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Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests

By Lee Fang on Apr 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

Yesterday, Think Progress reported on Republican lawmakers [ http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/08/gopestablishment-joins-teaparties/ ] planning to speak at anti-Obama “tea party” protests [ http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/23/impeach-protest-obama/ ] taking place nationwide on April 15. Last night, Eric Odom of the DontGo website — one of the organizers of the protests — wrote a blog post stressing that these protests are displays of “regular American[s] [ http://www.dontgomovement.com/blog/2009/04/08/rnc-chairman-steel-requests-speaker-spot-at-chicago-tea-party/ ] in protest of government spending and extreme taxation,” rather than something affiliated with a political party or special interest agenda.

Today on Fox News — which has actively been promoting the protests [ http://mediamatters.org/items/200904080025 ] — Glenn Beck pushed the tea party talking points, similarly claiming that the protests aren’t “coordinated” and are fully organized by “regular” people. Watch it:

[video embedded; also (and better viewed) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be3ZHhZIorE ]

Despite these attempts to make the “movement” appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. The two groups are heavily staffed [ http://www.freedomworks.org/about/staff ] and well funded [ http://mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=5836 ], and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:

– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDFWViHL7o ] to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”

– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events [ http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/bstein80/how-to-organize-your-own-%E2%80%9Ctea-party%E2%80%9D-protest (sic, duplicate of link [properly] used below in this article; see e.g. http://www.cassyfiano.com/2009/04/first-coast-tax-day-tea-party-updates )] in Florida [ http://americansforprosperity.org/032509-kansas-city-tax-day-tea-party (sic, duplicate of link [properly] used below in this article; see e.g. http://www.americandailyreview.com/home-features-articles-blog/2009/3/30/cape-coral-tea-party-saved.html )].

– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message [ http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/bstein80/how-to-organize-your-own-%E2%80%9Ctea-party%E2%80%9D-protest ]” to the public and media.

– Freedom Works has several [ http://usateapartystore.com/ ] domain [ http://www.iamwithrick.com/ ] addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs [ http://www.usteaparty.com/ ] — to promote the protests.

– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey [ http://www.afphq.org/032409-new-jersey-tax-day-tea-party ], Arizona [ http://www.afphq.org/031809-save-date-april-15th-tax-day-tea-party ], New Hampshire [ http://www.afphq.org/033109-afp-nh-host-taxpayer-tea-party-state-capitol-april-15-%E2%80%93-high-noon ], Missouri [ http://www.afphq.org/032509-tea-party-registration ], Kansas [ http://americansforprosperity.org/032509-kansas-city-tax-day-tea-party ], and several other states.

This type of corporate ‘astroturfing [ http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Astroturf ]‘ is nothing new to either organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization, Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as a “single mom” [ http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/politics/17mom.html?_r=2&ei=1&en=9fc511a24ef86ae0&ex=1104320536&pagewanted=print&position= ] to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for similarly building “amateur-looking [ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90517606 ]” websites to promote the lobbying interests [ http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/armeylobbyingdisclosure.pdf ] of Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who now leads Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for the firm DLA Piper.

Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner [ http://www.censtrat.com/staffbio.cfm?staff_id=13" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20040603164236/http://www.censtrat.com/staffbio.cfm?staff_id=13 ] in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations [ http://mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=8806 ] — a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry. Indeed Americans for Prosperity has coordinated pro-drilling ‘grassroots [ http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/14/afp-astroturf/ ]‘ events around the country.

Update: This afternoon, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, leader of the corporate-funded American Solutions for Winning the Futures (ASWF), blasted an e-mail to his supporters with a reminder to attend the protests, along with a "Toolkit [ http://www.americansolutions.com/General/?Page=a6386a2f-6bb2-4ee5-b230-b46b54c887e4 ]" of talking points. Gingrich's ASWF is funded by polluters [ http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/07/30/aswf-peabody-coal-cash/ ] and helped orchestrate the "Drill Here, Drill Now [ http://www.grist.org/article/nothing-newt-under-the-sun ]" campaign last summer. ASWF has been an official "partner [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKr95e5aIE ]" in the tea party effort since at least March.

© 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/lobbyists-planning-teaparties/ [with comments]

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also/more:

The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties

April 13, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/the-corporate-lobbyists-b_b_186367.html

The Tea Party Movement: Who's In Charge?
Apr 13 2009
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/the_tea_party_movement_whos_in_charge.php

You Can’t Teabag Without a Dick Armey!

April 15, 2009
http://mikk2.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/you-cant-teabag-without-a-dick-armey/

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