RS's MattTaibbi on the Tea Party:

[damonm]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904?RS_show_page=0
(emphasis mine...)

Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry's medals and Barack Obama's Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin.

[alsame]

1. If they were serious, they would worship Bill Clinton for creating

a surplus and balancing the budget.

[rurallib]

2. If they were serious, they would be running Chuck Grassley out on a rail

Chuckles sat as chair or ranking member on the senate finance committee and said not a word about the debt going through the ceiling. If they were serious that fucker would be wearing tar and feathers.
And Chuckles wanting to keep the tax cuts for the rich. Which of course is going to really raise that debt.

[ej510]

3. Matt Taibi kicks ass! K&R!