Tea Party Nation’s Judson Phillips: “I Want To Make A Million From This Movement”

[Ian David]

Tea Party Nation’s Judson Phillips: “I Want To Make A Million From This Movement”
January 15, 2010 / 6:18 pm • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Embattled Tea Party Nation, Inc. owner Judson Phillips has been making the media rounds to defend his up-coming, February 4-6 conference at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Disillusioned Tea Party volunteers are angry at Phillips for turning the grass-roots group into a for-profit venture without their consent and for charging more than $500 per person to an event that many worked for but can’t afford.

Local Tea Party insiders say that long-time Republican donor Bill Hemrick {he gave $1000 to the NRCC in late 2009 and to the Fred Thompson and Marsha Blackburn campaigns among others}, owner of Upper Deck Trading cards, gave Judson Philips at least $50,000 and maybe the whole $125,000 to cover Tea Party Nation’s Sarah Palin speaker’s fee. This act led Tea Party activists to believe the Tennessee Republican Party has been involved in the closed-door organizing.

Meanwhile, all money made by the sold-out event will go straight to Tea Party Nation, Inc. while grassroots activists have donated their time to make the event happen.

<snip>

That’s not the only financial funny business Phillips is accused of making. Kevin Smith, the website developer who was never compensated for his work on the Tea Party Nation social networking site and who wrote an insider’s account of the Tea Party Nation dealings, says that Phillips called his account a lie, but offered no proof to the contrary. Smith asserted that Philips mishandled Tea Party funds by paying for expenses out of his wife Sherry’s PayPal account. Judson Phillips did not return my request for comment.

More:
http://www.melissaclouthier.com/2010/01/15/tea-party-nations-judson-phillips-i-want-to-make-a-million-from-this-movement/

Hat-tip to:

We warned you last week that the Teabagger-in-Chief is a crook. Now he's bragging about it. This is SO Republican http://tinyurl.com/y9kp8no
http://twitter.com/downwithtyranny/status/7853550811

[msongs]

1. oh come on, a pointy headed white sheet only costs maybe $10 or so nt

[Grand Taurean]

2. Tea Party nuts are getting justice served to them.

Cold it is.

[DBoon]

3. this is how a political movement based on unfettered private profit ends

their actions and their political ideology are at least consistent.

Screw the weak and poor and grab as much as I can for myself

[Hannah Bell]

4. good. let the foot soldiers see the real motives of their "leaders".

that should cut down their turnouts.

[old mark]

5. Don't know why this surprizes them - they have been lied to and screwed

in all senses of the term by their "religious" leaders for decades, what's the problem with one more liar?

Is the end in sight for the tea party revolution?

mark

[muntrv]

6. Ah, the I-got-mine-fuck-you-repukes!

[Scurrilous]

7. K & R

:thumbsup: