After Mark Williams' absurdly racist satirical letter got him booted as Tea Party Express' chairman, he assumed a sufficiently contrite position and waited for the right time to regenerate.

This is how they all operate. "Leaders" do outrageous things, make a big to-do about "stepping down" or "apologizing", separate from their initial group and form a brand-new one. They're like amoebas, splitting and proliferating that way. It's intentional and it's planned.

Via CNN:

Mark Williams, who recently resigned in disgrace as Tea Party Express spokesman, exclusively tells CNN that he is rejoining the conservative grassroots movement. As Williams revealed his new plans he also took a swipe at the Tea Party movement for not being able to move beyond "the cheerleading stage."

Williams revealed, first to CNN, that he is helping to form a political action committee that will channel "Tea Party passion" into electing conservative candidates.

Williams said the effort will be called the "Citizens Reclaiming Constitutional Liberties PAC." He told CNN that paperwork is currently being filed to establish the group and that it should be up and running by August 16. From there, the PAC will proceed in raising seed money and finding candidates it deems conservative enough, Williams said.

As long as there's funding, they'll just split and multiply like one-celled brainless species. There's a certain strange disconnect in having a guy like Williams "reclaiming Constitutional Liberties." I wish someone would ask him how he feels about this week's Prop 8 decision. That's certainly a question of Constitutional liberties, but it could be that Mark Williams is a racist with no opinion on gays.

And if you believe that...

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Mark Williams -- having seen his Tea Party Express booted from the National Tea Party Foundation for his nakedly racist screed about "coloreds" -- went on CNN Newsroom with Don Lemon yesterday and announced he was stepping down as the TPE spokesman. In the process, demonstrated exactly why the Tea Parties cannot distance themselves from their racists within quite as easily as they'd like:

LEMON: So I want to ask you, why did you resign from the Tea Party Express?

WILLIAMS: To take the spotlight off of me. It's a movement. It's not about me. It's not about my ego. It's not about my fat head. I did succeed in getting the NAACP to the table. And by the way this tea party federation which represents exactly 40 groups out of 5,000, I was never a member of. I have no idea who they are, but they threw me out.

Hmmmm. This is most peculiar, since the press release announcing the formation of the National Tea Party Foundation in April 2009 lists the Tea Party Express as one of its founding member organizations. And I can't find any indication the Tea Party Express ever indicated that this listing was in error.

In any event, Williams then went on to explain that he was still very much a Tea Party activist:

LEMON: OK. So listen, if you say that you wanted to take the spotlight off of you, I have to ask you then why did you accept this interview if you don't want to be in the spotlight?

WILLIAMS: I weaselled on you last time. The reason why I canceled last time was because the day before David Webb went on TV and did all this nonsense about kicking me out of a group I never belonged to, I had sat down with the Urban League, the NAACP, Reverend Al and a bunch of other people and we reached an agreement to put all the rancor behind us and find common ground.

This guy Webb, looking for headlines, cashing in, whatever it was, decided he would chime in. That makes me the issue when the issue should really be America and what we're working to save.

LEMON: OK.

WILLIAMS: I am still a Tea Partier. I just don't speak officially for the Tea Party Express.

And then he demonstrated exactly the kind of racist ignorance that is embedded deeply in the movement he formerly represented:

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Even for Mark Williams, this is bizarre. In an interview with NPR, he accused the NAACP of wanting racism to continue because it is profitable for them.

Now to a war of words between the Tea Party and the country's largest civil rights group. At its annual convention in Kansas City, the NAACP approved a resolution condemning what it calls racist elements within the Tea Party. Tea Party leaders dispute the charge, as NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

CHERYL CORLEY: Here's how this fray began. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous issued this challenge to the Tea Party...

Mr. BENJAMIN JEALOUS (President, NAACP): You must expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take full responsibility for all of their actions.

CORLEY: Last night, delegates at the convention unanimously approved a resolution echoing Jealous's words. It said that while the group believed in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in democracy, the Tea Party should repudiate bigoted statements, images and any racist leaders.

Mr. MARK WILLIAMS (Spokesman, Tea Party Express): I don't recall the NAACP speaking out when George Bush was portrayed as curious George or as the Joker.

CORLEY: Mark Williams is a national spokesman for the Tea Party Express.

Mr. WILLIAMS: I don't recall the NAACP ever standing up and saying that we needed to, you know, civilize discourse when Republicans were in the White House.

CORLEY: A number of Tea Party leaders say they don't tolerate racist displays. And Williams contends that it's actually the NAACP that's bigoted.

Mr. WILLIAMS: You're dealing with people who are professional race baiters, who make a very good living off of this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader ever. It's time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong, with all the other vile racist groups that emerged in our history.

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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.

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In case anyone was wondering where Fox News gets most of its talking points, Chris Wallace last night held up a copy of the GOP's talking points responding to President Obama's apparent diss of the Tea Partiers the night before.

All the other Fox talkers in sight were no more imaginative, a Village chorus pronouncing the president "arrogant" for saying this:

"In all, we passed 25 different tax cuts last year,'' he said. "And one thing we haven't done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year -- another promise that we kept.

"So I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes,'' he said at the end of a day, Tax day, on which the TEA Party Express had carried a cross-country protest to the National Mall in Washingon and staged rallies around the nation. "You would think they would be saying thank you,'' Obama said. "That's what you'd think.

This deeply offended everyone at Fox, not to mention the wingnutosphere, where Michelle Malkin could be found vowing revenge.

Chris Wallace, while trotting out those GOP talking points, declared it "the height of condescension."

Maybe the most amusing was the apoplectic Charles Krauthammer, who sneered:

Krauthammer: I think it was Obama with his usual condescension, except that he ratcheted it up to Code Orange into snootiness, that's where he is now, when he looks down his nose at the gun and God crowd, the lumpen proletariat, as he sees it. And he ridicules them because they're not grateful enough to him.

And look -- it's quite obvious what he's talking about here. He thinks that they are stupid because they don't recognize that he hasn't raised their taxes.

Of course, the word that really springs to mind for these folks is most likely "uppity" -- but they probably know better than to say it on TV. So they find synonyms like "condescending" and "arrogant" and "snootiness."

Most amusing, though, was their shared insistence that the president shouldn't be dissing the Tea Partiers, because they're just normal working-class folks.

Yes, that's true: They're just normal working-class folks who carry signs denouncing Obama as a Marxist/socialist/fascist and believe he needs to produce his birth certificate and are certain he is a radical intent on destroying capitalism and grabbing their guns.

It's also true that they are people motivated primarily by an animus toward him and liberals in general, and will do anything to oppose him, including believe all kinds of things that are provably untrue.

Things like birth certificate theories and FEMA concentration camp theories and the certainty he's a radical Marxist. Oh yes, and they believe he raised their taxes.

One of the signs of insanity, you know, is the insistence on believing in things that are provably untrue, even when the proof is presented clearly and irrevocably.

So why, exactly, should President Obama show any deference whatsoever to insane people who spread the nastiest and most ridiculous smears about him on a daily basis, people who never in a million years would vote for him? People who almost certainly did not vote for him in 2008, and now refuse to accept the verdict of the election they lost?

He's supposed to show these people deference exactly why?

(image courtesy of Mediaite)

It's no secret that CNN is tacking hard right, trying to pick up Fox News viewers. Hiring the likes of Bushie, Fran Townsend, and more recently, bringing right wing extremist "blogger" Erick Erickson on board and of course, their inexplicably positive coverage of the ongoing sham known as the Tea Party Express.

Tommy Christoper at Mediaite posted a story on April 4th respectfully refuting some claims made by C&L's Karoli, that CNN was actively pimping the tea party movement:

Upon closer inspection, however, it appears that while the effect of CNN’s coverage may be to promote the Tea Party Express, that’s not the intent. I think CNN is looking for another kind of gold in them thar Tea Party hills.

Fair enough. He disagreed with Karoli's opinion, but he kept digging and what do you know -- it appears that CNN is actively reaching out to far right propagandists like Newsbusters, touting how "fair and balanced" they really are:

A few days ago, I took a look at a Crooks and Liars post that suggested CNN was “pimping” the Great American “Tea Party Express PR and Propaganda Tour.” While I agreed with much of the post, I didn’t think CNN’s motivation was to promote the Tea Party tour, but rather, to be in the right place at the right time when something juicy happens.

As it turns out, reporting by conservative Newsbusters seems to confirm elements of liberal Crooks and Liars‘ thesis, or at the very least, that CNN is trying to have it both ways.

Apparently, CNN has become so desperate to boost ratings and attract Fox viewers, that they've actually stooped to wooing conservative bottom feeders like Michelle Malkin. (warning, link goes to her site) Christopher also posts an e-mail sent to Newsbusters from someone at CNN attacking their lefty critics:

“Clearly our critics from the left don’t think we should be covering the Tea Party movement in the way we are and clearly CNN thinks it’s a legitimate and important story.

If anyone from Newsbusters is interested in this angle – let me know.”

Well, this CNN employee is right - we lefties would definitely prefer that they not cover an illegitimate, astroturfed group of white, angry, racist fringe lunatics and militia nuts as though they were a legitimate, grass roots political organization. What next? Will CNN hire Charles Dyer as a "military analyst?"

If you gave a Tea Party and no one came, would it still be news? If, on the other hand, Koch Industries and the RNC gave a Tea Party and a handful of people came, would it still be news? Or would reporting it three or four times a day make it news?

Shoq and StopBeck pointed me to something I hadn't noticed: CNN is serving as a built-in PR machine for the Tea Party Express.

Since the kickoff of the TeaParty Express Tour, CNN has embedded a small press corps in their custom-painted "CNN Express" press bus for the sole purpose of following teabaggers around the country , reporting 3-4 times daily on the activities of the corporate-funded, RNC-connected Tea Party Express.

This clip from Wednesday boggled my mind. You can see how few there are at this rally, but watch as Ali Velshi and Ed Lavandera turn it into a "movement".

LAVANDERA: But these other rallies that have take been place in St. George, Utah, in Phoenix, and in Salt Lake City, now in Grand Junction, have had -- one of the ones we went to had close to 2,000 people. The last couple that we've been to have been around 500, a couple hundred people or so. This one's a little bit smaller.

They are packing up here shortly and headed to Denver tonight, so we'll see how that works. Some of these other rallies have been held during the days, so obviously people have to work and that sort of thing. But in Denver, it will be an interesting one to check out. It will be after work, and see what kind of turnout that they draw there.

The organizers here maintain that they are very happy with the turnout that they've been getting, but I think as they push forward and move closer to Washington, D.C., the numbers and the intensity of the turnout --

VELSHI: Yes.

LAVANDERA: -- will be important to keep an eye on just to get a sense of how much people are engaging and joining into this effort.

VELSHI: All right. Well, maybe when you get closer to Washington, D.C., do you mind if I join you for a couple days? I'll come on the bus, ride along with you.

In one short clip, we have two reporters apologizing for low turnouts, promising more, and watching for it to grow as it gets closer to "Washington, DC". Nowhere do they mention how the Tea Party Express is funded or who the major players are. It begs the question: If CNN weren't embedded with the Tea Party Express, would we call it a 'movement'? Who is the story? TPE, or CNN's invention of the TPE?

The Tea Party Express is not -- I repeat -- NOT a grass roots movement. It's a professionally coordinated corporate PR effort funded and founded by professional PR hacks, principally from the firm of Russo Marsh & Rogers (also known as King Media Group) in Sacramento, CA.

New FEC disclosures have just been filed, so let's have a look at the money trail.

The TeaParty Express is primarily a Howard Kaloogian project. Howard Kaloogian was featured in an earlier Crooks and Liars report on paid agitator Deborah Johns and in this report about bus tour co-sponsor, the BusBank, who was found negligent and responsible for the deaths of 23 passengers.

Or maybe you recall Kaloogian as one of the architects of the Gray Davis recall/Arnold Schwarzenegger coup of 2003.

According to the most recent Tea Party Express FEC disclosures (PDF), employees of the Tea Party Express include Mormon mom Tiffiny Reugner, Amy Kremer, former Tea Party Patriot, Marine Mom Deborah Johns, and Joe Weirzbicki. These are the paid hacks comprising the face of the "Tea Party Express" campaign.

The newcomer to the Tea Party Express group is Frontline Strategies and Media, LLC. A visit to their website is, well...interesting. It's a shell site, with a front page and a lot of "coming soon" pages underneath. The domain frontlinestrat.com was registered in June, 2008 to Brent Lowder. Brent Lowder is COO of the California Republican Party.

California Department of Corporations lists Frontline Strategies and Media LLC's primary contact as Eric Beach. And look what Eric Beach's bio on Mercury Public Affairs says:

Mr. Beach's political background is extensive in California. Prior to becoming Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Beach was Campaign Director for Bill Jones for United States Senate in California. During California's historic recall, Mr. Beach served as a senior staff member for Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful run for Governor in California and as a member of the California Gubernatorial Transition Team.

If it isn't already obvious what a sham this outfit is, it should be now. It's probably not much of a surprise either, but tell me this: Where does CNN ever disclose the nature of this "movement" or who is behind it? Look at the transcript up there. It says "organizers". It makes it sound like a bunch of really committed citizens got together and are taking the country by storm. A real American grassroots movement!

CNN's decision to embed themselves in the Tea Party Express Great American PR and Propaganda tour while failing to specifically report who sponsors and orchestrates these events points to the bankruptcy of our corporate media and their willingness to mislead viewers about what they are doing and why they are there.

This isn't just my usual round of press indignation. These people have ruined California and left a leading-edge state in a pile of dust and rubble. Now they want to do it to the country, and they've enlisted CNN to help them. It's just one more reason to dump CNN.

...why do Americans care if taxes are raised at all? And why should Americans care about tax cuts also?

As you guys know, I watch the mind numbingly sophomoric Fox Saturday block of Stock Shows that goes by the name of "The Cost of Freedom." They consist of four 30-minute shows, and every single week there's an idiot on who says the only people that pay taxes are the richest members of our society.

OK, let's say I agree. Then why should 290,000,000 Americans more or less give a rip about the ramifications of raising taxes? They make the argument for us that taxes should be raised since only the very rich pay them.

Dave Neiwert wrote about this in one of his earlier posts: Populism: It's all the right-wing rage these days

The Tea Parties, in every incarnation -- from the Tax Day protests to the health-care town halls to the "Tea Party Express" and the "912 March on Washington" to Michele Bachmann's lame "Super Bowl of Freedom" -- has been all about populism, and it is distinctly right-wing populism.

A giveaway moment came during Sean Hannity's April 15 evening "Tea Party" broadcast from Atlanta, when he brought in a live feed from the Rick and Bubba Tea Tantrum in Alabama:

Hannity: And I'm going to tell you one other thing: When did we ever get to a point in America where, we're nearly at the point where fifty percent of Americans don't pay anything in taxes! Nothing!

[Crowd boos]

Rick: The numbers out are just astounding that, that, how much that the very top taxpayers actually pay. I feel like these taxpayers are disenfranchised. I want them to have a share of the burden just like they have a share of the vote.

That's right -- it's the wealthy top percentage of the country that needs a tax break. After all, they are the one Obama's targeting, right? So at least they're being upfront about just who "the taxpayers" are whose interests they're out marching to defend...read on

Don't you feel sorry for these poor rich bastards? If this is their argument, then I say President Obama should impose immediate tax increases like a war tax, a health-insurance tax and a jobs creation tax on the top tier of Americans. Make it a payroll tax and take it right out of their checks every pay period. That would immediately satisfy the deficit scolds.

After all, who will care if it's only the Fox Noise demographic? In the end all conservative policies do is destroy the least of us. They treat the American worker like trained seals, whose only function in life is to fuel their wealth.

Digby has more:

I think they tend to make their judgments about the upper and lower classes based as much on tribalism as anything else. (Recall that the populist hero Ross Perot was a billionaire who made his fortune from government contracts -- but he sounded like a good old boy.) These things never play themselves out exactly the same ways but the fundamental appeals remain the same. The upper levels of society usually find a way to pull the strings and control these people, but the more vulnerable often suffer quite a bit at their hands. Neiwert's piece is a very important primer for those of us who are trying to understand where this Palin-Beck teabag phenomenon comes from and how it relates to other right0wing philosophies like Randism and militias. At the end of the day it all translates into ugly know-nothingism that lashes out at everyone but the adherents themselves, who see themselves as the defenders of the Real America.

I get the impulse and I feel the same frustrations. But their solutions are always worse than the problems they seek to solve.

Let's make a distinction here. Yes, there's no question that the Tea Party movement is being led and manipulated by the usual right-wing suspects - but the individuals who are being led and manipulated, like most people, simply have no idea of the sophistication (and money) behind this "grassroots" machine.

Aboard the Tea Party Express (CNN) -- From the stage, Deborah Johns is the angry conscience of the tea party movement.

"Question everything your government is doing," she tells a crowd of about 100 from the bus's stage in the parking lot of the Winners casino in Winnemucca, Nevada.

Under a setting sun on the steps of the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, Johns says: "Our men and women took an oath when they put on the uniform to defend and protect this country from enemies both foreign and domestic. I think we've got some domestic enemies in the White House."

On a sunny afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, Johns works the crowd of about 2,000 into a frenzy.

"The men and women in our military didn't fight and die for this country for a communist in the White House," she says, and the crowd erupts in a chant of "U-S-A, U-S-A!"

On the bus, Johns slips off her heels and slips on a pair of ankle socks. She curls up under a quilt her grandmother made. She favors skirts and cardigans -- a pit bull in cashmere.

She leads the rallies in each city with Mark Williams, a former talk radio host who now writes books and makes the rounds on cable TV chat shows. Both work for Our Country Deserves Better, the conservative political action committee sponsoring the Tea Party Express bus tour.

Deborah Johns, Deborah Johns. Where have I heard that name before? Here's what Hart Williams has found:

Via Sourcewatch:

The officers of the Our Country Deserves Better PAC overlap extensively with current and former leaders of the pro-war organization Move America Forward (MAF). These include MAF co-founder and former chair Howard Kaloogian, who chairs the PAC; PR executive Sal Russo, who serves as chief strategist for both MAF and the PAC; Russo Marsh & Rogers principal Joe Wierzbicki, who serves as grassroots coordinator for MAF and coordinates the PAC; and Marine mom Deborah Johns, who is MAF’s director of military relations and the [new] PAC’s spokesperson.[2]

Sourcewatch continues:

Following the election of Barack Obama on November 4, 2008, the PAC put a poll on its website, asking supporters to weigh in on the group’s future. The poll asked the question, “Should we fight on for victory in 2010 and 2012?” and the possible responses were “YES – We must fight for victory!,” “NO – We should accept defeat and move on,” or “UNDECIDED/UNSURE.” [7]

In response to a blogger’s question, “What will the Our Country Deserves Better organization focus on now that Obama has won?,” Deborah Johns replied: “We do plan to be a watchdog for what happens in the Obama Administration, especially when it comes to matters concerning our military and national defense. We are also going to look at Congressional and Senate issues and hold them accountable as well.” [8]

Professional "Marine mom" Deborah Johns has been on this particular right-wing gravy train for a while:

* Spokesperson, "You Don't Speak For Me, Cindy" tour for Move America Forward and the "Support Our Troops" tour for which Hart Williams records indicating it was funded by the Department of Defense.

* Vice President, Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which oddly enough for a "grassroots" organization, registers its domain site through Australia.

This particular PAC spends quite a bit of money hiring Russo Marsh (the company which created it) to create astroturf campaigns and ads against Democrats. They also pay Deborah Johns "PAC consulting wages." (Oh, and the ever-elusive Endeavor Media, owned by Bobby Eberle, founder of Talon News, employer of one Jeff Gannon.)

PRWatch:

Craig Holman, the watchdog group Public Citizen's campaign finance lobbyist, agreed that "there's a lot of commingling that goes on" between PACs and non-profit organizations -- also referred to 501(c)(3) groups -- though "there is supposed to be a very significant firewall between them." Under current rules, "the objective is to make sure that whoever's making the decisions and directing the PAC isn't also making the decisions and directing the 501(c)(3). If they're the same people, they've got the same knowledge, they've got the same objectives. To me, that crosses the line. ... But most of these groups realize that no one's going to go after them."

Americanrivercanyon, the Daily Kos diarist who did the very heavy lifting on this, concludes:

These anti-health care reform "grassroots" efforts are not just being organized and funded from the health insurance industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. - but from Dept of Defense Contractors that depend on Republican earmarks for funding, and Big Oil, which is engaged in a power struggle with the rest of the nation as they fight against turning towards creating and using more renewable energy.

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We wondered, back when the Tea Party Express was running ads on Fox, why they bothered, since they'd soon be getting all the free advertising they could ask for.

And sure enough, Griff Jenkins has been filing reports from the multiple cross-country stops for the tour since its outset, provided for all the various Fox anchors (Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Neal Cavuto, Bill O'Reilly, the Fox and Friends crew) to feature in their regular broadcasts.

Quelle surprise: they haven't had to run any ads on Fox since they started touring.

Most of the time, Jenkins -- who's clearly cheerleading this effort and not trying in the least to act like an actual reporter -- at least has bothered to mostly feature interviews with attending teabaggers, so as to at least create the appearance of some semblage of journalism in these reports.

But last night, on Sean Hannity's show, Jenkins just dropped the pretense, and gathered the teabaggers in New York behind him as props and launched into a rant about how these events were all about average Americans taking back America from an out-of-control federal government. He wasn't reporting; he was essentially being a paid propagandist for the Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which is the sponsor of this event.

And the funny thing is, as we reported earlier, the Our Country Deserves Better PAC has ALWAYS been about opposing whatever policies President Obama pursues. That is, this is a specifically anti-Obama campaign, and the rhetoric about "out of control government" is a fig leaf:

The "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC, in fact, was founded in August 2008 -- before the election -- specifically to oppose Barack Obama and his policies. (They called it "drawing contrasts between Senator Barack Obama and John McCain".) In October 2008, for instance, Williams was out on the stump campaigning against Obama as a "socialist" on a previous bus tour called the "Stop Obama Express". They've also runs ads comparing Obama to Hitler.

Jenkins claimed this was "black and white," but the crowd shots are almost completely of white faces. Moreover, I'll wager that every single one of them is a disappointed Republican -- if not a McCain voter, then a Ron Paul voter.

In fact, a better name for the whole enterprise would be The Sore Loser Express. Because that's who's coming out for these things -- people who think they can get a do-over on the election.

Including the fine folks at Fox, evidently.