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The Nevada Senate race took an interesting turn when Scott Ashjian announced his intention to run as an independent “Tea Party” candidate. The presence of a third party taking votes from the substantial anti-Harry Reid faction could save Reid’s re-election by enabling him to win with less than a majority.
In recent days, however, Ashjian has been stung by felony theft charges over writing bad checks to local businesses. The fact that the head of the Clark County bad check unit seeking the arrest of Ashjian is also a former head of the Clark County GOP has led to dueling charges of political motivations on all sides.
The Tea Party Express, which just held a big rally in Reid’s hometown of Searchlight over the weekend, released a Web ad accusing Ashjian of being a “fraud” trying to split the vote and deliver the Senate seat back to Reid. They’ve threatened to run the ad on television if Ashjian doesn’t drop out of the race.
Now, it’s extremely rich to see the Tea Party Express accuse someone else of being a fraud. The term could not be applied more perfectly to anyone but them. In reality, the Tea Party Express is composed of California-based Republican political consultants, cashing in on the name “Tea Party” for personal gain. In fact, over two-thirds of their PAC money, over $850,000, went directly to their political consulting firm.
The spectacle of a Republican operative-run PAC calling a Tea Party candidate an inauthentic fraud is something special.
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The tea party ain’t independent. It’s a hit squad. The tea party is nothing but an arm of the republican party, they are almost a black ops squad which has “no affiliation” with the party. The tea party allows republicans to hit by proxy, awaking its fringe in order to carry out orders, at least that is what this article says, it give good points check it out
http://bit.ly/teapartyexpresso
Pot meet kettle.
Grammar, grammar. “Look Who’s Calling WHOM a Fraud!” We Progressives do have our standards.
They’re playing a game of Ring Around the Rosie.
Ashjian should run as a Republican. His qualifications are similar to many other Republicans such as Marco Rubio.
good article. thanks for sharing it. it was written by a republican who’s worked in republican politics.
It is kind of like Palin going to Arizona to support McCain over JD Hayworth who is much closer to the teabaggers than McCain. Logic flies out the door.
Tea Party Patriots have an excellent communications network.
We stay informed with regular news updates, and we stay disciplined.
Just ask any politician.
The Tea Party Patriots are the “real” Tea Party. Tea Party Express and other manifestations are indeed co-opted Republican Astroturf groups.
Interestingly, Tea Party Patriots must be dissapointed in their hero Sarah Palin’s support of Republican insider Maverick John McCain.
(How about that McCain? Never any question. A completely unprincipled old senator-whore.)
It gave a lot of Blue Dogs and “centrist” D senators cover theatre as well.
Indeed, you’re quite successful at being around 27% of the polling, but 75% of the news.
This won’t be the case forever, as demographics prove.
Two points about this post:
First, as bad as a two party system is, with our electoral system combined with multiple parties it is entirely possible to elect a President with a single digit majority. No mandate there.
Second, if I wanted to commit a huge crime it would be best to file for office and be in the middle of a campaign. The press would treat it as free advertisement for my opponent and wouldn’t touch it as long as I screamed “witch hunt” every time it was mentioned.
The perfect crime. Just look at bush cheney
Aunt Toby is upstairs!
Late Night: Aunt Toby as Miss Marple
There always seems to be crimes committed by anyone running against a republican months before the elections..
Instead of charges which have been filed , how about some type of proof
Well, well, well if it isn’t Mark Williams as the face of the Tea Party Express. I wrote some press people in advance of the tea party events. I wrote about in in a diary here. Not that they care to question the TPE but here were a few things I asked:
How much is Sarah Palin getting paid? Where is the money coming from and what is she doing with this money?
Why do they hire race baiters like Mark Williams and feature racists like David McKalip
Mark Williams is the talk radio host who has written in the past that President Obama is “an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief.” he also derided Barack Obama as “our half white, racist president”
David McKalip is the Florida doctor and health-care reform foe who got in hot water this summer after forwarding a racist picture showing President Obama as a witch doctor –
He was a featured guest at the last Tea Party Express stop in Orlando
Did you know that they hire black people to balance the sea of white faces?.
The conservative singer Lloyd Marcus is being paid to attend. For participating in the last Tea Party Express he was paid $10,863.64 in fees and expenses.
The other featured black conservative, William Owens, was paid $750 to speak and, via his company itouchPublishers was paid $16,200 in “PAC printing costs and generic fund raising) again, from FEC filings. The group, the Multi-cultural Conserative Coalition is composed of Williams and one other person. The phone number for this coalition is in the same group as his itouchPublishers.
You might want to ask any people of color in the official TPE bus if they were paid to attend and how much.
Violent signs and violent comments are condoned
Some tea party leaders are attempting to distance themselves from violence, but the will the group that promotes the meeting as a “Showdown in Searchlight?”
Joe the Plumber at yesterday’s Phoenix event.
It’s not the fraud; it’s the wrong kind of fraud.
Woohoo!
Republicans are so damn stupid.
A nice catch here David!! *G*
Thanks for sharing it!
Hey, folks, I am just going to savor this. No analysis, etc. but like a good cup of tea, that might not last long, it sure is good in the moment. I invite you all to join with me.
But Marco Rubio is okey dokey with the RNC. This guy is running against the RNC candidate. You can be teaparty if you’re really a party liner, but no spoiling the race for the party liner. They really want Reid’s scalp, don’t they?