Norah O'Donnell asks Vision America and Tea Party Convention sponsor Rick Scarborough if he's got any problem with Sarah Palin profiting from her speaking engagement at the National Tea Party Convention and the fact that she is using her PAC money to buy copies of her book rather than contribute to candidates.
Of course Scarborough just trusts Palin completely and doesn't see any problem with what she's doing. I don't think I've seen this much spin out of anyone on the talking head shows on cable news in a long time. When these Tea Bag Party protesters are going to wake up to being taken for a ride by the Republicans and Palin who's lining her pocket is beyond me. I doubt it's any time soon if they all just keep watching ClusterFox for their "news".
O’Donnell: But what I’m raising questions with you as someone who feels so strongly about this is whether the Tea Party is actually a movement for change of if it’s one where people are making a personal profit off of some people who want to make change. Let me just show you, Think Progress which of course is a progressive organization has reported that the event organizers of the Tea Party Express manager and Republican public relations firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers has padded its pocket with over one million dollars in money raised by the Tea Party group. Does that concern you that funds by people who want change are being used to pad consultants rather than to elect people that you want to change Washington?
Scarborough: Once again Norah I’m not here to defend or deny; I don’t have enough information to even make a judgement on those kinds of things but what I can say to you is that I am going to invest my time and energy and any finances that people are gracious to give me to do it to find as many Christians, as many concerned Americans as I can, inform them of what the issues are and get them to the polls to vote in the primaries and finally in the election in the fall and I’m grateful for this opportunity to look anybody that will listen in the eye and say hey join us. Join us for the cause of changing America.
O’Donnell: I know but Dr. Scarborough the points that I’m trying to ask is because of this for profit nature of the very event that you’re at, Michele Bachmann who’s been called the leader of the Tea Party movement or one of the leaders is not going to show up. Marsha Blackburn is not showing up. So there are already some issues that may prevent you from having the very people you need to carry out your revolution.
Scarborough: Sure…yeah. It won’t keep me from carrying out mine because both of them are allies and what we do and stand for the values we hold dear, as you I trust know, Democrats and the majority that sit in Congress right now are filing all manner of investigations upon anyone on the conservative side. There are legal issues that have been raised and even if these folks like Sarah Palin find in the course of law that they’re right it costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of distraction to prove their innocence so I fully understand why some of these conservative Congressmen pulled out. They’re not opposed to this. They just don’t want the hassle that ethics committees in Congress will cause them. I don’t have the struggle so here I am.
