(h/t Scarce)

Karma, as they say, is a bitch. After six incumbent terms, some senators start feeling a little ... shall we say entitled to their seat. Funny thing, though. That sense of entitlement doesn't sit well with the tea party, especially when you haven't spent any time cow-towing to their demands. And Orrin Hatch has attracted the ire of the tea party for allegedly showing "over and over that he is for expansive government and against economic freedom." So Dick Armey's little "grassroots" organization launched a massive campaign against Sen. Hatch. And they successfully prevented him from getting the 60 percent required (by just a single percentage point) to keep from having a run off in his primary with tea party candidate Dan Liljenquist.

Hatch is feeling a little miffed at these upstarts insinuating that he's not a real conservative (according to this site—whose methodology is a little obscure—he ranks at 77 percent conservative) and went to the conservatives' favorite outlet to complain about Freedomworks and the annoying requirement that he actually run for his seat:

Sen. Hatch joined Greta Van Susteren last night to discuss the potential, now realized, of a primary challenge against him, and Sen. Hatch had some nasty words for Freedomworks and its leader, Dick Armey.

“Freedomworks, the group of Dick Armey, is gunning for you,” Van Susteren informed Sen. Hatch, who seemed to mind only what he insisted were lies from the group. “They take a few dozen of my votes out of the better of 12,000 votes that I’ve cast, distort those votes and lie about them, direct lie about them.” He argued they were only trying to raise money. “They take someone like myself who everybody knows and they trash Orrin Hatch and they raise a lot of money from conservatives all over the country who think what they’re saying is true.” He concluded with a flourish, “they’re not people I have very much respect for. I don’t have any respect for them, in fact.”

Well, that makes a bunch of us, Senator. I can't name a liberal in this country that has any respect for Freedomworks either. Van Susteren looks dumbfounded that someone like Hatch could be considered not conservative enough for the people of Utah. Hatch makes the distinction that these are not conservatives but radical libertarians gunning for him. Ironically, as Think Progress points out, Dick Armey himself was not all that much more radical than Hatch when he was in office:

Prior to joining FreedomWorks in 2003, chairman Dick Armey served nine terms in Congress. Six of those debt-limit votes took place between the time Armey was elected to the House in 1984 and his retirement at the beginning of 2003. Armey voted for at least five of those six:

$179.9 billion in December 1985 (House roll call #454, 99th Congress)

$448 billion in September 1987 (House roll call #330, 100th Congress)

$600 billion in March 1996 (House roll call #102, 104th Congress)

$450 billion in July 1997 (House roll call #241, 105th Congress)

$450 billion in June 2002 (House roll call #279, 107th Congress)

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He's baaaaack. As I suspected, letting Glenn Beck loose from Fox News didn't keep him from stirring the pot, and this time it's on a global basis. Here's his plan, via Gather.com:

Beck met with Cardinals, Monsignors, Archbishops and other Catholic leaders and officials at the Vatican. Beck's website says, "They discussed the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience, as well as standing against the rise of secularism and the rise of anti-Semitism." Fans will have to wait until later today when Glenn is back to discuss his trip. Anything that can help to bring peace between religions and work towards solidarity against secular attacks will be welcome by many.

Mr. Beck also spoke with Tea Party leaders from Serbia, Georgia, Milan, Rome, Germany, Austria, London, and Israel. Who knew there was a Tea Party overseas? The meeting was put together by FreedomWorks and Mercury One. The website says they discussed the peace movement overseas and "...an integrated global effort to champion Tea Party ideals." On his Monday radio show, Beck will talk about his "...vision for a multi-faith coalition that stands in support of religious liberty." Last night on his Twitter, Beck posted, "I'm back from "special assignment" with amazing news.

Yeah. Amazing news. I found this snippet from his interview about the Grand Plan with Bill O'Reilly to be pretty interesting, at about 50 seconds in:

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In today's climate there's a tendency to view things through the lens of the people versus corporations, where all the corporations are allied and aligned against people. But there's another layer, far more interesting, surrounding Jeffrey Immelt and his cordial relationship with the White House. It reveals a corporation vs. corporation rivalry fought via the current political culture wars.

Via AlterNet:

FreedomWorks and the NCPPR, another free-market think tank, have launched a campaign to “dethrone” Immelt from GE, calling him the “king of crony capitalism”, and are running ads attacking Immelt’s conflicts of interest as a blatant sign of corruption. “It’s time to break up the unethical romance between government and big business,” said FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe in a statement. “For too long, corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans.”

Oh, this is rich, coming from the organization funded by corporate elites who not only lobbied to profit from government but also hoodwinked ordinary people in order to profit from them. And of course, it's simply a smokescreen for a corporate proxy war between Koch-allied corporations and GE-allied corporations.

Before anything else, GE and Koch Industries are direct competitors in the energy arena. I'm sure the bailout of GE Capital contributed to the rage the Kochs felt about bailouts in general (ideology aside), since a weakened GE would have meant a stronger Koch Industries, but alas. It didn't quite work out that way.

In addition to being in direct competition, GE has positioned itself as a "green energy" company, integrating climate change into their business model. This runs exactly counter to Koch, who continues to not only deny climate change, but fight for the right to keep the country enslaved to oil for generations to come.

I'm still not happy about Immelt's prominence and access to the president, but I do admit to a small "har-har" moment over FreedomWorks and the Koch family going to such lengths to "dethrone" Jeffrey Immelt. Plus, it distracts them for now.

In February of this year, Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks posted his thoughts on the tea party movement's past, present and future. Part of his post concerned the 'mainstreaming' of what was formerly presented as a populist movement. The third rail of his 'vision' for FreedomWorks was this:

Third, the movement must institutionalize itself in the culture and politics. The movement must re-invigorate the conservative/libertarian movement by utilizing the resources of free market think tanks, intellectuals, advocacy groups, books, magazines, websites, online networks and funding sources. The movement should take advantage of the existing infrastructure of conservative/libertarian politics and spread these resources throughout the movement so that millions more Americans will be exposed to the ideas of F.A. Hayek, National Review, the Cato Institute, the Hoover Institution, etc..

One might assume from that paragraph that FreedomWorks' intention was to limit itself to the United States. Not so. Yesterday, Allen McDuffee's ThinkTanked blog reported the attendance of US tea partiers in London at the Resource Bank Institute sponsored by the TaxPayers' Alliance, a Grover Norquist clone based in London as reported in the Guardian.

Today's conference will be attended by Americans who have lobbied in the US to overturn Barack Obama's healthcare plan and maintain tax breaks for the rich. Several of the groups have close links to the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, prominent tormentors of the Obama administration.

From Allen:

The Guardian also lists the lobbying groups that are involved, many of which most Americans would not consider lobbying organization, but nonetheless includes: The Cato Institute, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Krieble Foundation, Heritage Foundation. Some won't be surprising and others will garner some level of protest.

Of the groups Allen listed, only one protested: Cato Institute. Their response to Allen, in part:

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Aw, poor Dick Armey. It's a terrible, terrible thing to be under siege. At least it is to Paul Bedard at US News & World Report, who is evidently so far out of touch with Tea Party structure that he describes Dick Armey as a "supporter", rather than one of the principal architects of their so-called movement.

As chairman of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey is the lobbyist-leader and organizer of the Tea Party, not just some ardent supporter of their work. Evidently his hard work isn't going unnoticed, by friend and foe:

"FreedomWorks and Dick Armey receive dozens of threatening and harassing calls and E-mails each day. Many imply violence and use of weapons," spokesman Adam Brandon tells Whispers. "As we get closer to the election we expect the harassment to increase."

He says that FreedomWorks will hire additional security, meaning less money for its election-eve, get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, campaign. "Unfortunately, we may have to use resources for security guards that we would rather use for GOTV," he said.

Awwww. Perhaps they should give Charles Koch a ring and see if he'd be willing to kick in an extra million or so. Or, they could just run down the hall to their media buddies:

The group plans to move to 400 North Capitol Street NW, a secure building two blocks from the U.S. Capitol. That building also houses Fox News Channel's Washington Bureau and several other media outlets.

Call me cynical, but I doubt these guys are all that worried about death threats. It's really just a way to let the world know they're moving in with their BFFs over at Fox News, because you know, there was so much doubt about which way Fox News leans politically. Right?

FreedomWorks provided some of the recordings of the threatening calls to Whispers and they include physical threats and profanity aimed at the group, Tea Party spokesmen and even conservative talkers. "You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [Limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead."

Even conservative talkers? Again, maybe it's just me, but when Media Matters has an entire blog devoted to debunking Rush Limbaugh's persistent lies on a daily basis and 119 pages of search results on Sean Hannity's hackery, I'd say the phony shock over them receiving death threats is, well...phony.

It's really good to see a publication that circulates in print and online put the Koch family in the spotlight in this weeks' cover story.

I've spent the past year researching the different tentacles of the Republican party and how the money flows, much of which I've reported here. But it never seems to slide into the mainstream. Until today, when Jane Mayer put it all together for New Yorker readers.

The only thing she missed was this: FreedomWorks is also a Koch enterprise. She started to go there, then backed off, but it's important to realize that both primary sources for teabagger funding come straight from the Koch family.

“Ideas don’t happen on their own,” Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, a Tea Party advocacy group, told me. “Throughout history, ideas need patrons.” The Koch brothers, after helping to create Cato and Mercatus, concluded that think tanks alone were not enough to effect change. They needed a mechanism to deliver those ideas to the street, and to attract the public’s support. In 1984, David Koch and Richard Fink created yet another organization, and Kibbe joined them. The group, Citizens for a Sound Economy, seemed like a grassroots movement, but according to the Center for Public Integrity it was sponsored principally by the Kochs, who provided $7.9 million between 1986 and 1993.

Citizens for a Sound Economy was FreedomWorks' predecessor. All assets were merged together, and FreedomWorks emerged as the new entity. Whether or not Koch continues to fund FreedomWorks, it unquestionably was spawned with their money and intentions.

After you read it, share it with everyone you know, because really, billionaires shouldn't be confused with angry populists and racists like they are now.

Meet the Press was its usual strange collection of overly-flogged stories and opportunities for marginal political viewpoints to be propounded as if they're mainstream. But there was one small snippet from Dick Armey where he slid in his pet peeve: Medicare.

Since this is the second time in a week that he's returned to this theme, a reality check is in order.

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX): I believe the folks that want to build the mosque there are making an unwise decision. But I think, when, when I look at the 18 percent of the American people that are enthusiastic about this grassroots movement, we see this as while it's an important issue. It's an issue that ought not to be distracting the president from the critical issues of unemployment, fiscal responsibility, a nation headed for bankruptcy. And the larger issues that affect the future of our children make this issue pale. On the question of should the president be sticking up for the Constitution, our folks say, "Well, great, I love him sticking up for the--we should have done that on medical--Medicare," where, in fact, he trashed the Constitution in the view of most of our folks. And in terms of him being here and then there, it reflects again our fear that this president is whimsical and doesn't really quite know where he is on any subject, even the larger subjects that are driving our folks in, in the street trying to make change in America.

Flash back with me to the August 16, 2009 edition of Meet the Press, where Dick Armey appears on Meet the Press with Rachel Maddow, Tom Daschle, Sen. Tom Coburn and...Dick Armey!

Death panels, anyone? While teabaggers are in an absolute froth over "death panels" and seniors are trembling over the potential loss of "their" Medicare, a position that Dick Armey used frequently to stir up town hall uprisings and the like, Rachel Maddow quietly calls him out on his personal radical views then.

MS. MADDOW: This is a really important point. The anti-healthcare reform lobby thinks that Medicare is tyranny, OK?

REP. ARMEY: I did—I said...

MS. MADDOW: This is an—I mean, you said in 1995 that “Medicare is a program I would have no part of in a free world.”

REP. ARMEY: Right. Absolutely right.

MS. MADDOW: You said in 2002, “We’re going to have to bite the bullet on Social Security and phase it out over a period of time.”

REP. ARMEY: And I’m going to enumerate exactly what I’m talking about. Medicare...

MS. MADDOW: Americans need to know this is your position and this is the position of the anti-healthcare reform lobby.

Dick Armey and Paul Ryan march to the same tune. That's not altogether surprising, and Armey has remained consistent in his objection to "mandatory Medicare." But that's where his honesty begins and ends, because while he believes it should be abolished, he's also aware that Medicare and Social Security are: a) wildly popular programs; and b) not going to be made "voluntary". Knowing that, he used their popularity and the security they give seniors to whip up anger against health care reform, and in particular, the public option, which is where the whole "government-run healthcare" is terrible (for all but seniors) except where it isn't (for seniors only).

Meanwhile, Dick Armey remains healthy and fit, thanks to his Medicare which he cannot opt out of without also opting out of Social Security benefits, which he evidently has no problem receiving.

The only whimsy I see is Dick Armey's.

Alternative Title: Glenn Beck descends further into paranoid delusion.

BECK: Gasoline Brazil. Now why am I telling you about this? Have you heard of another word? Soros. George Soros. I do have a bulletproof car, George. I just want you to know.

George Soros -- I'm going to show you this tonight. I'm going to spend an hour on this. I want you to DVD, write down, take notes, look into this. We're going to be talking a little bit about this in the next few days. This is -- I like to call it the circle of life, as it is now understood in America.

As a relative newcomer to the crazy that is the far right wing, I do not now, nor am I likely to ever understand the obsession they have with George Soros.

The right wing non-profit money machine outspends progressive non-profits by amounts in the billions. What Soros spends in a year on American politics is a big zero. Yet FreedomWorks grinds more tea in our face every day with full-throated (and walleted) support from the right.

There was a time in this country where people as paranoid and self-focused as Glenn Beck were placed in a room with padding and round corners until the meds took hold.

Now they go on national television. Rupert Murdoch's epitaph should read "He mainstreamed crazy."

h/t: Media Matters

Poor, poor Glenn Beck. Faced with plummeting ratings, advertisers abandoning ship like rats in a storm, and a boss on a tear about the help doing political things, what else is there to do but look for an arranged marriage?

Lucky for Beck, Dick Armey is always on the lookout for a good dirt hill upon which to plant his AstroTurf. Need meets need, and ... a partnership is born. FreedomWorks, meet Glenn Beck. He only slept with Americans for Prosperity a few times ... he's still pure enough for you.

Listen carefully to the very beginning:

BECK: This half-hour is sponsored by FreedomWorks

Then the long explanation of how the elopement happened. From the beginning, I'm guessing the NRA didn't want to sponsor him? Toward the end of his little speech, there's this:

And we must, must, must link arms with people. Everybody plays a different role. My message to you is to shore yourself up personally, with history, with faith, and with your own personal finances. That is my course that I am charting. I’ve got to move away from the political stuff. That is what kept me up last night. But political stuff has got to be done. You have to pay attention. There are things that are happening in Washington that you have to know about. We need the Tea Party protests to continue. We need to organize and reach out to each other. So I want you to go to Freedomworks.org, because freedom works.

See, Rupert already smacked Hannity down, and Beck has a benefit planned for August. Enter FreedomWorks, ready to accept all the Glenn Beck faithful into their fold.

As if they're not there already.

(h/t Think Progress)

In his heyday, Jack Abramoff handled high-powered clients for high-powered prices. By day, he was the serious, pious, well-intentioned lobbyist. But behind closed doors, he was a wheeler-dealer with no particular allegiance to ideology or people. Money was his game, and he played it well. Lobbyists, after all, don't need to believe in their cause, only in their ability to win.

But if you really look at the records of what Abramoff did, a pattern emerges that's no different than what's going on today with the Tea Parties. Abramoff, with the assistance of Michael Scanlon, hit a formula for success that lives on today.

Without climbing too far down into the details (suggest you see the CASINO JACK movie for that -- it's easier to visualize), Abramoff and Scanlon created a turnkey PR grassroots/grasstops formula they could apply to any situation where they sought to influence the outcome. It could be an election such as the one where they targeted Robert Torricelli, committee hearings like the ones they sought to stop around Channel One being broadcast in schools, or legislative matters concerning casinos on Native American land. It didn't matter what the campaign was. The formula was the same.

That formula has now become the Tea Party formula. It consists of a few basic ingredients. I've taken these bullets directly out of a memo to Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist written to outline the strategy for defeating Robert Torricelli in New Jersey:

• Polling and Research
• The Independent Expenditure - TV, radio, direct mail and telephone banks
• Grassroots Issues - Here I'll quote from the actual memo:
  

  • An excellent way to energize the taxpayer movement in New Jersey would be to conduct statewide rallies on Tax Day (April 14), New Jersey Tax Freedom Day (mid-May), New Jersey Cost of Government Day (mid-July), Taxpayer Action Day (TBD), and Get the Government Off Our Backs Day (October 10, the anniversary of repealing Prohibition.) A drive to enlist all state legislators as signers of the state-level New Jersey Taxpayer Protection Pledge is worth considering.
  • School choice and home schooling: The school choice movement led by Mayer Bret Schundler of Jersey City expected school choice legislation from the Republican-controlled state assembly but have disappointed in receiving it. Home schoolers are an extremely well-organized group everywhere.
  • Property rights are an especially significant issue in the coastal areas of New Jersey. Organized property rights activists would most likely oppose Torricelli...
  • Crime and quality of life
  • Social Welfare spending
  • Gasoline tax
  • Cuba: Advertising may possibly tie Torricelli to President Clinton, who could be portrayed as soft on Castro
  • Collapse of the welfare state. This would be a major issue in New Jersey's depressed urban areas...
  • ...New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani might help frame the election as a referendum on "pro-tax" candidates [vs] "anti-tax" candidates...

• Other considerations - These included running support for issues Torricelli opposed; in this case, Indian gaming.

This is no different from what FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, American Majority and the other corporate-driven PR front groups are doing. It's the same campaign. I can list the polling firms, independent expenditures, alliances of traditional culture conservatives such as the evangelical Christians, Catholics, home school movement, the Patriot movement, the libertarians and the senior citizens, but if you've been watching, you already know who they are.

Those faces at the front of the Tea Party are paid to be there. It's no different than a reality show in that regard. Deborah Johns, Amy Kremer, Loyd Marcus? All make around $5,000/month for their participation in the Tea Party Express tours. Tea Party Nation has Mark Skoda and Judson Philips on their payroll.

On even a more meta level, have a look at the relationships of the very top of these groups.

FreedomWorks, primary sponsor of the Tea Party Express. Chairman is Dick Armey, close associate of Jack Abramoff's, recipient of an Abramoff all-expenses paid trip to Scotland, and other goodies. As the video highlights, Armey's last corporate gig was as a top lobbyist for DLA Piper, the lobbying firm representing FreedomWorks and other conservative organizations.

Americans for Prosperity, primary sponsor of Tea Party Nation. President is Tim Phillips, Ralph Reed's former partner in Century Strategies, the firm Reed used to mobilize the Christian right for Abramoff clients. Ralph Reed was the go-to for religious right grassroots efforts. If Abramoff needed some Christian opposition to something, Reed was the guy to supply it, for a hefty price. There was no wedge issue too small or too hot for Reed to touch. As long as his hundreds of thousands rolled in to him with one degree of separation, he was more than happy to take gambling money to oppose gambling for the unfortunate tribe who didn't hire the Abramoff machine.

Americans for Tax Reform, sponsor of both efforts, with Grover Norquist prominent at rallies, on their videos and in their literature. Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform was the organization Abramoff used to launder money, along with several others. Norquist was also very happy to be the "tax objector" voice in Abramoff's PR blitz, provided a substantial contribution was made to ATR for his services.

The architects of Abramoff's schemes are once again together, sans Abramoff, who is still in jail. It isn't coincidence. They are together for a purpose and a reason, employing strategies that worked to garner millions of dollars, but more importantly, to create a manufactured body politic to give the impression to legislators and media alike that this was a "movement", a political force to be reckoned with, worth lots of attention and air time.

Now their campaign is beginning to bear fruit, beginning with Bob Bennett in Utah. Meg Whitman is losing ground to Tea Party favorite Steve Poizner, who is no grassroots kind of guy. He's worth millions, self-financing his own campaign.

The money is still flowing to the same people. Perhaps it's legitimate this time. There's no way to tell, really, because they hide behind the IRS tax-exempt facade of non-profit and civic organizations.

In 2006, the Senate Finance Committee minority report had recommendations for reforms to make these organizations more transparent. Among them:

• 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Charities (FreedomWorks Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform and Americans for Prosperity Foundation):

  Consider whether to provide for special rules for section 501(c)(3) organizations with respect to which a Member of Congress is a founder or exercises control (alone or together with related parties and paid staff of the Member). For example, section 501(c)(3) organizations could be required to disclose any contributions made by a corporation or a registered lobbyist.

• 501(c)(4) Civic Organizations (FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity):
  

  Require that section 501(c)(4) organizations that engage in lobbying publicly disclose all corporate donors.

The committee's parting remarks are still quite relevant today, especially in light of the Citizens' United ruling and the activities of the Tea Party PR Machines.

Activity that is no different from the operations of lobbying and public relations firms -- who are paid by clients to lobby and do public relations on a specific issue -- should not be treated as a social welfare activity and granted tax-favored status. What is the rationale for allowing tax-favored entities, organized as nonprofits, to engage in the same behavior as lobbying and public relations firms? If this activity is permitted, then should not lobbying firms and public relations firms enjoy the same tax-exempt status?

There it is, in black and white, written in 2006. Today we have a whole wellspring of well-funded nonprofit lobbying and public relations firms. The answer to their question is right in front of them. The only reason to have lobbying and public relations outfits dressed in a nonprofit tuxedo is to fool the general public -- the earnest, engaged people out there -- into believing that it is something other than a lobbying and public relations effort.

Oh, and possibly to mask the movement of funds between said non-profit organizations to the personal benefit of a few. That's certainly a possibility, too. It would most certainly be a stronger possibility if Abramoff weren't behind bars. If he weren't, he'd be leading the charge, a million at a time.