Tea Party Unhappiness

Ticked Off By GOP National Intervention

Many Missouri Tea Partiers think that one of Sarah Palin's grizzly mamas, the den mother of the House Republican Tea Party Caucus, Michele Bachmann, should keep her nose out of their business.

Ms. Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican-Tea Partier, has endorsed Roy Blunt in the GOP primary for the Missouri U.S. Senate. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, "A coalition of Tea Party and Patriot groups issued a news release saying they were 'shocked' that Bachmann would be coming to St. Louis to campaign and raise money for Congressman Roy Blunt. While the Tea Party groups have said they don't endorse candidates, they made it clear in their news release that they do not endorse Blunt. Many of the Tea Party groups have been offering support to state Sen. Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield, who is running a long-shot campaign against Blunt, the front-runner who has raised more than $8 million in the race."

There are some Tea Partiers who still believe the tea party to be a grass roots, local movement, and that local groups don't need guidance from Washington. And according to a press release, signed by 28 different local Missouri tea party groups, members question  the intervention by Ms. Bachmann, of the GOP House Tea Party Caucus, by supporting  Mr. Blunt. The locals statement says, "Roy Blunt is an abomination of everything we have been standing up for."

Jedidiah Smith, a Tea party leader in Franklin County, Missouri, said "Most Tea Party supporters I know will be baffled by Michele Bachmann helping someone with a record like Roy Blunt before the primary vote."

Well, it is called control. That Republican group in Washington, that goes by many names, including The Tea Party Caucus, wants to control the process.