WASHINGTON -- Jack Rogers, the president of the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance, is deeply disappointed in his Republican congressman Rep. Tom Emmer.
Rogers, who lives in Ham Lake, published a blog post Thursday that alleged Emmer was avoiding conservative constituents' because he can't attend a Senate District 31 political convention on Saturday. Rogers said the liberty movement is angry about Emmer's recent vote to support funding the Department of Homeland Security.
On Saturday, Emmer will be in Selma, Ala., to join the 50th anniversary celebration of the historic civil rights march.
"We received word yesterday that Tom canceled his planned appearance due to a scheduling conflict," Rogers wrote on the Tea Party Alliance website. "When we asked about what the conflict was, Emmer stated he would be marching in a parade in Alabama that day."
The Tea Party guy is all ruffled feathers, having posted at teaparty.mn:
We learned that the parade Emmer referenced is a march to commemorate the heroic actions of John Lewis of Selma in 1965; a fantastic event as far we’re concerned and we don’t want to belittle the importance of such an event. However, our issue lies with the fact that Emmer made a commitment to his constituents to attend their convention. We believe attending the event of the people who put him in office outweighs that of events outside his district. According to members of Senate District 31, their event was rearranged months ago to accommodate Tom’s schedule.
The plot thickens…
We found out this morning that Norm Coleman and Vin Weber’s group, American Action Network, has purchased a sizeable ad buy in Minnesota thanking Tom Emmer for his recent vote. The language of the ad (see sample here) is eerily similar to the language Tom used early this week to scold fellow conservatives.
Too often, politicians go out to Washington and forget the principles that got them there in the first place. After voting for Boehner for Speaker and funding Obama’s amnesty program, it looks like Tom has become out of touch with his conservative CD6 roots. Call or e-mail Tom and remind him that he works for the people of Minnesota’s sixth Congressional District, not the lobbyists and special interest in Washington.
Well, there is something to be said in favor of anyone who will criticize Vin Weber and Norm Coleman, and the hidden, faceless men of great wealth who are providing the fund to go with the slush of teacher bashing and all that stuff in Minnesota's lower legislative house, re HB 2, the FTTU bill.
It has been charged on the floor of the House, I saw it yesterday on TV while channel hopping during a basketball commercial break, that the folks pulling as they will on the top end of the Norm Coleman puppet strings are wont to want and to promote union busting. But the First Amendment says they can come forth publicly and express their viewpoints. Yet -- Why do they instead hide their identity behind Norm? The teachers union is open and transparent in how it chooses to back the candidates it chooses to like. They report it, in full bright sunshine. These Coleman cash men, not so, not so at all and the Tea Party fellow Rogers probably is like me, in asking "Why? Why hide?"
Are they Banking Roundtable folks friendly with Mr. Pawlenty, their nominal head? Business Roundtable folks friendly with Mr. Weaver, Mr. Pawlenty's classmate in law school? Is anybody hearing much from Bill Cooper, directly, these days? Bills did not get much establishment GOP cash love when he ran against Klobuchar. Perhaps Emmer is more cagey than Bachmann. Smart enough to stay clear of Iowa and to not get into any bidding war with Ron Paul's pack, there, in Iowa. And Rogers of the Tea Party is uneasy and unhappy while Stanley Hubbard runs his electronic media and Glen Taylor buys Strib.
________________UPDATE________________
Let's see, anger over Homeland Security funding. What, there, is the precise complaint? That there exists a threat that any bureau tasked to protect the Fatherland [elsewhere, Mother Russia] has a potential to crib in citizen liberties?
That likely is it, and in mentioning Vin and Norm, do not forget W. He is the one that fashioned, with friends, the Homeland Security initial blueprint and tasking. Clearly, how it has moved since W went MII - missing in inaction - doing whatever, painting? Who's doing the sketch, putting down the numbers? At any rate, much which critics such as this Rogers person find to criticize deserves attention, yet the Tea Party persona advance some strange agenda detail: denial of reproductive freedoms weighing most heavily on one gender than another, heartlessness toward those who have gotten a lesser share while insufficiently criticizing grotesque concentrations of wealth and power in what George Carlin nailed a hundred percent; "one big club and you're not in it" [and surprisingly not having a real share of the pie while not wanting it sliced more fairly - not demanding that the nation and sub-governments tax in ways leveling the playing field between them and what they have, vs. those pulling the Norm Coleman strings, paying the Vin Weber fees, etc., so forth].
And averting their eyes from the Ron/Rand bidding war in Iowa against Bachmann, for buying right-wing politician loyalty, and the Rand and Mitch ties last election with who besides Mitch more beholden to establishment Republican money/power?
It is as if there are marching orders, handed down a Tea hierarchy, perhaps not saying directly, blind eye here, blind eye there; but nonetheless setting a sufficient number of vapid talking/carping/tirade points to have rank and file inattention within individual Tea Party cells toward some real nasty hummers needing more attention/chastisement than Tom Emmer's politicking.
What in the world did these clowns expect, when they put Emmer forward on their alleged behalf? Have they been asleep during Emmer's entire career? What did they think the goods were? Who else did they see backing Emmer, with more in-the-big-club ties than they'd ever have?
And now, to the extent Emmer is playing his way into the club, they have Angst?
It is troubling when folks go public with a showing of shortsightedness. And that is said knowing it is an affliction touching all, at times. And this Rogers person, will he be satisfied either way when he is handed Dem money's Hillary, against GOP money's Jeb as "so called" choice in 2016? He should not be, but lesser evil thinking from either wing is relied upon by those making actual choices and forming actual cash coalitions.
Which gets back to a very, very, very important question. Whose money is behind Norm? And the corollary question, why trust a single thing from that direction unless/until we know whose money it is and what it is buying?
With this big PAC pool of cash, it is more than Nasser Kazeminy buying suits.
When's the last election that has not been inner-Ivy League grown ups against one another where money is happy enough, whoever wins? Go figure. Clinton the Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law School champ, vs Bush the Elder, then W from Yale vs Gore from Harvard, then W vs the Ivy Leaguer who married the rich widow and is now Sec of State, Hillary v. Jeb? The Harvard Law School editor vs the hedge fund front man, who managed the money of those calling shots? It is one big club. And they most likely do not drink Tea at their gatherings. The Romney tape, write off 47% of the electorate, and concentrate on chumping the next level up sufficiently so that the 1% get traction with that lagging 30-40% better off by not much than the 47% Romney had written off.
That's the story, and that's Norm, and that's Vin, and my oh my, how the Clintons have prospered.
Enjoy politics, into 2016 while, likely on marching orders, Daudt and friends bushwhack those having the patience and skill sets, and the will, to teach your children into the job force.
Love it. It's what you are being handed.