Dick Armey

History Lessons With Dick Armey: Tea Parties Predate Obama, Clarence Thomas Was 'Lynched'

Megan Carpentier | October 2, 2010, 3:00PM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

Speaking to a largely unfriendly -- and often openly hostile -- audience at The New Yorker Festival's Tea Party panel on Saturday morning, former House Majority Leader and current FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey attempted to explain to those in attendance the true origins of the tea party and why so many people seem to be so angry right now. And, despite sharing the stage with Harvard history professor and author Jill Lepore, CNBC's Rick Santelli and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), he openly attempted to rewrite more than a little history to fit his preferred narrative.

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FreedomWorks

Why Is FreedomWorks Really Moving -- Nasty Threats, Or An Expiring Lease?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 2, 2010, 9:32AM

Dick Armey, FreedomWorks chairman

Last week, when tea partiers weren't chatting online about Glenn Beck's mega-rally at the Lincoln Memorial, they were cyberventilating about the threats tea party umbrella group FreedomWorks is supposedly facing from angry left-wingers. FreedomWorks told more than one reporter that a growing number of death threats received by the organization is forcing FreedomWorks to spend precious GOTV funds on an unexpected move to a "high-security" building across D.C. from their current headquarters near the FBI Building.

But the reporting on the move left out the fact that FreedomWorks' change in location also comes at the end of the group's existing lease, and -- according to one source familiar with FreedomWorks' real estate deals -- their new headquarters offers them cheaper rent than their current home. And despite reports of increased threats, the group won't be moving until months after the election is over.

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Koch Industries

Koch Industries: We Don't Fund Tea Parties (Except For The Tea Parties We Fund)

Justin Elliott | April 15, 2010, 9:48AM

Koch Industries Executive Vice President David Koch and Tea Party protesters

Koch Industries, a major backer of myriad right-wing causes, issued an unsolicited statement last night in advance of Tax Day claiming it has never provided funding "specifically to support the tea parties." But when TPMmuckraker followed up, a spokeswoman acknowledged that Koch funds one of the most prominent national groups that organizes ... tea parties.

"Because you have covered tea parties in the past and we imagine you will cover tomorrow's Tax Day Tea Party in DC, we want to reiterate some important facts," wrote Melissa Cohlmia, the company's director of communication, in the email Wednesday evening.

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Goldwater Institute

Group That May Bring Health-Care Lawsuit Is Backed By Big-Name Conservative Funders

Zachary Roth | April 7, 2010, 11:14AM

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ)

A conservative think tank that's funded by several prominent backers of right-wing causes may bring a lawsuit over health-care reform on behalf of the governor of Arizona.

The Goldwater Institute has offered to bring the suit for free, and Gov. Jan Brewer is considering the offer, a spokeswoman for the institute told TPMmuckraker.

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Tea Parties

Feeling The Heat, Tea Partiers Denounce Violence

Zachary Roth | March 26, 2010, 1:12PM

Tea party in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009

Tea Partiers and others on the right are starting to distance themselves from the recent spate of violence and racism that has characterized the opposition to health-care reform.

In a letter to President Obama and Congress released yesterday, an alliance of Florida Tea Party groups called the Tea Party movement "a peaceful movement" and declared that they "stand in stark opposition to any person using derogatory characterizations, threats of violence, or disparaging terms toward members of Congress or the President."

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Pay-Day Lenders

In The Loop: The Pay-Day Lenders' Ties To Powerful Beltway Influence-Peddlers

Zachary Roth | March 22, 2010, 10:32AM

Rick Berman, Mike Flynn and Dick Armey

We told you last week about the sophisticated Washington lobbying and PR operation that has helped the $42 billion-a-year pay-day lending industry water down provisions in the financial reform bill currently before Congress. But it looks like the industry's ties to a host of heavy-hitting, and sometimes controversial, Beltway players are even more extensive.

Those players, it appears, include a prominent and well-regarded DC consulting firm founded by top former Clinton administration staffers, a key editor at the Andrew-Breitbart-created website that hosted James O'Keefe's ACORN "exposes," Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, and a notorious corporate lobbyist known as "Dr. Evil." Taken together, the pay-day lenders' connections in the capital make clear that the industry has quietly -- and in a remarkably short time -- enmeshed itself into a network of Washington influence-peddlers skilled at putting a favorable sheen on a host of corporate causes.

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Ryan Sorba

Gay-Bashing CPACer Has Checkered Legal History

Justin Elliott | February 23, 2010, 11:52AM

Ryan Sorba at CPAC 2010

The man who cited natural law in an off-script anti-gay rant at CPAC has had two run-ins with the real law in the past decade, including a restraining order for domestic violence, according to court records in California.

Ryan Sorba of California Young Americans for Freedom, who is a longtime anti-gay activist, in 2001 had a restraining order brought against him by a woman in a San Bernardino County domestic violence case, according to case records.

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Rick Perry

If At First You Don't Secede ... Sue The EPA: Texas Guv Uses Climate-Gate Emails To Take On Feds

Zachary Roth | February 18, 2010, 11:41AM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is suing the Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to stop it from regulating global warming pollution. The centerpiece of his argument? Those leaked "Climate-Gate" emails.

Last year, the governor -- who faces a contested GOP primary race, which includes a Tea-Party-backed candidate who has lately caught fire -- raised the threat of seceding from the union. And on Tuesday, he opened a new front in his quest to tout his conservative bona fides.

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Tea Parties

'We Might As Well Be Able To Vote For Disney': Tea Partiers Slam Citizens United Ruling

Zachary Roth | February 3, 2010, 9:20AM

Tea party in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009

Some Tea Partiers are expressing vocal opposition to the Supreme Court's recent ruling striking down the ban on corporate political spending -- a stance that puts them at odds with the Republican Party and the broader conservative movement.

Just hours after the court ruled last month, RNC chair Michael Steele praised the decision, calling it "an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights" of corporations.

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