Tea Party County Executive Sued for Allegedly Firing Prosecutor for "Not Protecting Him Politically"

The new County Executive in Jefferson County, Ken Waller, is being sued by former county municipal prosecutor Daniel James, who claims that Waller fired him because Waller was afraid that James "wouldn't protect him politically." Waller, who's a member of the Jefferson County Tea Party and who spoke at one of their rallies while he was running for office, reportedly told James that his decision to fire him "had nothing to do with what James did or did not do while James had been County Municipal Court Prosecutor but that Waller needed someone in office who would protect him politically." However, according to the County Charter, the position is a "merit position," which means that James should not have been fired without just cause, and in particular can not be fired because of his well-known affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, James was not given a hearing before being fired, which again goes specifically against the language of the Merit System outlined in the County Charter.

Thanks to Nicholas Phillips at the RFT, you can read the lawsuit here:
James v Waller et al

Astroturf Arnold Tea Party Disses and Deletes Dissent

The tea party often hilariously likes to pretend that it is a "grassroots movement' that is independent of the Republican Party. But in a stroke of irony so majestic that some have claimed it as proof that there is a omnibenevolent, omniscient, omnipotent creator of the universe, it turns out that the tea party movement is not only funded by wealthy Republican donors, but in fact is funded by wealthy Republican donors who owe their fortunes to the Josef Stalin regime. The tea party in St. Louis is no exception, crucially owing their beginnings to Americans For Prosperity, one of the groups funded by the Koch family.

Anyway, the St. Louis tea party has pandered to Republican politicians from its inception and is now under fire for being too cozy with the Republican establishment. And they apparently outsourced their astroturf model to the Jefferson County Tea Party. As I announced last week, the Jefferson County "Tea Party" rally was little more than a pep rally for disgraced former Republican Chief of Staff Ed Martin. And I was not alone. A tea party commenter on their facebook page had this to say:

I think you should have shortened some of the speakers today to allow some of the other candidates speak. really made the tea party today look like a Ed Martin campaign event.
as a "movement" you should support ALL Conservative candidates and allow people to hear from them and make an informed decision.
Informed public make better decisions.
Just my opinion.

But the real story is how the JeffCo Tea Party organizer Ken Horton responded. He responded by accusing the guy, who clearly was offering constructive criticism, of "whining" and of secretly working for some "other candidate":

An Ed Martin event! You have got to be kidding me. What candidate that didn't get to speak are you writing this comment on behalf of? Ed spoke for 15 minutes as he was one of the 3 keynote speakers along with Dana and Bill Hennesy. All others were given up to 10 minutes. Stop the whining!

Horton's response was completely ridiculous. If the Tea Party was really independent of the Republican Party, would they have Republican candidate Ed Martin as their headline speaker and give him more time than everyone else? Ed Martin's primary opponent, John Wayne Tucker, was not even given any chance to speak. So clearly, this "tea party" was taking sides with the Republican political establishment and not even allowing the other side to speak.

Apparently, some of the original guy's comments were deleted, as he starts of his next comment with this:

(Comments edited, due to others being removed)

He goes on to say:

the statement on the left says "The Tea Party mission is to unite like-minded individuals, educate and inform others based on our core values, and to secure public policy consistent with those values."
Does calling me a whiner unite?, there are others that "liked" my comment so they must have agreed with what I said.
are they also whiners?
I liked the event for the most part. I appreciated the fact that the event allowed conservative speakers from the Dem, Lib, Const, and repub parties. Great Job there.
BUT, and this was my point in the original comment.
There were 3 candidates there that Ken introduced, then stated that due to time not everyone got to speak.
those 3 people were there and did not get the opportunity to speak. SO, if some of the others had cut 2-3 minutes out, these 3 candidates could have spoken.

If this is not a tea party for all conservative candidates, just say so, again that way the public will know for sure if they want to participate in this tea party movement or not.
I was at the first tea party gathering in Jefferson County last year when we met outside the City Hall in Festus, and I attended this gathering as well. My intention was not to so much bash the work done at this Tea party, but to offer a suggestion to make it better and more affective.
our races as with many in this county have multiple candidates running for the same office.I'm tired of the only person getting the ear of the public being the guy the "Political Machine" endorses and the others since they dont have the financial backing of the Machine dont get fair consideration. I feel, and I say this as its my opinion, that the Tea Party should be working to correct this type of thing and help ALL conservative candidates get heard, so that the primary races get the best candidate to run in the general election and not just the guy with the most political connection or the most money. We can all see what that gets us.

So here we have a guy wondering why the tea party isn't acting independent despite claiming that it is, who is then mocked and censored by the rally organizer. Pretty good evidence that the tea party is nothing more than Republican Party business-as-usual.

Screenshot:

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.