martin that came out last August on Big Government. That piece, supposedly written by Dan Riehl, sparked a firestorm among Tea Party conservatives in Missouri. Upon questioning, Chip Gerdes, another paid political consultant, stated that he wrote the piece as a “warning shot” to Ed Martin because of comments that Martin made on a Christian AM radio station.

• They also question where Hoft got his data and whether he even did his own writing:

  If Gerdes is writing hit pieces for Ann Wagner and publishing them under Dan Riehl’s name, what else has he written?...We ask: Where did those figures come from? Dan Riehl and Dana Loesch have written on Twitter and in Tea Party emails that hundreds of thousands of dollars were given to Ed Martin by Ann Wagner’s Enterprise connections. This has been proven false. Who gave Jim the data and where is it? Let’s see some research.

The biggest criticism of the tea party, though, is that Hoft attributed their research to Ed Martin, even though he should have known better. St. Louis Tea Party founder Bill Hennessy, who wasn't one of the authors of the post, suggests that Hoft "intentionally deceived his readers" in the comments:

I, too, am disappointed by Jim Hoft's inconsistency and deception.

Inconsistency: Jim approved of Dan Riehl's Big Government hit piece on Ed Martin some months ago--the one that rehashed old Carnahan distortions that 24th State shot down in 2010.

Deception: Jim knows that St. Louis Tea Party researchers, not the Ed Martin campaign, performed the research and supplied it to Daily Caller. I was present when Jim was told. By pretending otherwise, Jim seems to intentionally deceive Gateway Pundit readers.

Cordially,
Bill Hennessy

So, there are a lot of questions there, but my biggest one is this: will Hoft even acknowledge the criticisms? We all know he ignores arguments from almost anyone who disagrees with him, but will he be equally afraid of debate with his fellow members of the tea party? They also suggest that Loesch should give them a platform on her radio show or on Big Journalism to respond, and I think they have a strong point.

MO-02: Ed Martin and Ann Wagner Attack Each Other Though Discredited Right-Wing Blogs

This is too funny. Ed Martin and Ann Wagner are all nicey nicey when they participate in debates and campaign events related to the GOP primary in Missouri's Second Congressional District. Martin, if you recall, even asked Wagner to sign a pledge to avoid personal attacks and focus on the issues. Of course, what that means for Martin is to use anonymous attacks and smears from supportive bloggers to attack his opponents, which is what he would do anyway.

Martin's campaign apparently sent an attack over to Tucker's Carlson's trashy site, The Daily Caller, claiming that Enterprise Rent-a-Car is trying to buy a seat in Congress via Wagner. The Caller claims that Wagner's husband, Raymond, is, "Enterprise’s government and public affairs vice president and a registered lobbyist." They further point out that Wagner has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from Enterprise or Enterprise-related employees. Finally, for added effect, the author of the Daily Caller post linked to a Wall Street Journal article claiming Enterprise was among different rental car groups that had specifically asked for a bailout from the government.

In response to the Daily Caller carrying out a Team Martin hit job, Team Wagner responded with a post from Jim "Gateway Pundit" Hoft on the equally disreputable blog Big Journalism. Shockingly, for perhaps the first time in his long career, Hoft manages to locate a couple of actual facts to support his case. It turns out that the day after the Wall Street Journal article came out, the Post-Dispatch reported that Enterprise did not want any bailout money, specifically citing the WSJ report as incorrect. So, once again, we see an apparent example of Ed Martin's campaign pushing bogus charges to smear his opponents.

As for the other stuff, Team Martin might have a point. It's true, as Hoft says, that Wagner's husband resigned from being a registered lobbyist for Enterprise when her campaign started. But that technicality means very little; our government is full of examples of revolving door politics where lobbyists quit their day jobs to work for the government crafting rules to promote the industries they just left. So it's hard to imagine that Wagner would not do the bidding of Enterprise in congress, given her fundraising network through the company and her husband's close connections, at least if she follows the example of most other congresspeople.

Also, this has seemingly turned into a battle between the tea party members who have been successful (in publicity terms) and those that haven't. Jim Hoft and Dana Loesch have apparently taken sides with Wagner, and appear to be hoping to increase their influence on the national Republican party by abandoning Ed Martin and cozying up to a very connected fundraiser and political player. On the other hand, tea partiers who have comparatively not been very successful (Jonathan Burns, Ben Evans, Darin Morley, Bill Hennessy) are sticking with Martin out of loyalty and a false belief that Martin actually represents conservative values. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Why Won't Loesch Allow Ed Martin To Correctly Say He Was Part of the Tea Party's Leadership

After previously criticizing tea party founder Bill Hennessy for declaring that Ed Martin is "the tea party candidate" in Missouri's 2nd Congressional District primary, and attacking him again for defending Martin against a Big Government hit piece, Dana Loesch went on a mini-Twitter rant today about some unnamed candidate claiming that they had been involved in organizing the St. Louis tea party:

Unlike the time Loesch decided to publicly humiliate Sarah Steelman's campaign, this time she didn't mention the candidate's name, so I can't say for sure that she was criticizing Martin's campaign as she had done previously this year. However, she seems to be saying that no GOP candidates should emphasize their involvement in the St. Louis Tea Party, which is pretty weird considering that Ed Martin was an officer in the St. Louis Tea Party for the first several months of the group's existence. According to a post on the St. Louis Tea Party site in July of 2009 written by "admin;"

Since the first week of the St. Louis Tea Party movement back in February, Ed Martin Jr. has served as one of the organization’s officers. Ed is a passionate, intelligent, and inspiring speaker who delighted the crowds at Tea Parties in February, April, and July. Because of our non-partisan pledge, we must remove Ed’s name from our list of officers. We will welcome him back if he decides to leave to public life.

The post goes on to emphasize Martin's role in the Tea Party:

Please thank Ed for his significant role in launching the Tea Party movement in St. Louis. He has been a vital link in the chain holding our republic together.

So if Ed Martin was an officer for the St. Louis Tea Party for their first five months of existence and, according to the group, played a "significant role" in launching the group, why is Loesch declaring that he can't mention his previous roles in the tea party?

Tea Party Blog: Ann Wagner is "Insider" Who Hangs Out In D.C. Swamps

Now that Dana Loesch has officially tugged Bill Hennessy's leash to prevent him from criticizing Ann Wagner on behalf of Ed Martin, that job has apparently been outsourced to other tea party members.

Some quotes from 24th State:

Ann Wagner had an event yesterday and one today in the feted[sic] swamp of Washington, D.C.

And:

Say what you will, those are not the trappings of an outsider candidate. Not that Ms. Wagner has presenter her as such. I just prefer outsider candidates.

Pretty mild mannered criticism, but it's interesting that Ed Martin's folks seem to be doing most of the attacking lately.

By the way, I think he probably meant "fetid" swamp.

Update: Forgot to mention that this line of attack just happens to correspond perfectly to one Ed Martin was pushing in his tweets:

Hennessy Calls Riehl An "Establishment Tool." Riehl and Loesch Respond

As I mentioned, Dan Riehl wrote a post on Breitbart's Big Government site slamming Ed Martin's shoddy past and questionable viability as a candidate. Ed Martin loyalist Bill Hennessy, founder of the St. Louis Tea Party, responded to this by calling Riehl an "establishment tool:"

To which Riehl responded with this zinger:

Meanwhile, Dana Loesch went on the attack against Hennessy's claim that Ed Martin was opposed to the "Missouri GOP establishment:"

Reminder of How The Tea Party Used Kenneth Gladney As Political Football

Thought it might be helpful to remind people of all of the unhinged conspiracy theories pushed by right-wing bloggers while they were using Kenneth Gladney as a pawn in their attempts to destroy unions and attack the Democratic Party:

On August 7, one day after the fight, St. Louis tea party leader Bill Hennessy wrote that "[Congressman] Russ Carnahan’s SEIU thugs severely beat a conservative.”

Also on the 7th, Michelle Malkin suggested that Health and Human Services Chair Kathleen Sebelius's quote, "Keep doing what you're doing" was meant to encourage violence.

On Aug. 8, the tea party holds a rally outside of SEIU offices. Hennessy claims President Obama had “sent a signal” to supporters to be violent. The tea party put out chairs for the NAACP and ACLU and implied that they wouldn't support Gladney because he was a conservative.

August 9: Bill Hennessy says Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern “might as well have kicked Gladney himself.”

Aug 18: Friends of the tea party, along with Gladney and Brown, had a protest outside of the NAACP office, claiming that they only care about “liberal black people.” Only problem: they hadn’t even filed a complaint with the NAACP. They also shamelessly were protesting while the NAACP offices were closed to honor one of their recently deceased leaders.

Nov. 10: 97.1 Talk host and St. Louis tea party leader Dana Loesch suggests that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina was involved

Nov. 30: A post on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government (a national blog that patronizes the St. Louis Tea Party) claimed that HCAN national field director Margarida Jorge issued instructions that “inevitably led to violence.”

Dec 1: Also on Big Government, St. Louis Republican political operative John Loudon alleges that there is a conspiracy in the County prosecutors office that is holding up the filing of charges. Loudon writes, “In Pat Reddington’s St. Louis County it appears that “victim” is a status reserved for liberals, and “perpetrator” is a status reserved for conservatives.”

Also on Dec 1: Dana Loesch falsely accused County Counselor Patricia Reddington of “downgrading” the charge without looking at the medical records. Tea Party blogger Jim Durbin did the same. Neither apologized after it was revealed that Reddington had received a copy of the records from the hospital well before the charges were filed.

Dec. 2nd: Big Government adds several more people to their grand conspiracy theory: one of their favorites, Buffy Wicks, who was previously the OFA director in Missouri. Then comes the shocking revelation: “Sara Howard worked with Buffy Wicks on the Obama for America Campaign in Missouri and Sarah Howard worked at SEIU in St Louis. The day before the St. Louis town hall she was hired by Rep. Russ Carnahan.” The author of the post Larry O'Conner then goes after St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch: “I think even the most casual observer can look at this and reach the conclusion that Mr. McCulloch brings with him a certain level of partisan bias when executing his duties as Prosecuting Attorney.”

Dec 23: Kenneth's brother Keith Gladney lost his job. Big Government alleges a massive conspiracy involving the local animal control department and SEIU: “Is it a coincidence that the same Prosecuting Attorney that Keith called out in his statement is also one of the highest ranking officials in the government structure that Keith worked for?”

Jan 12th: On Big Government, St. Charles Tea Partier Bob McCartny claims: “Keith Gladney’s firing appears to be an example of how Democrats, in the words President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff Jim Messina used on the day of the Kenneth Gladney beating, “punch back twice as hard” against those who oppose their socialist ways.”

Also on the 12th, Jim Durbin of 24th State suggested that Dolores Gunn, head of the St. Louis County Department of Health, was involved in this conspiracy and claimed that “ultimate responsibility lies with [St. Louis County Executive] Charlie Dooley." Amazingly, Durbin actually admitted he was wrong later, before moving on to another conspiracy theory.

April 16, Andrew Breitbart of Big Government accused former AFL-CIO President John Sweeny of issuing orders for violence.

So, just to recap, according to the St. Louis Tea Party/Big Government story, this massive government conspiracy created simply to get a few punches in on a random guy selling merchandise at a town hall in St. Louis, Missouri involves:
the president of SEIU, the president of the AFL-CIO, the President of the United States, Congressman Russ Carnahan, Carnahan’s spokesperson Sara Howard, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, former OFA Missouri Coordinator Buffy Wicks, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, Field Director of Health Care for America Now Margarida Jorge, Prosecutor Bob McCullough, St. Louis County Counselor Patricia Reddington, County Executive Charlie Dooley, the NAACP, the ACLU, the head of the St. Louis County Dept. of Health, and even the local animal control department. Now that's quite a conspiracy theory!

Dana Loesch "Aggravated" With St. Louis Tea Party Founder Bill Hennessy

Yesterday, St. Louis Tea Party founder Bill Hennessy (who invited Loesch to help him organize the original rally) announced that Ed Martin was the "one tea partier" running for Congress in the new 2nd Congressional District:

Were there no Tea Partiers in the race, I’d probably back Ann. But there is one, and only one, Tea Partier in the Republican race for Missouri’s new 2nds District. He earned that title, not by paying some organization for its endorsement, but by helping to organize the first events—before Tea partying was cool.

We asked Tea Partiers “Why Do You Tea Party” in 2009. When I read their answers, I realize that there is only one of us running for the 2nd District, and that’s Ed Martin.

Oddly enough, Hennessy seems to think it speaks very highly of Ed Martin that he came to the rally without knowing whether Hennessy was racist:

By taking the stage that on February 27, Ed, Dana, Lembke, the Loudons, Jackie Smith, and everyone else took a chance. I could have been a racist or anarchist. I could have been a problem.

But they came anyway.

Anyway, Hennessy's early endorsement of Martin apparently doesn't sit well with Dana Loesch, who hosted a GOP establishment candidate, Ann Wagner, when Wagner announced her candidacy. Loesch is apparently "aggravated" with Hennessy:



Hmmm, getting kinda interesting. Apparently Ed Martin hasn't written his check to Shock City Studios yet this cycle.

St. Louis Tea Party: Steve Tilley Sides With "Hardest of Hard Left"

Other than Dana Loesch and Jim Hoft, the St. Louis Tea party appears to be largely politically irrelevant nowadays. However, they sure do provide some quality entertainment.

After the St. Louis Tea Party suggested a few weeks ago that House Republican Speaker Steve Tilley is secretly doing the bidding of the New Black Panther Party by supporting local control of the St. Louis Police Department, Bill Hennessy is now suggesting that Tilley is "siding with the hardest of the hard left" because Tilley is listed as a cosponsor of a bill that would allow presidential elections to be decided by the national popular vote. In a post titled Steve Tilley vs The Constitution, Hennessy writes the following:

Make no mistake: on this issue, Tilley sides with the hardest of the hard left.

He also wrote that

Team Tilley strikes out again.

In a previous post titled, Steve Tilley vs Fiscal Responsibility, Hennessy said this:

Four men risked their political lives to help solve the problem of our lifetimes, but they forgot to massage Steve Tilley’s monstrous ego...

According to the News-Leader.com:

And Tilley said the House won’t put too much weight on what he believes the Senate wants him to do.

“I’m not going to be held hostage by a few people,” he said.

Of course not. Not unless the hostage takers are billionaires.

That last quote was apparently a reference to Tilley's substantial donations from millionaire Rex Sinquefield.

Though it's fun to read, there's really not much reason for Tilley to care about these threats. Mike Flynn of Big Government threatened to "go nuclear" on Tilley a few weeks ago if Tilley didn't "massage the tea party's monstrous ego" (my words). Tilley ignored him, and lost nothing by doing so.

Lembke Uses Tea Party Blog To Whine About How Misunderstood He Is

After leading a group of grandstanding state senators fillibustering to deny money for healthcare, education funds, and unemployment benefits (and demonizing the unemployed as lazy in the process), Jim Lembke has searched his heart and finally found some sympathy. For himself.

Lembke apparently is feeling quite victimized over the fact that no one appreciates what a great guy he is for trying to defund our schools and kick sand in the eye of people struggling to pay the bills, and seems to be using the St. Louis Tea Party blog to vent his frustrations.

A little context before getting to the tragic story of our state's most misunderstood man. Lembke was apparently behind the push to get Chip Wood selected as the Republican County Assessor candidate:

Chip Wood’s horrid performance – taking only 34% - in the St. Louis County Assessor race has Republicans finger pointing, mainly at the process which chose their flawed candidate. One operative says that it was Sen. Jim Lembke’s people, led by Republican committeeman John Judd, who pushed for Wood over Gene McNary.

So, with that in mind, you can see how Bill Hennessy's recent post about the "selfishness" of the Missouri Republican Party is nothing more than a long list of Lembke complaints about how he doesn't get more respect while he's drinking port and smoking cigars at the good old boys club:

How selfish were these Republicans?

• One State Senator from St. Louis County attended a $150 per person fundraiser for the candidate but paid only $100. And if you think it had something to do with Chip’s property tax issue, think again. This Senator from an affluent area never asked for the money back after the story broke.
• A rising star in the GOP House (who hopes to be Speaker one day) is busy amassing over $1 million for his re-election to the House. A million bucks for a race in which he’s likely to run uncontested. He’ll spread that wealth around next year—to buy votes for the Speakership. With tons of cash in the bank, this bright young man did little or nothing for the assessor race—yet his constituents will be disproportionately damaged when the elected Democrat assessor uses his power to redistribute wealth in St. Louis County.
• In his race for the Senate, Jim Lembke worked tirelessly to win in a very tough district. But the Missouri GOP did almost nothing to help. In 2010, the Missouri GOP did as little as possible in St. Louis County. The result: two state-wide Republican candidates who won their elections handily lost landslides in St. Louis County.

So, to summarize:

• Boo hoo, a state senator only paid $100 for a fundraiser for Lemke's candidate.
• Boo hoo, a "rising star" didn't give Lembke's candidate any money.
• Boo hoo, nobody helped poor, "tireless" Jim Lembke.

I'm sure that schoolchildren, the unemployed, bus riders, and people who would benefit from health care infrastructure are all crying their eyes out at this tale of woe from Lembke, the Most Misunderstood Man in Missouri.

Creepy Tea Party Tweets About Activist's Home

Apparently, carrying a coffin to Congressman Carnahan's home last year just wasn't quite creepy enough for the St. Louis Tea Party, as they now have taken up tweeting about where local activists live.

Chip Gerdes (@tookiew on Twitter), a Republican operative from Quincy, Illinois, started tweeting about where a local female organizer for Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment lives, making sure to use the term "DemRats," and Bill Hennessy and the St. Louis Tea Party quickly followed suit. Here are Gerdes obsessive tweets:






And here's Bill Hennessy and the official St. Louis Tea Party retweeting Tookie's claim about "rats."



In addition to calling liberal activists "rats" and obsessing about where they live, Gerdes also likes to suggest that liberals have "ticks," and that people who ride the trains "eat out of dumpters:'




Hmm, where have we heard that type of rhetoric before? This kind of dehumanizing rhetoric from the tea party and their ability to put aside all standards of decency when dealing with people they perceive as "the enemy" is seriously disturbing.

It's the St. Louis Tea Party's Birthday and All They Got Was This Crappy Blog Post

Two years ago, the St. Louis tea party kicked off with a rally at the Arch grounds. They've had larger rallies since then (though never nearly as large as they claim they are), and last year held an anniversary rally at the Arch with roughly the same amount of people as the first one. Ironically, the rally one year ago might have been the start of their decline, with the leaders of the tea party pushing an anti-public transit agenda that didn't resonate with their membership. As the past year has gone on, it's become more and more clear that the leadership of the St. Louis tea party has not been interested in listening to their membership, but rather has been pushing their own careers and names often at the expense of their "movement."

After they failed to elect their hand-picked candidate Ed Martin in a Republican wave election, they have shown basically no signs of still being a viable group. They held a rally a few weeks ago outside of Senator McCaskill's office that attracted only 20 people. Their excuse was that it was snowing, but of course 100,000 rallied yesterday in Wisconsin in the snow. Then, when Ed Martin held an "Obamacare" meeting, his supporters were massively outnumbered by healthcare reform supporters (update: looks like the tea party did worse than even what was originally reported). Yesterday, the tea parties across the state were out-organized in Jefferson City by MoveOn.org while unions were busy working in St. Louis and Kansas City. The St. Louis tea party leadership recently picked a fight with absurd attacks on the Missouri Republican leadership over issues that have nothing to do with the core tea party principles, and then weren't even able to fight their own battles, instead running crying to their surrogate mother, Mike Flynn at Big Government. And now, on the anniversary of the St. Louis tea party, we see that they didn't even have the capacity to organize a rally for their anniversary. All they could do was try to flood Twitter with misinformation and selectively edited videos.

I've been saying for a long time that the tea party leadership is disconnected from their base, and has been cynically using them rather than actually focusing on issues that would improve people's lives. Ironically, I don't think my writing has had much to do with the shift: the tea party has been busy burning their own bridges with allies for quite some time now.

Ed Martin and Bill Hennessy Hide in the Back of Their Own Forum: Schlafly Bolts!

Have you ever been to a panel discussion where two of the panelists stand at the back of the room and the other one bolts? No? Well I guess you've never seen Ed Martin interact with a group of informed citizens before!

As written about earlier about by Bunnie on this blog and by Hotflash at Show Me Progress, Ed Martin, Phyllis Schlafly, and Bill Hennessy put on a forum about "Obamacare," last night. Unfortunately for Martin's gang, not many of their supporters showed up. Even more unfortunately for them, a large crowd (70+) of informed citizens did show up ready to correct their disinformation about the Affordable Care Act.

According to multiple accounts, Phyllis Schlafly took off very early in the night, never to be seen again. And Ed Martin and Bill Hennessy strangely stood at the back of the room for the question and answer period, listening about 1/2 the time and chatting the other half:


Hennessy apparently also took off before the event was over.

Pretty odd way to conduct a "forum" if you ask me.

Dana Loesch Supports Mubarek Regime As Anderson Cooper Beaten By Mubarek Thugs

The Boston Herald reported that Anderson Cooper and other journalists were beaten by pro-Mubarek thugs in Egypt today:

Journalists covering protests in Cairo, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and two Associated Press correspondents, have been roughed up in the crowd.

Cooper says he and his crew were attacked by supporters of President Hosni Mubarek on Wednesday. CNN later said no one was seriously hurt.

You can watch a video where Cooper reports his crew being attacked here.

Meanwhile Loesch joins her fellow St. Louis tea party leaders Bill Hennessy and Jim Hoft in being supporters of the oppressive Mubarek regime. Loesch claims that there's a choice only between two options: the Mubarek regime or the Muslim Brotherhood, which must be a terrorist radical Islamic group because it has the word "Muslim" in its name. And even if the Muslim Brotherhood said they would support moderate pro-democracy politician Mohamed ElBaradei, ElBaradei must actually be secretly radical because they support him. From her facebook page:

And more:

Don't forget, you can contact Anderson Cooper's show and let him know what you think of him regularly hosting Andrew Breitbart spokesperson Dana Loesch using this form or by tweeting him at @andersoncooper .

Tea Party Leaders Promote Themselves On the Backs of Naive Membership

I've reported before that, despite what they claim, the St. Louis Tea Party is not democratic, and their leaders are clearly using other people for their own personal notoriety and enrichment. The reality is that a small group of people make the decisions of what the group will do (like their ill-advised decision to fight against public transportation), and that same small group attempts to take credit for all of the people who attended rallies, or voted Republican, or whatever. Carl Bearden provides an example of a case in point:

Testimony was even given that the members of the St Louis Tea Party Association opposed the return of local control to the citizens of St Louis...

Anyway, I thought the report of the opposition of the St Louis Tea Party Association was rather odd so I checked it out. I found out that it was true that the Board of Directors of the St Louis Tea Party oppose the local control issue. But no “vote” of the members/supporters was taken.

In other words, the tea party claims to be a huge group of people across the St. Louis region. Then, a small, unelected Board of Directors makes decisions and even goes to Jefferson City to announce their position on controversial issues without even consulting the membership! So you have, what, 5 or 10 people claiming to speak on behalf of 5,000, without even actually consulting any of the people. In fact, they didn't even bother to announce on any of their blogs that they were planning on going to Jefferson City to "state the Tea Party position" on local control. No doubt those same self-appointed leaders use political positions like local control to curry favor with political players and to enhance themselves. They are, and always have been, about enhancing themselves rather than fighting for conservative ideals.

Right Wing Bias: If KSDK Tells You It's Raining...

...it might be time to hit the shower. Yesterday, I noticed quite a few people upset online about the obvious right-wing bias of a KSDK panel put together to analyze Obama's State of the Union address. The panel consisted of center-left Missouri Democratic Chair Susan Montee, Obama supporter Kevin O'Malley, straight right-wing GOP operative Ann Wagner, and far right extremist Bill Hennessy of the tea party, along with straight political analyst Dave Robertson. I think it's pretty obvious that two moderate or center-left viewpoints are not really "balanced" with one hard right and one extreme right spokesperson: the scale is tipped to the right. And, at the very least, it is unquestionable that nobody more liberal than the mainstream Democratic party was represented, whereas Hennessy represented a perspective further right than the mainstream GOP. This of course is a regular pattern in the mainstream media, where far-right positions untethered to reality are regularly given air time alongside Republicans and Democrats, but liberal positions are treated as not even worthy of discussion.

I know from the messages I got that quite a few people called KSDK to complain about the lack of representation from a more liberal perspective. And how did KSDK respond? By keeping all of the same people and simply declaring at the beginning of their program that "every part of the political spectrum was covered." I'm not sure if this was intended to be a slap in the face of the people who had asked them to balance their program, or if they really just think their viewers are stupid enough to automatically accept everything they say without thinking about it.

Anyway, the good news is that having Bill Hennessy on did not help the tea party or GOP cause whatsoever. Hennessy rambled on about how Obama secretly hates constitution: anyone who would be moved by that message was already a member of the tea party a long time ago. Also, favorite quote from Hennessy:

In history, most of the problem that has arisen for the people, didn't come from other people, it came from a tyrannical government, or from a government of another country invading.

Because everyone knows that governments aren't made up of people. They're made of Nazi juice and Stalin mustaches, or something.

Hennessy Blames Sheriff Dupnik

Law of Nature: tea partiers love conspiracy theories. Especially ones about people they irrationally hate.

St. Louis tea party co-founder Bill Hennessy today suggested that Sheriff Dupnik was "culpable" for Jared Lee Loughner's tragic shooting spree in Arizona. Of course, fringe right-wingers have hated Sheriff Dupnik ever since he had the audacity to criticize "vitriolic political rhetoric." But accusing him of being at fault for the murder? That takes it to an absurd level and, as usual, one not supported by facts.

Here's what Hennessy says:

According to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo, Jarod Lee Loughner’s mother “works for Pima County Board of Supervisors.”

In the memo, obtained by Fox News and posted on Greta Van Susteren’s blog, the DHS agent openly speculates about undue internal influence. That’s because Loughner’s arrests don’t all end with reasonable closure, if you will.

Here’s exactly what the DHS report says:

suspect’s mother works for the Pima County Board of Supervisors* the suspect has multiple arrests … But no criminal record? Intervention by someone?

Hennessy concludes:

It’s not unreasonable to assume that that “someone” is Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

Um, yeah, actually, it's pretty darn unreasonable. First of all, the suggestion, or rather question, that there could have been "internal influence," was entirely speculative. We don't know the details of his other arrests and there are plenty of possibilities for why charges might not have been filed. Second, even if there was influence, there are a lot of other people who could have influenced the process other than the sheriff. So with all of these possible variations on what might have been the explanation, it's already pretty unreasonable to assume that the sheriff was the person to blame. And finally, the memo in question is more than a little sketchy. First of all, it claims "Gabrielle Gifford is the first Jewish female elected to such a high position in the US government" which is false. Second, it makes reference to the claim that there was a connection to the right-wing fringe group American Renaissance. This was reported very early on by Fox News, but has since been walked back and retracted. In fact, it sure looks to me like this is the memo that was originally reported to be a "DHS memo" but actually turned out not to be. Hennessy appears using almost two-day-old information that has already been corrected and retracted to support his conspiracy theories.

Not that any of the actual facts will matter to Hennessy. He hates Dupnik, and he'll glom on to whatever information or misinformation supports that emotion.