Tea Party Movement Is All About The Profit Motive -- And Then POTUS Barack Obama. I REFUSE To Be FOOLED. *SIGH*.

Tea Party convention raises questions about movement's future
By CHAS SISK

A spat between organizers of the national Tea Party convention, which starts Thursday in Nashville and will feature Sarah Palin as its keynote speaker, has largely centered on fees, speakers and profits.

Those were among the concerns cited by two key conservative lawmakers, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Minnesota Rep. Michele Backmann, as they pulled out of the event last week. They echoed similar complaints other grass-roots Tea Party supporters have been making for weeks.

But at the core of the division lies a more fundamental question of where the Tea Party should go from here and what it's really all about.

Supporters of the convention to be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center say the national conference will build alliances across state lines, strengthening into a force that can press the Democratic and Republican parties to change their ways or face a threat to their existence.

The convention's opponents, however, believe the event threatens to ruin the movement. They say their disjointed, grass-roots uprising is being turned into a top-down organization that will be co-opted by the major parties.

Which side wins could determine how the Tea Party phenomenon plays out, and the national convention in Nashville could be a turning point in the movement.

“One side is trying to build an organization,” said Marcus Pohlmann, a professor of political science at Rhodes College in Memphis. “The other wants a protest movement. There are reasons for both.”
Dispute draws attention

The participants in this dispute have mainly been Tennesseans, but the disagreement has received attention far beyond the state. National media outlets from The New York Times to Fox News have carried stories on the event, and organizers say they have received requests for credentials from as far away as Eastern Europe.

Even Le Figaro, one of France's largest newspapers, may cover the event, a correspondent said Friday.

Before Blackburn and Bachmann pulled out, several of the conference's sponsors had dropped their support. But the main draw, former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Palin, said late last week that she remains committed to the event, as have other speakers interviewed by The Tennessean.

The dispute has focused attention on the convention's organizers, Tea Party Nation founders Judson and Sherry Phillips. The couple rose to prominence within the movement by helping to organize at least two of last spring's Tea Party protests, including the April 15 event that drew 3,000 people to the state Capitol in Nashville.

Since then, the Phillipses have alienated some Tennessee Tea Party activists. These people say the Phillipses are profiteering from the movement, charging $549 for the three-day conference, and running the for-profit Tea Party Nation with a hierarchical style that runs counter to the movement.

They also say the Phillipses, who were involved in Williamson County Republican Party politics before joining the Tea Party movement, are too closely tied to the GOP. The decision to feature Republicans Palin, Bachmann and Blackburn as speakers has deepened those suspicions.

“It's just a Republican Party fundraiser,” said Jim Tomasik, a Memphis Tea Party activist who is sitting out the convention. “The thing that's going to be going on (this week) will be somebody putting themselves in a position of power over everybody, and you'll see how that turns out.”

Organizers, however, say the convention is simply an opportunity to bring together Tea Party activists from across the country to socialize and swap notes. Tea Party Nation says it has sold 600 tickets to the three-day conference, with people coming from all 50 states.

“Sherry and Judson Phillips have decided to host this, and it's going to be a great way for everybody to come together,” said Mark Skoda, another Memphis Tea Party activist, who will lead a seminar at the convention and has been named the conference's spokesman.

“It hasn't applied for a subsidy or taken a bailout, and it's going to pay taxes. It's going to be a boost to the economy.”

Judson Phillips, who has spoken to The Tennessean about the convention previously, did not respond to interview requests for this story, other than to confirm Skoda's appointment as spokesman.

A new party?

The convention comes as the Tea Party movement steps onto a political field that is wide with opportunities, Pohlmann said.

Last spring's protests of government spending and the summer's town hall debates over health-care reform have energized conservative and libertarian activists. Meanwhile, polling numbers show that as much as half of the electorate is dissatisfied with both major parties.

“It seems like the circumstances are ripe for one of the parties to be displaced by a new party,” Pohlmann said. “My guess is the people that are trying to develop the Tea Party movement into an organization wouldn't mind if that were to happen over the long term.”

Supporters of the convention say their goal is not to declare a third party or unite Tea Party groups under a single umbrella. With sessions on topics such as voter registration and information technology, the convention is meant to teach attendees new skills that they can take back to their own Tea Party groups.

“I think some of these folks are just disappointed that they didn't think of it first,” said B. Leland Baker, a Colorado management consultant and author of a book on the Tea Party movement who will speak at the conference.

Critics, though, say the event has been designed to appeal to the small segment of the Tea Party movement who can afford the cost of registration, travel to Nashville and accommodations at the Opryland hotel.

Some of the convention's detractors have responded with their own events to draw Tea Party groups together. As an example, they point to a much lower-profile conference that brought representatives from 34 Tennessee Tea Party groups together at an inexpensive Nashville hotel last week.

People at that meeting formed an informal coalition that they say will do many of the same things as the national Tea Party convention - though on a smaller scale. They hope the idea will be duplicated by groups in other states, working independently of Tea Party efforts in Tennessee.

“What we're wanting to do is really return power back to the people,” said Tomasik, who was named to the coalition's steering committee.“What we've been elected to do is to figure out the best way to build this thing, without taking over anybody's group.”