Teabagger: When a group lists itself on our site, that's a group. That group could be one person...

[BurtWorm]

:dunce:

(In other words, the baggers are more weak tea than tea party.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102304000.html



The local groups stand in contrast to - and, in their minds, apart from - a handful of large national groups that claim the tea party label. Most of those outfits, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express, are headed by longtime political players who have used their resources and know-how to help elect a number of candidates.

The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research.
ad_icon

In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times. It is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist.

Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: "When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that's a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence - we don't know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people."

[gratuitous]

1. Shorter Meckler: I don't want to know, and neither should you

But by all means popular media, get out there and give us the fawning coverage we demand. Because even though we're wrong, pig-ignorant, cynically manipulated and smaller than you think, we're LOUD. And that's really all that matters.

If the anti-war segment had gotten even a fraction of the favorable coverage the Tea Baggers have gotten, the Bush administration would never have been able to launch its two ruinous invasions and occupations. Or if they had, they wouldn't have gotten within a light year of re-election in 2004.