Video: Are the tea parties “a sham and a fraud”?
posted at 7:33 pm on April 13, 2009 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
They must be. Nothing the right does is legitimate in liberal eyes, so there must be a disqualifying factor hidden somewhere here. Savor, please, the rich, nougaty irony of a leftist complaining about “grassroots” movements actually being orchestrated from the top down.
As for his tacit point about all deficits being equal, er, not so. In fact, if anything good comes from The One’s term, I suspect it’ll be the way he’s keenly concentrated America’s imagination on spending issues. During Bush’s terms, the idea that social security was going bankrupt was practically a hypothetical. Not anymore.
You must be logged in to post a comment.

















Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »
It’s almost like they are paid volunteers.
radiofreevillage on April 13, 2009 at 7:35 PM
I’m sure Cindy Sheehan agrees.
jgapinoy on April 13, 2009 at 7:35 PM
As Andrew Klavan said we need to “Shut Up”
Ricki on April 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
This tool cluelessly recycles the bogus, disappearing Playboy smear with a straight face.
Michelle on April 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
pWnEd
Ah well. I’m going to my first T-Party this week. I guess I’ll find out for myself.
blatantblue on April 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
“Are the tea parties ‘a sham and fraud’?”
Premise rejected.
These tea parties are not designed to be “just conservatives”, but from just an American viewpoint. The fact that many who are participating in these tea parties are conservative is secondary to the point of these tea parties.
Weebork on April 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
They really can’t handle the fact that we’re protesting anything, can they? I hate the hypocrisy. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander – we’re the ones upset now, and we’re not going to be quiet about it this time.
Anna on April 13, 2009 at 7:38 PM
I think every tea party should make a huge banner of this graft
deidre on April 13, 2009 at 7:39 PM
Are you saying Bush thought it was hypothetical, or the Repubs in Congress. Because if I remember right, Bush spent months going around the country trying to get people to believe him.
Weight of Glory on April 13, 2009 at 7:40 PM
I do not understand why these people insist on making an issue of the tea parties. If they are a sham and a fraud, then what are the Obamabots worried about?
Terrye on April 13, 2009 at 7:40 PM
I think the problem is that the agenda for the tea parties has been taken over by the Fox Newsers like Hannity and O’Reilly. It just doesn’t fit. These should be nonpartisan demonstrations, not pro-Republican deals IMO.
The Dean on April 13, 2009 at 7:40 PM
Whew! Glad that’s cleared up, just another facet of the vast right winged conspiracy fueled and funded by our rich conservative benefactors. I forget, someone remind me who they are and when do I get my money?
Oldnuke on April 13, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Best part is though — the conservative viewpoint IS the American viewpoint.
Modern American welfare state liberalism has nothing to do with America
blatantblue on April 13, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Translation:
These Teabaggers are not being good little obedient slaves.
TexasJew on April 13, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Already planning on having some printed up. They don’t really require any additional commentary.
BadgerHawk on April 13, 2009 at 7:42 PM
What a tool.
peacenprosperity on April 13, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Weight of Glory:
That is one reason I get kind of irritated with some folks when they complain that Bush was not conservative enough. He took on the sacred cow of the nanny state and he got very little support from his own side. It was almost as if they just like to talk about things like reforming social security, rather than actually doing it. The same is true for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform. Bush tried for years to deal with the impending problems at FM and he never could get enough support from his own side to over ride Democratic attempts to block his reforms.
Terrye on April 13, 2009 at 7:43 PM
Some 380 tea party protests across the nation scheduled for the 15th, and our media is calling this a sham and a fraud.
About the same kind of treatment my wife and I get when we question Global Warming, or Climate Change as Liberals like to define the scam today. It is so because they tell us it is so; shut up and be happy they let us breathe the same air with them.
Keemo on April 13, 2009 at 7:44 PM
That’s depressing. It’d make a very effective sign on Wednesday.
Anna on April 13, 2009 at 7:44 PM
The left think that protests and demonstrations are exclusively theirs, and I suppose there will also be some envy after they see that the April 15th tax parties will dwarf the sum of the leftist protests.
docdave on April 13, 2009 at 7:44 PM
Did anyone bother to ask this libtard exactly what corporations or groups were funding the tea parties as he seems to believe is the case? Of course not, he would need to come up with an answer and there is not one. Someone needs to ask that question when these a$$clowns say the tea parties are orchestrated.
clinker46 on April 13, 2009 at 7:45 PM
I heard it was almost 1900 individual events. That seems high, but that’s what I heard on our local radio.
BadgerHawk on April 13, 2009 at 7:46 PM
Me too. I think it would rock though if at every tea party there was a banner of that graft right up by the city halls. No one would miss it then.
deidre on April 13, 2009 at 7:46 PM
So they say democracy is a sham and a fraud..
the_nile on April 13, 2009 at 7:47 PM
The guest is right that some of the permits for the upcoming tea parties were requested prior to The One’s taking over the economy. BUT, that is because many of us were outraged over the abuses by Congress’s out of control spending and Bush’s signatures on blank checks.
That doesn’t make the tea parties a “sham and a fraud” it just means that some of the grassroots were at work early!
InTheBellyoftheBeast on April 13, 2009 at 7:48 PM
*sorry, should be graph. I’m working right now (medical transcriptionist) and have grafts on my mind.
deidre on April 13, 2009 at 7:48 PM
The idiots on the left wouldn’t recognize what a true grassroots effort is. They’ve never engaged in one, themselves, as they rely on judges “issuing decrees”, paid mobs, and officials who simply break the law when they decide (a la how gay marriage started).
progressoverpeace on April 13, 2009 at 7:49 PM
He can shove it frankly
Defector01 on April 13, 2009 at 7:50 PM
What’s actually quite sad about the guy in the video is he is so blinded by politics, he can only see these protests as fabrications set up by the opposing political party. That there is no way these protests can be made up of genuine folks who are attending under no pretense of political affiliation.
I will also take a wild, uneducated guest and presume that perhaps this guy is doing a teeny-weensy bit of projecting when he accuses the GOP of doing regarding these tea parties.
Weebork on April 13, 2009 at 7:51 PM
I just thought I hadn’t seen the word for so long, that I was remembering it wrong. No harm, no foul.
-a chronic misspeller.
Anna on April 13, 2009 at 7:51 PM
But it does involve quite a good bit of graft, too :)
progressoverpeace on April 13, 2009 at 7:51 PM
They don’t understand demonstrations conducted by unpaid demonstrators. The notion is scary to them, especially since the demonstrations are so numerous.
obladioblada on April 13, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Can’t be that many, that would be 1000 time the number of Liberals that showed up at the “Anti-Tea party” Rally. Wait! It is Right! We OUTNUMBER THEM THOUSANDS TO ONE!
Dune. (Only a few will get the reference).
GunRunner on April 13, 2009 at 7:53 PM
One of the few times people with jobs decide to get together and say ‘We’re really tired of this $hit!’ and these bullet heads just start peeing all over themselves.
Real nice….
BigWyo on April 13, 2009 at 7:54 PM
I have off the 15th, maybe I ought to get to one of these demonstrations.
doubleplusundead on April 13, 2009 at 7:54 PM
Last number I saw was 2006 cities. 49 in Texas alone. It’s going to be one hell of a sham and fraud, ain’t it?
docdave on April 13, 2009 at 7:54 PM
ha. took them a few days to take the point i made about its partisan nature and use it to obscure the entire situation. sure, at the end of the day i feel that the partisan nature of some of the rhetoric siphons off some legitimacy. that doesn’t mean that the underlying message (its the DEBT, stupid. not the taxes) isnt a sound one. its also a message that puts democrats and republicans in the crosshairs.
these moveon.org types really oughtta offer me that 15k a week retainer for a consultancy.
ernesto on April 13, 2009 at 7:55 PM
At IHateTheMedia.com Earlier today, as a response to Rachel Maddow’s screed attempting to relate the tea parties to gay sex practices, I wrote,
InTheBellyoftheBeast on April 13, 2009 at 7:55 PM
As a child, did anybody here the story about boiling a frog? That if you put a frog in cold water, and slowly turn the heat up, the frog would stay in until it was boiled? But if you throw a frog in boiling water, it would jump out right away?
Well that’s what destroys this tool’s argument about 28 years of unbalanced budgets, and “why now?” Don’t get me wrong, I don’t favor deficits, but we’ve gone from livable deficits to unsustainable deficits in a matter of three months.
No wonder people are taking to the streets!
Johnson on April 13, 2009 at 7:55 PM
The tea parties are only the beginning… http://www.accdf.com is rising …. let’s roll.
ex-Democrat on April 13, 2009 at 7:56 PM
When you attend a “tea party”, make sure you carry a simple 8 1/2 x 11″ sheet of paper with heavy black marker writing out “Idiot Leftist Agent” on it with a heavy black arrow pointing to the side. When there is a disruption in the crowd and the cameras show up, stand to the side and behind the shouting lunatic and hold up your sign (making sure the arrow points to the lunatic).
That’s it.
SunSword on April 13, 2009 at 7:56 PM
He means that was the excuse the left used. Remember they were saying Social Security was solvent until whatever year they chose to parrot.
True_King on April 13, 2009 at 7:56 PM
You should. I took the 15th off just so I could go. Never even been to a political rally, let alone a protest, but I’m really looking forward to going to this one.
BadgerHawk on April 13, 2009 at 7:57 PM
so um…
Obama has already spent more than Bush did in his entire term and it’s everyone’s fault but Obama.
Ok, I get it….asshat.
jcrue on April 13, 2009 at 7:58 PM
The meme on the left is keep this about Right VS Left. It’s not that. Many of the people at these tea parties, myself included, are just as pissed off at the right, if not more so, than we are at the left.
We were not fans of Bush, he spent like a drunken sailor.
What this self righteous windbag forgets is that Obama didn’t inherit the deficit, he voted for it.
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 7:58 PM
His “plan” would have been to give our money to Wall Street instead of to the government. Either way it’s a loss because the Fed gets the money one way or the other.
True_King on April 13, 2009 at 7:58 PM
Who is pro-Republican? The Republicans help get us here and the Dems made it 1,000 times worse. I can’t stand either party.
obladioblada on April 13, 2009 at 7:59 PM
As with Palin, they try to de-legitimize that which frightens them.
ctmom on April 13, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Some Obama stooge from the media complaining about how things are “portrayed”?
Marcus on April 13, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Tea parties are bi-partisan. Infact they display REAL bi-paritanship, not the phoney capital hill kind.
portlandon on April 13, 2009 at 8:00 PM
I live in lefty Hawaii (Obamaland), not only is there a tea party planned in Honolulu, but one is planned for Maui.
Johnson on April 13, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Bush made the deficit high, SO LETS TRIPLE IT! That only makes sense to a liberal.
ctmom on April 13, 2009 at 8:01 PM
Perfect.
BigWyo on April 13, 2009 at 8:02 PM
What I wanna know is . . . . . Are there going to be giant paper mache Obamas?
- The Cat
MirCat on April 13, 2009 at 8:02 PM
It is as if these Liberals who tell us to “just listen to Obama” because he is right and good and all-knowing think we were asleep during the whole stimulus plan debacle.
Imagine Congress authorizing and the President signing a spending bill that will cost us over a trillion dollars without doing much to stimulate the economy without our elected leaders even reading the bill. How can that be defended? How can that be responsible management of our money? True there are some good things in the stimulus, but hardly enough to justify its cost overall.
Tea Parties are no more ‘corporately sponsored’ than the Million Man Marches.
DarkKnight3565 on April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Somebody, somewhere, is afraid of something. This IS NOT the way they planned things would be.
Therefore quickly label the scary thing as a right wing sham. There, it’s fixed and not so scary anymore. Whew… that was close.
Yoop on April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
I’m not going to research it, but this fella being interviewed for some reason makes me think I’ve seen him in the past connected to baby-daddy John Edwards. I’m pretty sure he was part of damage control for that slime.
Marcus on April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Brilliant!
But if I’m the coordinator of the Boston Tea Party and I make the signs and hand them out, is it no longer a grass roots effort since my “corporation” – my checkbook – is paying for the event? (Minus one $100 donation from a friend.)
gopmom on April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
from MW:
graft
Function: noun
Date: 1865
: the acquisition of gain (as money) in dishonest or questionable ways ; also : illegal or unfair gain
“Graft” is totally appropriate.
Rhinoboy on April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM
According to CNN, it’s just a small amount of people who are going to these tea parties. I was just amazed they even reported on it at all, although it was during Lou Dobbs, the only person on that channel who is not Looney left.
abinitioadinfinitum on April 13, 2009 at 8:08 PM
Indeed. Infact, it was 06 that made me really despise many Republicans in Congress.
Weight of Glory on April 13, 2009 at 8:09 PM
I saw this live and the guest right before was a Democrat who was also planning to attend.
The idiot in this segment mentioned Steve Forbes as being one of the corporate dudes who’s pushing the tea party movement.
This video isn’t as good as the one Cavuto did last week with another moonbat who was making fun of the parties. Can anyone find it? Allah?
Knucklehead on April 13, 2009 at 8:11 PM
this is the left which had 2-6 charter buses load up from each city to deliver protesters to new york in 2004 so they could tell the RNC to “go home”?
this is the left, who’s “antiwar” protests were organized by saddam hussein’s attorney?
eh on April 13, 2009 at 8:13 PM
This guy posted on the DemocraticUnderground last night that he was going to be on the show.
That tells you his mental stability right there. He’s a DU Inmate.
Enoxo on April 13, 2009 at 8:13 PM
The Republican’s are the party of bad ideas. The Democrat’s are the party of no ideas. A Republican will stand up in congress and say ” I have a bad idea.” Then a Democrat will stand up and say “And I can make it S*****er!”
Lewis Black (of all people)
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:13 PM
How do they know that , looks like they’re trying to lessen the support.
the_nile on April 13, 2009 at 8:14 PM
Why are the left taking such an extroadinary effort to try to diss the Tea Parties. You know they’re sqirming.
Frances on April 13, 2009 at 8:15 PM
The GOP is trying to uncermines us RON PAUL!!!!ers and our tea parties and use them for there own purposes and screw all the conservatives to get more Republicans in office just so they can vote on more bailouts and stimulus packages.
RON PAUL!!!!
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Nobody has called or coerced me to participate but I’m going to the Alamo the 15th, just because it’s right.
PaCadle on April 13, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Oh I believe it. He can be funny, but only in small portions.
Weight of Glory on April 13, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Someone break out the tin foil.
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:16 PM
huh?
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Maybe the tea parties should take a clue from ACORN.. ie. get a bunch of busses and go picket outside the home of your local
commiedemocrap congrescritter.hey, if it’s OK to do it to execs, why not to the people who are supposed to be representing us. ???
bullseye on April 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM
For sure, I hope it’s so big, they won’t be able to ignore us.
abinitioadinfinitum on April 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM
You guys are about as influential as a fat in a hurricane.
Clearly, Obama doesn’t have the only cult.
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM
You guys are about as influential as a fart in a hurricane.
Clearly, Obama doesn’t have the only cult.
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:19 PM
What a horses arse. It’s clearly a case of someone who can look beyond partison lines and see what the hell is going on in our government. Makes me glad on the sign I’ll be carrying. One side will show the a graph of the devaluing of our dollar (looks like a hockey stick) and the other side which is clearly meant for this goon : If you are not OUTRAGED, you are not paying ATTENTION.
froginthesky on April 13, 2009 at 8:20 PM
Whew. Thanks. I thought I was going to explode.
TexAz on April 13, 2009 at 8:20 PM
Biggest joke yet.
getalife on April 13, 2009 at 8:21 PM
Just think what would only be happening if Ron Paul were in office. Wouldn’t that be a CHANGE.
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:23 PM
Your right, it would.
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:27 PM
I did a double-take on that statement at first actually, but then decided you were very clever calling it graft instead. HA!!!! : – ))
Colorado Anne on April 13, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Just imagine if Spider Man was real?
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:31 PM
Imagine all the people…
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Hey, ACORN buses aren’t picking me up for the 4/15 tea party I’m attending. No one’s giving me a pre-paid (Soro’s) sign to carry.
Isn’t it funny, if you really listen to what leftists’ say, you can find out how they operate. They can’t fathom a true ground up grassroots movement because every protest they manufacture is precisely that, a manufactured sham.
Here’s the sign I plan on carrying Wednesday. It’s definitely “grass root,” but it should get the point across. I want the Government off my neck and out of my life. They’re trampling my Constitution.
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/21882819
SoldiersMom on April 13, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Just think what would only be happening if Ron Paul were in office. Wouldn’t that be a CHANGE.
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:23 PM
Just imagine if Spider Man was real?
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:31 PM
———
Dunno, heard he and Obama were tight…
Mew
acat on April 13, 2009 at 8:33 PM
huh??
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:34 PM
I was so incensed by the bailouts and then the stimulus that I googled “tea parties” and asked for infomation from a group called Freedomworks and then I sent them money to help with their expenses! No one is paying me and I consider this and donations to SarahPac some of the best money I’ll ever spend.
I could care less what anyone in the Hatefilled Left thinks. I’m taking my camera and I’m getting pictures. Look up the tea parties in CA there are a lot of them! We’re getting it from the State and the Feds and we’re tired as hell and we’re not taking it anymore!
CCRWM on April 13, 2009 at 8:35 PM
The backlash from these tea parties is quite interesting. The rhetoric is more fervent than I would expect. I guess we’re just a giant wrench in the Obama machine that is destined to communist utopia. This is not a truth that was arrived at through honest reason or analysis, it’s more of an ethos that’s driving tenuous and irresponsible faith.
What we represent to the lefties right now are cracks in the windshield; reminders that all is not well. You can almost feel the tension. The source of all this vitriol to these tea parties, I believe, is the slow recognition within people that their faith may be misplaced. That everything they want to believe about their president, this country and their utopia is fragile and might crumble at any second.
hisfrogness on April 13, 2009 at 8:36 PM
Republicans like Ron Paul?
RobertInLexington on April 13, 2009 at 8:36 PM
When 40 pieces of ACORN garbage drove by houses of AIG executives last month they were outnumbered about 5 to 1 by media.
Yet hundreds of thousands turn out for tea parties and it’s a sham.
Sure, it all makes sense.
JammieWearingFool on April 13, 2009 at 8:37 PM
It’s going to be pretty God damned pathetic if more illegals were able to turn out 2 or 3 years ago during all the amnesty ruckus than American Citizens protesting the massive expansion of the Feds.
The largest protest ever in Dallas history – numbers wise – was by friggin illegal aliens.
BowHuntingTexas on April 13, 2009 at 8:40 PM
Lol, it aint grass, its astroturf.
The only “teabaggers”(hehe) are republicans.
It isn’t bipartisan, most of the country approves of Obama.
Its the same-old same-old 24%…..the Juggalos.
;)
strangelet on April 13, 2009 at 8:41 PM
According to former Senator Larry Craig, the preferred term is “gentlemen’s get-togethers.”
benny shakar on April 13, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Us RonPaulites will be out and about on wendsday sharing in all the fun with everyone else. Hope to see you in St. Paul.
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:44 PM
Yo puke, have you attended a rally or are you just crapping yourself?
dmann on April 13, 2009 at 8:44 PM
And I hope to see some good pictures from around the country.
Nelsen on April 13, 2009 at 8:44 PM
So you’re against community organizing? Interesting.
sherry on April 13, 2009 at 8:45 PM
If you have any type of blog at all, try to take pics of the groups of decent people. The left will be out there looking for the one crazy person out of a thousand (who is probably a lib plant anyway). That is the pic they will post all over.
I’m planning on playing with my new smartphone and live blogging to my politics blog and my local blog. … trying to get the crowd and the good side of things.
bullseye on April 13, 2009 at 8:45 PM
strangelet
So be it. I don’t mind being 30%. 30% were opposed to independence and another 30% were undecided. It was the 30% that wanted independence that motivated and pushed for it and eventually got a majority to go along.
There is never, nor will there ever be a consensus in this country. We’re up for the challenge.
hisfrogness on April 13, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »