A different viewpoint on the Tea Party.

[BP]

Just thought I'd share this article here. It's published on a major news site and was written by a professional columnist whose worked for Time, CNN and writes for the LA Times. Try and imagine what someone writing an article this extreme from a conservative viewpoint would look like.

I don't support her views.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-15/boehner-to-tea-party-shut-yourself-down.html?cmpid=yhoo

Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down
By Margaret Carlson 2013-10-15T13:26:46Z ..“Thank you, Mr. President. Signed, John Boehner.”

Deep beneath the year-round tan, the Camel Ultra Lights and the merlot, there beats a grateful heart. Somebody had to take on the Tea Party that has turned Boehner’s tenure as House speaker into a living hell.


About Margaret Carlson»
Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist appearing on Wednesdays. A former White House correspondent for ... MORE

FOLLOW ON TWITTER
.More from Margaret Carlson:
$100 Worth of Thoughts on Incompetent Government
Why Can’t a Congressman Be More Like a Mayor?
There Are No Winners in the Shutdown
.Too bad for Republicans, that someone was a Democrat rather than one of their own, which would have signaled that the party is fit to govern. By calling the bluff of a tiny band of burn-the-place-down Tea Party activists leading their colleagues over domestic (the government shutdown) and global (the debt ceiling) cliffs, Barack Obama exposed the fact that they didn’t come to Washington to fix anything, only to tear everything but air-traffic control down.

The meltdown on Capitol Hill doesn’t mean the end of the Tea Party. In fact, most of those lawmakers accurately point out that they are doing what the constituents in their painfully drawn, one-sided, overwhelmingly white, aging, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, science-denying districts want. Still, there are emerging signs -- from declining poll numbers to the breach with the Republican Party’s traditional business allies -- that the act is getting old. Mess with Democratic totems such as Social Security and nutritional programs for pregnant mothers, send Sarah Palin to Washington periodically to pour salt on open wounds, but don’t mess with Treasury bills and the markets.

Brain Freeze
There was no convincing extremists ahead of time. Like excited children at the fair, the Tea Party had to eat too much ice cream and see the whole party get sick, and even then, they couldn’t stop themselves. But some of them had to be queasy when they saw an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last week: Only 24 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest ever. By eight points, the public said it preferred a Congress controlled by the Democrats over one in Republican hands. Positive feelings toward the Tea Party fell to an all-time low.

That would turn the stomach of the heartiest anarchist. Rather than be an enduring movement of concerned grass-roots activists, the Tea Party has become a well-financed faction of the Republican Party bankrolled by business interests such as the Koch brothers to push a narrow agenda of regressive taxes, opposition to unions and the rollback of regulations.

They went too far. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter signed by about 250 business groups asking members of Congress to stop their shenanigans. Wall Street titans such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chairman Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, alarmed that a small band of extremists is blithely considering bringing down the global economy, are pleading with the Republican leadership to rein in the renegades.

Voters may do that for them. Evidence of a declining Tea Party is also apparent in a few of the movement’s strongholds. Take the prince of the Tea Party, Michigan Representative Justin Amash. He tried to depose Boehner as speaker and considered a measure to defund Planned Parenthood not draconian enough. Rather than having to face a challenge from the far right, here comes one from a mainline conservative and pro-business investment adviser, Brian Ellis, who says the way Amash governs is “disruptive and chaotic” -- two words businessmen dislike more than taxes or regulation.

And look what has happened to Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party darling since his surprising defeat in 2010 of Robert Bennett, a beloved conservative senator. He’s become sidekick to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, chiming in during the recent filibuster about a childhood accident and his dream of being a pirate.

‘Wacko Birds’
Lee is one of the new lawmakers who have been dubbed “wacko birds” by Senator John McCain of Arizona. Karl Rove said Lee’s scorched-earth strategy was “the one tactic that might be able to guarantee that the Democrats pick up seats in the Congress in 2014.” Even Lee’s friend and Capitol Hill roommate, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, refused to back his plan to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Lee’s favorable rating has dropped 10 percentage points since a June Brigham Young University poll, which doesn’t skew liberal. More than half of Utah voters see him unfavorably; 57 percent said he should be more willing to compromise. In a separate survey, a majority of Utah voters now disapprove of the Tea Party’s influence.

Like Amash, Lee will be challenged from his left. Josh Romney and Dan Liljenquist are waiting in the wings. If Lee survives that primary contest, there’s an excellent chance that Democratic Representative Jim Matheson -- who’s been gerrymandered into unwinnable districts twice but still wins -- could win a statewide race in the reddest state in the country.

Utah Republicans have been heading toward buyer’s remorse for some time. At last year’s convention in Salt Lake City, a robust 125,000 Republicans turned out. This was a reaction to the 2010 convention, when 50,000 Tea Party activists took over and eliminated Bennett in favor of Lee. By 2012, the establishment was back in charge, and Bennett got a long and loud standing ovation. At that same convention, Senator Orrin Hatch easily won the nomination and re-election.

Here’s another suggestion for thank-you notes: “Dear Senator Bennett, thank you for taking one for the establishment. Signed, Senator Hatch.”

And Senator Lee, watch out. Jim Matheson may have a note for you in 2016.

(Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist.)

To contact the writer of this article: Margaret Carlson at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this article: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net.

[CJ]

Just thought I'd share this article here. It's published on a major news site and was written by a professional columnist whose worked for Time, CNN and writes for the LA Times. Try and imagine what someone writing an article this extreme from a conservative viewpoint would look like.

I don't support her views.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-15/boehner-to-tea-party-shut-yourself-down.html?cmpid=yhoo

Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down
By Margaret Carlson 2013-10-15T13:26:46Z ..“Thank you, Mr. President. Signed, John Boehner.”

Deep beneath the year-round tan, the Camel Ultra Lights and the merlot, there beats a grateful heart. Somebody had to take on the Tea Party that has turned Boehner’s tenure as House speaker into a living hell.


About Margaret Carlson»
Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist appearing on Wednesdays. A former White House correspondent for ... MORE

FOLLOW ON TWITTER
.More from Margaret Carlson:
$100 Worth of Thoughts on Incompetent Government
Why Can’t a Congressman Be More Like a Mayor?
There Are No Winners in the Shutdown
.Too bad for Republicans, that someone was a Democrat rather than one of their own, which would have signaled that the party is fit to govern. By calling the bluff of a tiny band of burn-the-place-down Tea Party activists leading their colleagues over domestic (the government shutdown) and global (the debt ceiling) cliffs, Barack Obama exposed the fact that they didn’t come to Washington to fix anything, only to tear everything but air-traffic control down.

The meltdown on Capitol Hill doesn’t mean the end of the Tea Party. In fact, most of those lawmakers accurately point out that they are doing what the constituents in their painfully drawn, one-sided, overwhelmingly white, aging, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, science-denying districts want. Still, there are emerging signs -- from declining poll numbers to the breach with the Republican Party’s traditional business allies -- that the act is getting old. Mess with Democratic totems such as Social Security and nutritional programs for pregnant mothers, send Sarah Palin to Washington periodically to pour salt on open wounds, but don’t mess with Treasury bills and the markets.

Brain Freeze
There was no convincing extremists ahead of time. Like excited children at the fair, the Tea Party had to eat too much ice cream and see the whole party get sick, and even then, they couldn’t stop themselves. But some of them had to be queasy when they saw an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last week: Only 24 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest ever. By eight points, the public said it preferred a Congress controlled by the Democrats over one in Republican hands. Positive feelings toward the Tea Party fell to an all-time low.

That would turn the stomach of the heartiest anarchist. Rather than be an enduring movement of concerned grass-roots activists, the Tea Party has become a well-financed faction of the Republican Party bankrolled by business interests such as the Koch brothers to push a narrow agenda of regressive taxes, opposition to unions and the rollback of regulations.

They went too far. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter signed by about 250 business groups asking members of Congress to stop their shenanigans. Wall Street titans such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chairman Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, alarmed that a small band of extremists is blithely considering bringing down the global economy, are pleading with the Republican leadership to rein in the renegades.

Voters may do that for them. Evidence of a declining Tea Party is also apparent in a few of the movement’s strongholds. Take the prince of the Tea Party, Michigan Representative Justin Amash. He tried to depose Boehner as speaker and considered a measure to defund Planned Parenthood not draconian enough. Rather than having to face a challenge from the far right, here comes one from a mainline conservative and pro-business investment adviser, Brian Ellis, who says the way Amash governs is “disruptive and chaotic” -- two words businessmen dislike more than taxes or regulation.

And look what has happened to Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party darling since his surprising defeat in 2010 of Robert Bennett, a beloved conservative senator. He’s become sidekick to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, chiming in during the recent filibuster about a childhood accident and his dream of being a pirate.

‘Wacko Birds’
Lee is one of the new lawmakers who have been dubbed “wacko birds” by Senator John McCain of Arizona. Karl Rove said Lee’s scorched-earth strategy was “the one tactic that might be able to guarantee that the Democrats pick up seats in the Congress in 2014.” Even Lee’s friend and Capitol Hill roommate, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, refused to back his plan to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Lee’s favorable rating has dropped 10 percentage points since a June Brigham Young University poll, which doesn’t skew liberal. More than half of Utah voters see him unfavorably; 57 percent said he should be more willing to compromise. In a separate survey, a majority of Utah voters now disapprove of the Tea Party’s influence.

Like Amash, Lee will be challenged from his left. Josh Romney and Dan Liljenquist are waiting in the wings. If Lee survives that primary contest, there’s an excellent chance that Democratic Representative Jim Matheson -- who’s been gerrymandered into unwinnable districts twice but still wins -- could win a statewide race in the reddest state in the country.

Utah Republicans have been heading toward buyer’s remorse for some time. At last year’s convention in Salt Lake City, a robust 125,000 Republicans turned out. This was a reaction to the 2010 convention, when 50,000 Tea Party activists took over and eliminated Bennett in favor of Lee. By 2012, the establishment was back in charge, and Bennett got a long and loud standing ovation. At that same convention, Senator Orrin Hatch easily won the nomination and re-election.

Here’s another suggestion for thank-you notes: “Dear Senator Bennett, thank you for taking one for the establishment. Signed, Senator Hatch.”

And Senator Lee, watch out. Jim Matheson may have a note for you in 2016.

(Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist.)

To contact the writer of this article: Margaret Carlson at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this article: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net.

Sounds like unbiased journalism to me. And do you know why this is all a lie? If the tea party was destroying the republican party, you wouldn't hear a peep from them. They would sit back silently. They are throwing a tantrum because they are terrified they may be exposed. Ted Cruz is the biggest enemy they have faced in a decade. The concern that the Tea Party may elect senators and representatives that don't tote the Washington line is a big worry for them. They can't control them. They've worked for decades to mold the republicans into their bitches.

[BP]

That's the biggest problem we face in America today, most people don't consider this type of article as unbiased. We've had liberalism shoved down our throats ever since the Clinton administration.

This article is further to the left than David Duke was to the right but there isn't going to be anyone calling her an extremist.

[stevo]

Opinion journalism at it's worst.

Stevo

[CJ]

That's the biggest problem we face in America today, most people don't consider this type of article as unbiased. We've had liberalism shoved down our throats ever since the Clinton administration.

This article is further to the left than David Duke was to the right but there isn't going to be anyone calling her an extremist.

They can't beat us in the realm of ideas, so the liberal game plan is demonizing. If you're a conservative you are white, old, racist, homophobic, and (most recently) hate women. That's just how it is. You ask them about debt, they call you a racist.

This perpetuates victimology, the basis of liberalism. Everyone is a victim, no self-responsibility. Fired from your job? They were racist. Can't feed your family? You're a victim, get food stamps. It starts with blaming others, and it ends with you being property of the government. These people are owned by our government, bought and paid for. This started with the JFK assassination, and it was accelerated with Carter nationalizing education.

[8mpg]

Horrible article, not because it doesnt share my views, but rather it is so liberal and one sided that it shouldnt be called journalism.

[talisman]

I stopped reading where CJ bolded. I've got no time for people who write that type of idiotic tripe.

[Forever_frost]

The Republican's issue with the Tea Party is you can't buy them. That's why Wall Street and the D's hate them too. The Tea Party is what Reagan called a bold color difference. If Cruz was on the left, they'd tout his college history, his professional success and the fact he has gone to the SC aruging on cases. The man is brilliant but he's an ideologue that believes the Constitution is supreme. You can't argue with an ideologue, you can't buy him or bribe him.

He's as dangerous to the Washington "go along to get along" as Obama is to the country. They won't turn course because they can't. What they are doing is built into who they are.

[Nash B.]

The Republican's issue with the Tea Party is you can't buy them. That's why Wall Street and the D's hate them too. The Tea Party is what Reagan called a bold color difference. If Cruz was on the left, they'd tout his college history, his professional success and the fact he has gone to the SC aruging on cases. The man is brilliant but he's an ideologue that believes the Constitution is supreme. You can't argue with an ideologue, you can't buy him or bribe him.

He's as dangerous to the Washington "go along to get along" as Obama is to the country. They won't turn course because they can't. What they are doing is built into who they are.

Apparently, they have been bought!

Rather than be an enduring movement of concerned grass-roots activists, the Tea Party has become a well-financed faction of the Republican Party bankrolled by business interests such as the Koch brothers to push a narrow agenda of regressive taxes, opposition to unions and the rollback of regulations.

[Vertnut]

Sounds like unbiased journalism to me. And do you know why this is all a lie? If the tea party was destroying the republican party, you wouldn't hear a peep from them. They would sit back silently. They are throwing a tantrum because they are terrified they may be exposed. Ted Cruz is the biggest enemy they have faced in a decade. The concern that the Tea Party may elect senators and representatives that don't tote the Washington line is a big worry for them. They can't control them. They've worked for decades to mold the republicans into their bitches.

Yep. They're scared shitless of Ted, and therefore, of us. It scares them a little more that he's from Texas, a state they have vowed to overtake. If Ted's principle's really get a foothold in the senate and the country, the dems have a real problem.

I just heard a sound-bite of Pelosi and Charlie Rangel both calling the Tea Party folks "confederates".

[stevo]

Horrible article, not because it doesnt share my views, but rather it is so liberal and one sided that it shouldnt be called journalism.

There have been calls lately to investigate "journalists" who have been passing blatant opinion articles as impartial journalism.

Stevo

[likeitfast55]

The Republican's issue with the Tea Party is you can't buy them. That's why Wall Street and the D's hate them too. The Tea Party is what Reagan called a bold color difference. If Cruz was on the left, they'd tout his college history, his professional success and the fact he has gone to the SC aruging on cases. The man is brilliant but he's an ideologue that believes the Constitution is supreme. You can't argue with an ideologue, you can't buy him or bribe him.

He's as dangerous to the Washington "go along to get along" as Obama is to the country. They won't turn course because they can't. What they are doing is built into who they are.

This is why like Cruz. He does what is wanted by the people who elect him and not the companies that have bought him.(in all appearances)

I only hope he continues this mind-set and does not pander to the big business interests that plague Washington, or the extreme Holy roller religious zealot conservatives within the GOP. That would alienate a large chunk of his supporters like myself that are more centralist voters.

[line-em-up]

If our guys don't succeed with gaining control over the left and Obama by 2016, I am going to be ready to take it to the next level and physically evict them, permanently. The time for talk is past due.

[Forever_frost]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-kochs-cant-control-the-monster-they-created/280435/

The government shutdown and looming threat of default have pitted House conservatives against the Republican Party's traditional allies in the business community. Populist Tea Partiers driven by ideology care little for the pleas for sanity from banking lobbyists and the Chamber of Commerce; indeed, they wear their disregard for Big Business as a badge of honor.

Where does that leave the Koch brothers? The billionaire industrialists have funded a sprawling empire of libertarian-conservative activism; they've been dubbed the bankrollers of the Tea Party. Liberals frequently accuse them of seeking deregulatory policies to further their company's financial interests. But what happens when the Tea Party's ideological warfare threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into chaos?

The answer: The Kochs appear to be distancing themselves from the movement they've helped to create. In a letter released Wednesday, Koch Industries' chief lobbyist, Philip Ellender, says the company does not favor the House's push to defund Obamacare as a condition of keeping the government open. Koch Industries would prefer to see Congress focus on fiscal issues: "We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future," Ellender writes.

Ellender's letter came in response to Democrats' attempts to pin the shutdown on the Kochs. Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "Very rich people in America who don’t believe in government have used Obamacare as a conduit to shut down the government .... This has been led by, according to the news article, a former attorney general of the United States, Ed Meese, and the Koch brothers, who have been raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get us where we are right now," Reid said. He added, "By shutting down the government—and that is what has happened—we are satisfying the Koch brothers and Ed Meese, but millions of people in America are suffering." Reid cited a front-page New York Times article on Sunday that traced the government shutdown's origins in a network of right-wing pressure groups opposed to Obamacare, many of them funded by Charles and David Koch.

But Ellender, in his letter, accuses Reid of distorting Koch's stance. "Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care in America, and raise taxes," he writes. "However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacrare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare."

In addition to keeping spending at sequester levels, Ellender adds, "We also believe that Congress should work to rein-in rampant government spending so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling."

Even as the Kochs attempt to disavow the defund movement, their money has supported it. The brothers have given half a million dollars to Heritage Action, which toured the country rallying support for defunding Obamacare over the summer, Politico reported Wednesday. Heritage Action continues to insist the way to end the shutdown must be defund or nothing: Talk of a fiscal deal constitutes "losing focus," according to a Heritage Action blog post on Tuesday, and "the House should use its leverage to battle President Obama's failed health care law." The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity officially supports repealing Obamacare, not defunding it, but state chapters in New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia have voiced support for defunding.

Like others in the business community, the Kochs appear to believe that the push to defund Obamacare is a doomed and destructive distraction and that the Republican-led House should refocus on fiscal issues. A bigger fiscal deal is the goal House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan pushed in a pair of op-eds Wednesday. But it's adamantly opposed by many conservative activists who still see defunding as achievable, and who see the threat of default not as a looming calamity but as a politically motivated ruse. It's this insistence that Obamacare be gutted at all costs, backed by the archconservative faction in the House, that's keeping the shutdown from ending.

The bigger picture here is the continuing splintering of the mainline GOP from its restive, angry base. Many in the Republican establishment hailed the Tea Party when it seemed like merely a source of grassroots enthusiasm for GOP politicians. But now it has turned on them, and even the Koch brothers find they are powerless to stop it.

[stevo]

You can always tell an article/writer is overly liberal when it becomes obvious they fear the Tea Party and their repeated parroting of "Koch brothers".

Stevo