Teabagging- The New American Pastime

At first it was funny… now its just pathetic that this manufactured thrust of the headless Conservative movement has latched on to teabagging.  How outside the mainstream are they that they proudly talk about their teabagging prowess?  Ok to be fair these are the same people who thought the Village People were straight, that the world is only 6,000 years old, and that Jesus is blond and blue eyed.

Can you hear that sound?  Its the collective sound of Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan spinning in their graves at how low the GOP has sunk. Think about it… Eisenhower won WWII, Nixon went to China, Reagan won the Cold War.  Now who’s in the GOP’s starting line up? Sarah Palin- can’t control a teenage horndog on Tyra. Rick Perry- has dreams of Texas succession.  Michael Steele- is on the lookout for one armed midgets.  No wonder Rush and Glenn Beck are running the asylum or “tea party”

The double entendres have been flying for a few days but the best seems to have been MSNBC’s David Shuster:

For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day. But in our fourth story tonight: It‘s going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they‘re going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals.They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending—spending they did not oppose when they were under presidents Bush and Reagan. They oppose Mr. Obama‘s tax rates—which will be lower for most of them—and they oppose the tax increases Mr. Obama is imposing on the rich, whose taxes will skyrocket to a rate about 10 percent less than it was under Reagan.

That‘s teabagging in a nut shell. Taking its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party when colonists tossed British tea into the sea because the tax in it had not been voted on by their own duly-elected representatives—that‘s exactly the opposite, of course, of today‘s taxes, known in some quarters as taxation with representation.But as “New York Times” columnist, Paul Krugman, points out today, this time, the tea bagging is not a spontaneous uprising. The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right-wing financiers and lobbyists. As well as Washington prostitute patron, Senator David Vitter, who has issued statements in support of teabagging but is publicly tight-lipped. Then there was the media, specifically the FOX News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves at events this Wednesday.

So the “protesters” are decrying the legality of Obama, the creep of socialism, and rampant government spending on bailouts and the stimulus.  This “spontaneous grassroots protest” was facilitated by FreedomWorks.  Wait, facilitated is too strong a word for coordinating conference calls among activists, writing press releases, providing sign ideas, building websites supporting the protests, and distributing talking points.  No to be fair they gave a statement to Fox News, acknowledging their role in organizing the movement:

We’d like to say we are one of the main driving forces, but we are not THE driving force behind the protests. We’re mainly helping activists get in touch with each other.

OK sure, but who’s running the show over at FreedomWorks?  Its former House Majority Leader and now superstar corporate lobbyist, Dick Armey.  A man who knows how Washington D.C. works.  So he’s on retainer for pharmaceutical firms, insurance (AIG), and oil companies– getting them bailout money and sweetheart deals from Congress.

So people are in the streets complaining about big business and government, yet Armey is making a mint off of the broken system.  Folks, that’s called working both ends of the shaft.