Representatives
from Tea Party groups throughout Wisconsin sent out an angrily-worded
press release just last week denouncing reports that Johnson was the
"Tea Party candidate." Recall just a couple months ago when several of
those on the release led a boycott of the Tax Day Tea Party event after
AFP-WI President Mark Block put Tommy Thompson and Ron Johnson on the
speaking program, despite several other announced Republican candidates
including Dave Westlake and the twosome of Terrence Wall and Dick
Leinenkugel, who have since dropped out of the campaign.
So who
has been pulling the strings at the Tea Party if not the Tea Party
itself. The answer is Mark Block. A longtime Republican operative and
former Tommy Thompson campaign manager, Block has been drafting
unsuspecting middle-class Wisconsinites to attend his corporate-financed
brand of Tea Parties throughout the state (the one's we always hear
about). Given Block's background, it should come as no surprise that the
Tax Day Tea Party in Madison was nothing more than a lecture about how
giving tax breaks to millionaires and corporations is such a good plan
for our future, with tired jokes about global warming.
But
Thompson wasn't the only one pondering a run for office to speak at the
Tax Day Tea Party. Ron Johnson, an unknown millionaire from Oshkosh, was
also there. He had just announced he was thinking about running.
The
buzz is that Block, having a relationship with Thompson and knowing he
wasn't going to run, needed to have his replacement there to encourage
the flock, i.e. Johnson, not to stray.
Evidence appears to support
the claims. An April 13 blog post from AFP's website includes a
detailed speaking program for the April 15 event at the State Capitol in
Madison that made no mention of Johnson: http://tinyurl.com/2aqk2fp.
A
post the following day touting Thompson's addition also suddenly
included Johnson's name buried in the revised list of speakers: http://tinyurl.com/29oxlzq.
Lo
and behold, one month later, unknown millionaire Johnson had sealed the
Republican Party nomination without the endorsement of entry-level Tea
Partiers.
Not surprisingly, now Johnson is shilling for Americans
for Prosperity's key interest: big oil. Recycling a Sarah Palin talking
point about somehow environmentalists pushing BP offshore to spill its
own oil, Johnson recently told the Associated Press he supported drilling in the ANWR.
I guess destroying the environment via the water isn't enough; we need to do it on land too.
Anyway,
Johnson had a choice -- drink from the cups of grassroots Tea Party
groups -- however misguided they are -- or sip one back with Mark Block,
a big business front group, and the old school Republican
establishment. To the dismay of the former, he chose the latter.
And
that is why these misguided Tea Partiers are meeting this week. And
this should be a lesson to anyone about what happens when you get in bed
with big oil and big insurance's GOP-front group.
Tea Party, you just got served.
