Tea Party Patrons Point New Recruits Toward 2010
David Weigel
Washington Independent
For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement. On Saturday, speaking at the Defending the American Dream Summit sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, Koch did it for them. Walking onstage at a morning rally, holding a Washington Award that he was about to give to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C), Koch took credit for launching one of the key organizations of the conservative insurrection.
“Days like to today bring to reality the vision of our board of directors, when we founded this organization five years ago,” said Koch. “We envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history.”
The 2,000-odd activists of Americans for Prosperity–around 300 had signed up for the event in the last week, according to organizers–sat patiently through this. Koch lumbered through his short speech, walking right over applause lines. He had been introduced by Tim Phillips, the cheerful president and public face of Americans for Prosperity as a man who “provides jobs for folks across the country” and whose vision “launched our organization, this organization, that you’re seeing today, that so many of you are actively part of.” Financing from Koch, among other donors, allowed the activists to pay $99 ($79 if they registered early enough) for a two-day conference with three meals, at least two tickets for free beverages at noisy receptions, and a chance to hear from conservative stars like DeMint, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, radio host Hugh Hewitt, and CNBC host Larry Kudlow. It provided signs that they’d brought to a rally on Capitol Hill with slogans such as “Socialism Isn’t Cool” and “Cut Spending.”
But it was the prominence of Koch, who praised the activists for fueling a “strong, principled, freedom movement,” which revealed the degree to which conservatives have dismissed the “astroturf” attacks that greeted the Tea Parties. The Friday and Saturday summit was the latest and largest attempt by one of the Washington-based groups shepherding the Tea Parties to proclaim themselves leaders of a political majority, and to turn the attention of newly discovered conservative activists to the 2010 elections.
(Continued here.)
Washington Independent
For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement. On Saturday, speaking at the Defending the American Dream Summit sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, Koch did it for them. Walking onstage at a morning rally, holding a Washington Award that he was about to give to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C), Koch took credit for launching one of the key organizations of the conservative insurrection.
“Days like to today bring to reality the vision of our board of directors, when we founded this organization five years ago,” said Koch. “We envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history.”
The 2,000-odd activists of Americans for Prosperity–around 300 had signed up for the event in the last week, according to organizers–sat patiently through this. Koch lumbered through his short speech, walking right over applause lines. He had been introduced by Tim Phillips, the cheerful president and public face of Americans for Prosperity as a man who “provides jobs for folks across the country” and whose vision “launched our organization, this organization, that you’re seeing today, that so many of you are actively part of.” Financing from Koch, among other donors, allowed the activists to pay $99 ($79 if they registered early enough) for a two-day conference with three meals, at least two tickets for free beverages at noisy receptions, and a chance to hear from conservative stars like DeMint, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, radio host Hugh Hewitt, and CNBC host Larry Kudlow. It provided signs that they’d brought to a rally on Capitol Hill with slogans such as “Socialism Isn’t Cool” and “Cut Spending.”
But it was the prominence of Koch, who praised the activists for fueling a “strong, principled, freedom movement,” which revealed the degree to which conservatives have dismissed the “astroturf” attacks that greeted the Tea Parties. The Friday and Saturday summit was the latest and largest attempt by one of the Washington-based groups shepherding the Tea Parties to proclaim themselves leaders of a political majority, and to turn the attention of newly discovered conservative activists to the 2010 elections.
(Continued here.)
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