Poll: Tea Party support on the decline?
posted at 6:01 pm on April 15, 2012 by Tina Korbe
Support for and opposition to the Tea Party are roughly equivalent, but, by a 23-point margin, the more Americans hear of the Tea Party, the less they like it, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.
About 41 percent of Americans say they support the Tea Party, whereas about 45 percent say they oppose it. More troublingly, the poll found that strong opponents of the Tea Party outnumber strong supporters by two to one. Sixty percent say they aren’t interested to learn more about the Tea Party, compared with 39 percent who say they’d like to know more about the limited-government group. A full 50 percent of Americans say they like the Tea Party less the more they learn, while just 27 percent like it more. My age group accounts for a lot of the Tea Party’s popularity decline: Whereas 51 percent of us liked the Tea Partiers last September, just 21 percent of us say we’re fans today.
An ABC analysis suggests that the Tea Party suffers from the same problem that plagued Rick Santorum: It appeals to too narrow an ideological base. The same analysis also hints that the Tea Party, as primarily an economic protest movement, hasn’t been able to weather whatever improvements in the economy we’ve seen recently.
But I posit a different theory. The Tea Party really hasn’t been in the news much lately — and, usually, when the movement is mentioned, it’s by opponents who cite Tea Partiers in Congress as obstructionists. It surprises me that, according to the same pollsters, support for the Tea Party was at an all-time high last September, shortly after the president blamed the Tea Party for the lack of a grand bargain on the debt ceiling. That still supports my theory, though: At that time, Tea Partiers were very much in the news, either as the objects of Democrats’ criticisms or as themselves, pushing back ardently against the narrative that they were somehow to blame for Congress’ inaction on the debt and deficit. Since then, Congress hasn’t had a major showdown of any kind. Perhaps the kerfuffle over the payroll tax cut extension and Keystone XL earlier this year qualifies — but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic nor nearly as widely covered as the debt ceiling debate. The Tea Party as the Tea Party hasn’t been particularly visible lately, even though the actions and words of certain individuals associated with the Tea Party still redound to the Tea Party’s credit or discredit. A poll that queries participants on their views of the appropriate size and scope of government would give a better indication of Americans’ appetite for what the Tea Party had to sell — and still does.
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NYT: Official Says Treasury Dept. Knew of I.R.S. Inquiry in 2012
Resist We Much on May 17, 2013 at 3:20 PM
More relevant than ever…
ITguy on May 17, 2013 at 3:22 PM
The pdf is really something to behold. Nothing like seeing the lie right there in black and white, on IRS letterhead, signed.
forest on May 17, 2013 at 3:22 PM
Man, if that’s true people ought definitely be going to jail. That sounds like proof of intent to me. Targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny with the outright intention of suppressing speech is going to mean jail without a doubt.
MTF on May 17, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Bishop on May 17, 2013 at 3:23 PM
“They are who we thought they were!”
kirkill on May 17, 2013 at 3:24 PM
OT but crucial.
Is THIS the smoking gun on Benghazi? Among many theories circulated about why Stevens was not rescued is an extreme one which claimed there was a swap in the works, the Blind Sheikh for a captured US ambassador, but the plan went awry and Stevens ended up dead.
Check out this from Atkinson:
“With U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens reported missing shortly after the Benghazi attacks began, Washington officials were operating under a possible hostage scenario at the outset,” Attkisson’s report reads. “Yet deployment of the counterterrorism experts on the FEST was ruled out from the start.”
wyntre9 on May 17, 2013 at 3:24 PM
So let’s start with these 4 idiots :
http://www.therightscoop.com/fox-19s-ben-swann-names-4-irs-agents-that-participated-in-scandal-suggests-they-could-face-criminal-charges/
burrata on May 17, 2013 at 3:26 PM
This is gonna haunt the Obama regime for a very long time. Unless they can somehow find a handful of people to fall on their swords and rot in a prison cell which is doubtful.
Doughboy on May 17, 2013 at 3:26 PM
Naw. There’s no need for a Special Prosecutor. Naw. None at all./
kingsjester on May 17, 2013 at 3:27 PM
AP, there’s actual audio of this shmuck, during today’s hearing, saying that he’s not in a position to determine if the IRS over stepped it’s bounds when asking a pro-life group what the content of their member’s prayers were!!! Folks, we’ve moved backward 300 years for religious freedom in this country.
Weight of Glory on May 17, 2013 at 3:28 PM
You bet. More than any other scandal I can remember. This is about robbing opponents of the current Regime of their civil rights. There is no way in hell anything other than a completely independent investigation/prosecution will do. They are treading near a situation where very large swaths of the population may begin to un-recognize the legitimacy of the government. It’s dangerous.
forest on May 17, 2013 at 3:28 PM
Here’s the video. The IRS want’s to know what you’re praying for, Christian.
Weight of Glory on May 17, 2013 at 3:29 PM
Keep the boot on the thugs. It’s the only thing they know.
Best comment on topic, Piers Morgan thread:
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:29 PM
Our current government: We reject your reality and substitute our own!
ghostwalker1 on May 17, 2013 at 3:30 PM
So, they’ve politicized the entire FOIA process….across multiple agencies.
It’s all corruption, all the way down.
aquaviva on May 17, 2013 at 3:30 PM
Remember if you leave something off your 1040 be sure to use the Steve Miller “I forgot” excuse.
I’m sure our
IRSKGB will fully understand.viking01 on May 17, 2013 at 3:30 PM
Equal protection under the law?
Pffft!
All of these assh0les are constantly bleating about ‘fairness’ and a ‘level playing field.’ The sad truth is that they are all just fascist pigs like HAL:
Resist We Much on May 17, 2013 at 3:30 PM
Toady thugs from the left, you should fight with us against tyranny, from any gov’t.
How come you are never for democracy, freedom, liberty, liberalism and progress, never?
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:31 PM
We are on our way to the 7th century .
Islamic Retribution service has never ever scrutinized any muzie /jihad group, not even Hussein’s Kenyan brother’s charity !!
burrata on May 17, 2013 at 3:31 PM
You are right, we need 4, or 5, or Eleventy-TrillioN!
kirkill on May 17, 2013 at 3:31 PM
toad is way too nice of a word for that wart on the toad’s a$$.
kirkill on May 17, 2013 at 3:34 PM
I just love how these cretins simply queue up their own internal IG staff to ‘look into it’, as though that would/should be reliable. I suppose we’ll not be surprised when those IG’s come back with a ‘nothing to see here, all is well!’?
And the GOP is dragging their feet in getting independent investigators on the job? WHY?
Dear God, I hate this f*cking government, from left to right, top to bottom. Bunch of illegitimate, law-breaking, tyrannical, rent-seeking bully motherf*ckers. To hell with every last one of them.
Midas on May 17, 2013 at 3:36 PM
HAL is a toad.
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:38 PM
Everyone targeted should file a suit.
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:39 PM
They don’t let so much as a primary school police itself. The feds insist that there has to be oversight for every single solitary thing every one does up to and including what mom packs in junior’s lunch box. But THEY on the other hand can look into their “customer service” issues just fine thank you very much.
Seems legit to me.
Lily on May 17, 2013 at 3:39 PM
That’s why he deliberately neglects to mention the targeting of the Jews as well. He knows that little bit will blow his cover.
John the Libertarian on May 17, 2013 at 3:40 PM
This is where you start hammering the ever-lovin’ crap out of any ‘rat up for reelection next year, remind every single voter that the IRS will be overseeing BarkyCare.
Bishop on May 17, 2013 at 3:40 PM
Miller belongs in Federal prison, along with everyone else involved.
GarandFan on May 17, 2013 at 3:40 PM
a lobotomized one.
jimver on May 17, 2013 at 3:40 PM
I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
This is not the America I grew up in.
tru2tx on May 17, 2013 at 3:41 PM
Liars and idiots.
squint on May 17, 2013 at 3:42 PM
Schizophrenia on full display during Mr. Miller’s testimony.
He applied his masterful Magical Thinking skills during questioning.
Sometimes he knew things…sometimes he didn’t…sometimes he had notes…then he didn’t…some things were inappropriate and not illegal and sometimes he didn’t know if that was the case…Sometimes he knew who did what and then he didn’t.
He is in deep sh*t…and he knows it.
workingclass artist on May 17, 2013 at 3:43 PM
Idiots who lie.
John the Libertarian on May 17, 2013 at 3:44 PM
They need to go after Sarah Ingram.
John the Libertarian on May 17, 2013 at 3:45 PM
It seems that the first course of officials under Obama is to lie… even when telling the truth would serve them better…
The lie is now a knee-jerk reaction.
ajacksonian on May 17, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Damn right. 1st Amendment rights intentionally and selectively infringed based on political persuasion by the IRS of behalf of the current Regime. It’s a civil/political rights issue on top of the immediate criminal cases that need to be prosecuted. It’s dangerous territory they’ve gone into. Punishment needs to be severe.
forest on May 17, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Oh, that’s coming. It’s an excruciating slow process– drip, drip, drip– not necessarily a bad thing when you consider that to this Administration and the IRS the steady disclosure of ever more damning revelations must feel like Chinese water torture (is that pc to say?)– but when Ways and Means and a few other House committees are done, there’ll be more than enough evidence for the targeted groups to bring civil rights violation suits against the IRS and… well, who else is what we’re finding out now.
de rigueur on May 17, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Clowns at the WH.
Work harder, fools. What scandals and what sequestration. Marie Antoinette is entertained. Eat cake!!!!
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:47 PM
Obama did for Nixon, the TEA party and against Obama’care’ what no enemy ever could, gratis.
The thugs deserve to be repaid in kind. 2014 is not that far away.
Maybe there is a god.
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:49 PM
Like the generals who’re close to retirement, and who’d sell their mother for the next star, he sold out, for his retirement bennies.
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:50 PM
Hah, burrata
Keeping him warm, until Michelle allowed Reggie Love back intot he WH. Baracky brougth him back from FL’s golf outing, on Air Force One.
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Yep!
workingclass artist on May 17, 2013 at 3:51 PM
A moment of levity.
UK Daily Mai reader dubs the POS Barry Poppins after the marine-holds-umbrella fiasco.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325893/President-Obama-makes-U-S-Marine-break-rules-does-look-happy-it.html
wyntre9 on May 17, 2013 at 3:51 PM
and when Hussein kisses him,he will turn into Kal Penn ;-)
burrata on May 17, 2013 at 3:52 PM
from that same article: ‘Starting in February 2009, these events have honored the musical genius of Stevie Wonder…’
haha, Stevie Wonder is a musical genius??? :-) looks like Marie Antoinette dose not have such an elevated taste after all…fine by me, poor Stevie Wonder probably comes cheaper than say, Jay-Z and his curvacious B dame :-)…
jimver on May 17, 2013 at 3:55 PM
We need a valley of Hinnom for these reprobates.
tom daschle concerned on May 17, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Here’s to going back to the day when a visit by a revenuer was met with buckshot!!
Deano1952 on May 17, 2013 at 3:55 PM
The IRS is so anal-bureaucratic, that they think that an activity is not illegal unless there’s some specific IRS-derived regulation against it. They’v evidently never heard of the 1st and 14th Amendments.
notropis on May 17, 2013 at 3:57 PM
No one at the IRS would risk their gub’mint job and pension to do something like this on their own – nevermind risking possible prosecution. These clowns trusted whoever gave them the okay, and now will burn for it. How can anyone be that stupid? Stupid enough to think you won’t be thrown under the bus…stupid enough to think people won’t eventually roll over and spill the beans on the bus driver before he runs them over. Smart power at home and abroad.
reaganaut on May 17, 2013 at 3:58 PM
IRS agent calling into Hannity Radio…says CNN is always on in the break room.
Talking about the violation of the Hatch Act.
Have you seen people targeted – Hannity
Not in my dept. But management knew what was going on – Caller
When people are repeatedly being audited they are being targeted and it’s illegal – Caller
Don’t tell me the IRS is non-partisan…It is anything but. – Caller
workingclass artist on May 17, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Nonideologues in the country need to decide whether they want to live in a banana republic or not.
My head is spinning from the scandals.
I’d laugh if I weren’t convinced that more truth on the IRS and on Benghazi last fall would have affected the election. Anti-Obama voting would have been up, and, I suspect, Obama turnout would have decreased even more than it did.
BuckeyeSam on May 17, 2013 at 3:58 PM
The IRS has been a sadistic thugocracy for a long, long time.
That doesn’t mean the sadists perverting the agency’s resources from its mission to coordinated intimidation of those they believed threatened it politically isn’t base political corruption and criminal.
Obama’s enemies were their enemies.
novaculus on May 17, 2013 at 3:59 PM
Re Burrata’s post upthread;
Here are the names of the 4 Cincinnati IRS thugs according to Fox 19, just in case anyone wants to contact them directly.
Mitchell Steele
Carly Young
Josepoh Herr
Stephen Seak
wyntre9 on May 17, 2013 at 4:00 PM
SW Ohio and Northern KY has some pretty active tea party groups, some of whom got some serious jacking around. I hope nothing serious happens to these four people other than what they have coming to them by law.
BuckeyeSam on May 17, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Treasury knew of IRS Inquiry before 2012 according to NYT article
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.
At the first Congressional hearing into the I.R.S. scandal, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel of his investigation on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin “shortly thereafter.”
It remained unclear how much the disclosure would affect the broader debate over the I.R.S.’s problems. Complaints from Tea Party groups that the I.R.S. was singling them out became public in 2012, through media accounts.
Mr. George told Treasury officials about the allegation as part of a routine briefing about ongoing investigations he would be conducting in the coming year, and he did not tell the officials of his conclusions that the targeting had been improper, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/us/politics/irs-scandal-congressional-hearings.html?hp&_r=2&
wyntre9 on May 17, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Kal Penn hangs and gets arrested in Dupont Circle, where HAL resides :O
KAL ? HAL ???
burrata on May 17, 2013 at 4:05 PM
“Some are distracted by every fleeting issue that passes by but my main focus is middle class jobs,” says the POS at a Baltimore jobs event.
So everything is a distraction.
Benghazi 4 – Bumps in the road
IRS scandal – I know nothing
AP phone records – Glad we did it. Besides, AP deserved it after challenging my imperial decree they wait another 5 minutes before running with the Yemen story.
wyntre9 on May 17, 2013 at 4:05 PM
Yep, Pigford for conservatives.
“Did you attempt to, or consider attempting to, set up a conservative or Republican or TEA Party non-profit at any time in the years 2009-2013?”
slickwillie2001 on May 17, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Thought I’d make HAL and its libbaby camarate feel more at home here:
Credere, obbedire, combattere!
One lie is bad, ten lies is a scandal, lying about everything, is apparently policy.
Own it, libbies.
creekspecter on May 17, 2013 at 4:06 PM
FIFY
Deano1952 on May 17, 2013 at 4:10 PM
They deserve much, much more than that. But I am not allowed to be more specific in this HA context.
Midas on May 17, 2013 at 4:10 PM
Politbureau in America
Schadenfreude on May 17, 2013 at 4:12 PM
The whole CNN on in the break room thing got me thinking.
Could a group file a FOIA request to get the internet browsing histories of all IRS employees or even just the Cincinatti office? It would be interesting to compare the number of visits to HuffPo, Think Progress, etc. vs the number of visits to Hot Air, Drudge, Breitbart, etc.
Methinks that this should be within our rights to have access to this information since a release of the number of outgoing hits to websites from government computers doesn’t release any private data, etc.
How did we find out about the SEC looking at adult content all day? We should definitely be attempting to find out the internet browsing histories of the folks at IRS offices given their overwhelming support of one political party with their donations.
weaselyone on May 17, 2013 at 4:15 PM
C’mon. Compared to anyone working in pop music today, the guy was Beethoven.
First hit at age 15.
Greatest trumpet fanfare in an R&B cut evan!
Forget the politics, the guy was good.
… And now back to our regularly scheduled program.
de rigueur on May 17, 2013 at 4:18 PM
This Administration hears no evil and sees no evil. They only perpetrate and embody it.
After all the Constitutional violations and illegal acts, including election malfeasance and wholesale treason by all responsible parties are fully investigated and prosecuted, perhaps we can begin to rebuild. I am speaking of the lengthy list of scandals and illegalities we already know about and those yet to be uncovered. That’s obviously going to take a very long time. /Yeah, I know I’m dreaming.
But when even the left and media (I repeat myself) begin to ask questions and take notice, it is clear they’ve overplayed their hand in a mighty way. They are imploding before our eyes.
Maybe we’ll even eventually see all of O’s personal, secreted docs? I only partially jest. . .
Is it even possible to reestablish the rule of law in this country? I’d like to think so but I’m not so sure any more.
Opinionator on May 17, 2013 at 4:20 PM
Mussolini and his tactics are like a breath of fresh air compared to this preezy/admin :-). am sure HAL agrees, he wants his preezy to be a badazz and go after those dangerous tea partiers :-).
jimver on May 17, 2013 at 4:31 PM
Well the knee is usually aimed at your groin when we are talking about the IRS… can’t lie without both if you are from the IRS.
And do remember that pathological lies are part of being a psychopath… far, far removed from mere jerkdom.
ajacksonian on May 17, 2013 at 4:53 PM
So, asking groups to “volunteer” to not picket PP when they’re pro-life groups and that is otherwise allowed isn’t illegal?
Or asking for donor names (that will be published, natch) that otherwise are private is not illegal?
Jeff Weimer on May 17, 2013 at 5:08 PM
Indeed.
AesopFan on May 18, 2013 at 12:57 AM
.. and Andrew Breitbart is his go-to guy.
AesopFan on May 18, 2013 at 12:59 AM