Sore Losers! Tea Party Blames The People They Drove Away For Loss

The St. Louis tea party leadership has been freaking out, blaming third party candidates for Ed Martin's loss to Congressman Russ Carnahan. Dana Loesch said she was "infuriated at third party foils." Bill Hennessy wrote the following about third party candidates:

In an election when America needed everyone to subdue personal ambition for the greater good, two egomaniacs ran against Ed Martin. These selfish people put themselves and their egos above the country. They are not American patriots; they’re weasels.

However, it seems to me that the election results tell a very clear story. In the Republican primary, corrupt Republican insider Ed Martin was running against a true grassroots conservative named John Wayne Tucker. However, the AstroTurf St. Louis tea party was in the bag for Martin from the beginning, blacklisting Tucker from their events and even personally attacked him. Dana Loesch, who's husband's business Shock City Studios was paid $5,000 by Ed Martin, went on a Twitter tirade against Tucker, despite never mentioning him previously while having Martin on as a guest multiple times.

Now for the interesting part: in the Republican primary, Ed Martin only won 63% of the vote, and John Wayne Tucker, despite being ignored by the St. Louis tea party, received 5,379 votes. Rusty Wallace, another Republican challenger, received 7478 votes. In that election, constitution party candidate Nicholas Ivanovich only received 277 votes, and Libertarian candidate Steven Hendrick only got 418. However, in the election yesterday, Hendrick got 5,757 votes and Ivanovich got 3,151.

In other words, it sure looks like the Tucker and Wallace supporters marginalized and insulted by the St. Louis Tea Party are precisely the people who decided that they would rather vote for a third party candidate than the Republican. Only 700 people voted for Ivanovich and Hendrick in the primary: nearly 9,000 voted for them over Ed Martin in the general election.

I think there are a couple of lessons to draw from this. First, the St. Louis tea party shot themselves in the foot by pretending to be a grassroots movement while supporting corrupt GOP operatives like Ed Martin and Roy Blunt. They turned off true conservatives by pretending to be one thing while actively working towards another. In a year where Russ Feingold and Ike Skelton lost, it's possible that a genuine conservative candidate would have outperformed sleaze-bag Martin at the polls. But the St. Louis tea party never let that happen, instead shutting down dissent in the primary.

Second, the tea party's personal attacks on anyone who disagreed with them likely pushed away voters who might otherwise have voted for the Republican candidate. Probably some people who were uncomfortable with Ed Martin's scandalous history might nevertheless have been willing to bite the bullet and vote for him, except for the fact that they were repeatedly insulted by the self-appointed leaders of the tea party. The tea party does not tolerate dissent, especially from other conservatives.

So in a wave election year where Republicans won races no one thought was possible, the St. Louis tea party really didn't accomplish anything. They lost to Congressman Carnahan. They lost to Charlie Dooley. And they lost their bid to protect puppy mill cruelty. Yet all they can do is scream and blame everyone else.

Dana Loesch Says You Can't Buy Her Soul for $2,500...It Takes At Least $5,000

Earlier in the year, I pointed out that Dana Loesch had been ignoring Ed Martin's Republican primary opponent John Wayne Tucker until finally going on an unprovoked, unhinged Twitter rampage against him. Throughout this whole ordeal, Loesch never once disclosed that her husband's business Shock City Studios had received $2,500 from Ed Martin, apparently for the production of a campaign video. The story was picked up by Chad Garrison at the RFT, and this caused the Loeschs to freak out.

In addition to Chris Loesch's angry phone call to the RFT (which prompted a hilarious response at Punching Kitty), Dana Loesch wrote a long blog post addressed to all the "defamers and libelers" of the world who pointed out her conflict of interest. As part of her long-winded rant declaring that all of her critics were "stuffed shirt, Magic the Gathering trolls," Loesch provided this explanation:

Before this, before I was on in the day and full-time, Martin recorded a $2500 commercial at my husband’s studio, one of the top 16 studios in the world according to music mags and the biggest, most innovative, and least expensive in the Midwest. They do films, music, commercials, and recently worked with the National Black Caucus on a documentary. (OMG HEADLINE! I am a liberal plant! Tell the RFT!1!) Martin went with them because they were cheap and do good work and have a nationally renowned staff.

She later went on to say:

First of all suckers, if you think I’d sell my soul for only $2500 you’re stupid...

At no point did she ever explain why she, as someone who laughingly calls herself a "journalist," did not disclose the clear conflict of interest she had in hostng Ed Martin on as a guest of her show multiple times while blacklisting and finally attacking his campaign opponent. I guess that was all supposed to be OK, because Loesch went on to assure us all that she's "very clear about her ethics," whatever that means.

But what I find very strange is that while Loesch was ranting about how clear she is about her ethics, and explaining how she'd never sell her soul for $2,500, she somehow forgot to mention that they actually received $5,000 from Ed Martin, not $2,500. That's right, the $2,500 check previously mentioned was just one of two checks. Shock City Studios received another $2,500 check from Ed Martin in November of 2009. Here are the two different sections of financial reports:

November of last year (page 80):

And February of this year (page 115):

$2,500 + $2,500 = $5,000

Now correct me if I'm missing something, but if you were going on a long, self-righteous rant about how upfront you are about your ethics and how you have nothing to hide, wouldn't you want to point out that it was actually $5,000 you received from Ed Martin rather than $2,500? Wouldn't that be worth pointing out instead of pretending that all the studio got was $2,500, as Loesch did with multiple statements? She repeated the $2,500 number repeatedly, all the while knowing that it was actually $5,000. Why would she do that?

Ed Martin Gives Dana Loesch's Husband $2500 Prior to Loesch Attacking His Primary Opponent

Last week, I described how tea party talk show host Dana Loesch publicly freaked out on Republican candidate for House of Representatives John Wayne Tucker. Loesch claimed that allowing Tucker on to her radio show would be the equivalent of "electioneering," despite the fact that she had Tucker's Republican primary opponent, former Matt Blunt Chief of Staff Ed Martin, on her show multiple times. Loesch also blocked Tucker's supporters from commenting on her page on facebook.

Over the weekend, Loesch continued her attack via Twitter. Since the original outburst, Loesch has publicly attacked John Wayne Tucker's character:

She attacked his faith:


And she accused him of "bullying" her (without providing any evidence):


So what would cause Loesch to so publicly violate the Republican's 11th Commandment ("Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"), when she could have dealt with all of these issues privately. Loesch clearly went out of her way to try to publicly humiliate John Wayne Tucker. Tucker, by the way, denies that he ever requested to be on Loesch's show, and Loesch has not provided any evidence to back up that claim.

I originally thought that this bizarre blowup was just a result of the St. Louis tea party's astroturf relationships with Republican insiders like Ed Martin. However, it turns out that there's another important part of the story. It turns out that Ed Martin had written a $2500 check to Shock City Studios, the business co-owned by Loesch and herLoesch's husband Chris. The check, according to the Federal Election Commission report (page 115), was for video production:

In other words, Ed Martin gave $2,500 to Chris Loesch's business in February. Since that time, Dana Loesch has had Martin on her show but never John Wayne Tucker. And then, a few weeks before the primary, Loesch freaks out publicly, attacking Tucker on her Twitter account, her facebook page, and her radio program.

Now, in the interest of not becoming the very thing I am fighting against by adopting all of the same nasty tactics, let me acknowledge that there may well be a good explanation for all of this. But Loesch has yet to provide any evidence to back up her claims, and the situation certainly looks pretty fishy.

Dana Loesch Lies About Me...Again

A little background on what's been going on in Twitterworld over the past couple days. As I documented yesterday, Dana Loesch has been providing free air time to Republican insider candidate Ed Martin but not his primary challanger John Wayne Tucker. If she would just be honest and admit she was playing favorites with her radio show, this would not be a big deal. However, instead she ridiculously pretended that allowing Tucker on her show would be "electioneering" while having Martin on is not. And, when someone asked if Tucker Tucker asked if he could be a guest on her show yesterday, she went off on a Twitter rant about his campaign.

Aside from Loesch blocking and defriending anyone on facebook who disagreed with her, things were quiet for a while. But then I wrote my blog post pointing out that Loesch was hypocritically providing air time to one candidate but not the other while still pretending to be objective, and John Wayne Tucker retweeted it:

Well, as you might guess, that sent Loesch off into a new rage:




Her Twitter name calling and twisting of facts is nothing new, but the posts on her facebook page crossed a line:


Loesch was upset about the fact that Tucker retweeted my post. Now her name-calling like "troll" and "famehungry bottomfeeder" are nothing new, so they didn't bother me much (although Loesch calling me "famehungry" is pretty ironic). Her claims that I was "smearing conservatives" were of course not backed up with any evidence, and I contend that I support my arguments with factual evidence and generally avoid petty name-calling. However, since Loesch often doesn't even bother to research many of the things she claims, I can see why she might honestly believe that I "smear" people because she literally does not even know what the relevant facts are of many discussions and thus thinks I'm lying when I'm simply pointing out legitimate information.

But what is really a serious and outright false claim is Loesch saying that I "celebrate threats" against her. Threats are obviously completely outside the realm of acceptable discourse and I have never, would never, and will never stoop to that level. Loesch, as usual, does not provide any support for her claim. That's because she can't provide any support for her claim because it is blatantly false. In fact, it is despicable that she stoop to a level of accusing me of "threats." Not only is it a baseless, unfair attack on me personally (no matter how much she dislikes me), but it also trivializes the fact that there legitimately threatening people out in cyberspace who should be called out for their behavior.

St. Louis Tea Party Stifles Conservative Dissent

The St. Louis Tea Party leadership has a long history of bullying any conservatives who dare to ask questions about the group. When conservative radio host Jamie Allman asked if they had been hijacked by the Republican Party, Tea Party co-founder Bill Hennessy responded by calling Allman "talk radio's stammering, pausing idiot." When the Hillbllly Logic crew asked questions about the tea party leadership, Dana Loesch's response was basically, "nyah, nyah, I'm more famous than you so don't have to address any of your points." Basically, except that she was a lot more nasty than that:

Six years and you're still not on air anywhere? If that doesn't tell you anything, I don't know what will. I don't have time for false patriots who defame others and you can stop with the defamatory "vested interest" crap - you're the one who ran your mouth and couldn't cash it.

Yesterday, as I documented, Loesch went on a rant against John Wayne Tucker, the Republican primary challenger of GOP insider Ed Martin, for asking if he could be on her show after someone suggested that he should be a guest on her show. Loesch pathetically claimed to not be playing favorites, but regularly gave free air time to Ed Martin while claiming that Tucker would have to pay to be able to "electioneer" (her word) by appearing on her show. When some of Tucker's supporters spoke up, Loesch did what she always does: she insulted them and took steps to ensure that there could not be a public debate. Here's how she responded to conservative talk show host Super Dave:

He went on to explain the crux of the interaction:

John Wayne Tucker also spoke out in favor of a genuine debate:

Of course, Loesch was having none of this "both sides" or "asking questions" stuff. She responded with a long Twitter rant against Tucker, which I'll document in a later post. The St. Louis tea party has shown time and time again that they're only for free speech if it means them being allowed to speak on the Chris Matthews or Larry King Show. They certainly aren't in favor of free speech across the political spectrum, and, in fact, aren't even in favor of allowing debate with people who share the same values they claim to endorse.

Astroturf! Dana Loesch Blacklists Conservative Challenger to Insider Ed Martin

Though they claim to be part of a national grassroots movement, many people, including Jamie Allman and the conservative bloggers at Hillbilly Logic, have questioned whether the St. Louis Tea Party is merely carrying water for the same old establishment Republicans who failed to actually adhere to conservative values the last time they were in power. This was confirmed today as it was revealed that St. Louis Tea Party co-founder Dana Loesch is preventing conservative challenger John Wayne Tucker from appearing on her radio show while giving free publicity to his GOP Establishment challenger Ed Martin, the disgraced former chief of staff for Matt Blunt. Loesch went on a Twitter tirade today about Tucker (note that the tweets read chronologically from the bottom up):



Loesch was somewhat coy about who she was speaking about, but then revealed it in an exchange on Twitter (again reading from the bottom, up):

Those three names would be John Wayne Tucker, Ed Martin's challenger in the Republican primary. To confirm, I asked Tucker if she was blacklisting him. This is how he responded:

If you'll note above, Loesch's lame excuse for not having Tucker on as a guest is that it would be equivalent to "electioneering." This is a little odd, considering that she's had his opponent Ed Martin on her show a number of times, including March 30 and March 2nd of this year. So apparently it's not "electioneering" to have Loesch's favorite GOP insider candidate on the show, but it would be "electioneering" to have his grassroots conservative challenger on?

This fits with what I've been saying for a long time. The leaders of the St. Louis Tea Party are less interested in a genuine grassroots movement than in bolstering their own standing in the mainstream media and among Republican operatives. The main "revolution" they're working towards is a revolution of the guest list of the Chris Matthews, Larry King, and Larry Kudlow shows. And if they can get the same old Republican operatives like Roy Blunt and Ed Martin elected along the way, well then they're fine with that too.