Tea Party activists distribute signs paid for by the RNC . . . . .

[ensho]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/15/tea-party-signs-rnc/


Tea Party activists distribute signs paid for by the RNC at ‘Take The Town Halls to Washington’ event.


Tea Party activists from across the country have come to Washington for a three-week long “Take The Town Halls to Washington” rally, an effort to lobby undecided House Democrats to vote against health care reform. At a press conference for the event on Friday, the Daily Caller spotted signs and buttons clearly paid for by the Republican National Committee. Activists distributed “red-white-and-blue buttons and signs emblazoned with the words ‘Listen to Me!’” — an official RNC slogan — with disclaimers at the bottom of the signs reading “Paid for by the Republican National Committee:”

Michael Patrick Leahy, an organizer of the Take the Town Halls to Washington project that is bringing Tea Party activists to the capital to lobby Democrats on President Obama’s health-care bill, admitted that the RNC “did provide the signage,” but said he didn’t know the details of the arrangement with Republicans and couldn’t explain how the signs got there. “They just showed up,” he said.

An RNC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Caller that the signs were given to the group at its request. <...>

Leahy downplayed the significance of the items, explaining, “We’re taking help from anybody that has an interest in this cause.”

The Tea Party movement claims to be an independent, grass roots coalition unrelated to either party, but this is not the first time activists have been caught using materials or logistical support provided by Republican operatives or Republican-aligned corporate front groups. For example, many large Tea Party protests have used signs and buses provided by groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Update David Weigel reports that the "paid for by RNC" language has now been blacked out.
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lie, cheat, steal, spin white racists

[Supersedeas]

1. then the major networks disseminate the content of those signs in rotating broadcasts

free and clear of campaign finance laws and much to the glee of the Corporate Sponsors which dominate advertising on the 'news' networks.

[ensho]

2. true

nt

[madamesilverspurs]

3. Sickening, but not surprising.

Reminded me of something that happened following the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The convention crew gathered up the hand-held flags and returned them to their original packaging, then stacked them on the loading dock to be returned to the warehouse for use in future events. A bunch of those bundles disappeared from the loading dock. A day or two later there was a GOP event in Colorado Springs, and flags were handed out to the crowd. The organizers told the crowd that the flags had been "rescued from a DNC dumpster", using that lie to whip the willing crowd into a frenzy. I don't put anything past these people.

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[ensho]

4. good grief, what a bunch of punks

nt

[Froward69]

10. Yeah their "proof"

Was photos of the flags in clear trash bags... yet pay no attention the background of the photos... those photos were taken at a republican event.

then the manufactured brew-ha-ha over the credintials required to attend Obamas acceptance speech. they had an upside-down flag not signifying "distress" as intended but to the republicans it meant the "overthrow of the United states guberment"


funny but at the time I was proclaiming "why Yes, I am involved in the Democratic over throw of the current administration of United Sates Government." <---prior to Nov 4 2008

[sufrommich]

5. Wait , tea baggers aren't republicans , they're "independents".

Right?

[progressoid]

13. Yep.

And the tea party movement is a grassroots movement too!

[gratuitous]

6. Isn't the blacking out a violation of campaign laws?

Seems the RNC has stepped on its nether parts either way they try to play it.

[HughBeaumont]

7. These fucknuts better not be in my face on the 20th.

They'll soon find out "Liberal" != "pacifist". They think I'm going to back down and be meek and let them vent their shit uncontested . . . you MUST be kidding me, fossil!

[Jokerman]

8. “We’re taking help from anybody that has an interest in this cause.”

That was the same excuse given by my "libertarian" sister when I tried to convince her that the teabagger rally she attended was just a front for the GOP.

[madamesilverspurs]

9. Those teabagger rallies are also gleefully supported

by supremacist groups. In my neighborhood, the baggers don't openly embrace the supremacists; but they don't extend them any "disinvitation", either.

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[Jokerman]

15. I tried to tell her that too.

Doesn't seem to matter. The libertarians I know would march along side NAMBLA as long as they were protesting taxes and (non-military) government programs.

[ericinne]

11. They should just call themselves

They should just call themselves "The Teaparty®™"

EDIT: Make that "THE TEAPARTY®™ LLC"

[progressoid]

14. Hey neighbor.

Welcome to DU!

[lpbk2713]

12. Not quite as blatantly obvious as a couple of months ago.

A couple of months ago they were bussed in to disrupt Town Hall Meetings
functioning as paid emissaries on behalf of the big insurance cos.