Romney campaign: Tea party movement fueled by Koch brothers

[babsbunny]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/03/romney-campaign-tea-party-movement-fueled-by-koch-brothers/

By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Koch brothers are the “financial engine of the Tea Party” despite denying they are “directly involved” in the movement, according to a Mitt Romney campaign memo.

Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own Koch Industries, have long championed libertarian and free-market policies. They have been heavily involved in bankrolling anti-regulation politicians and organizations.

The liberal blog ThinkProgress hailed the memo as a confirmation of their claim that the tea party movement was orchestrated by the Koch brothers — not a spontaneous uprising of middle class voters.

[Faithful One]

1. Duh?

This just in: Water is wet.

[la la]

2. someone please forward this to o'reilly---n/t

[deminks]

3. Astroturf=fake grass with no roots.

bought and paid for poutrage.

[RZM]

4. Interesting move, actually

Looks like his campaign strategists have decided to write off the Tea Party entirely. I imagine this is part of their plan to run a general election campaign, as opposed to a primary campaign, from now on (probably because the discrepancy between the two would emphasize a major Romney weakness, flip-flopping). I guess they calculate that the Tea Party's disdain of Obama will trump their lack of enthusiasm for Romeny if he gets the nomination. It's risky, but I'll bet it's the right move for him. With so many other candidates in the race, there's no way he could draw off enough Tea Party votes in the primaries to make a difference.