Palin Sure can Pick ‘em - Tea Party Convention Shaping up to be Epic Fail

Given the choice* of speaking at CPAC 2010 (for no remuneration) or at the National Tea Party Convention (for beaucoup bucks - yay!) guess which one the Frosty Grifter picked? Why, you betcha! That hefty speaking fee, reportedly $100k, convinced our Sarah that the Tea Party Convention was a much more worthwhile organization with which to align herself. Well, luckily she apparently got half that fee up front cause the rest of it’s looking a little shaky these days.

Even FauxNews is admitting the Convention is in trouble.

The first National Tea Party Convention is slated for the end of this week, but several big names and events have cancelled after questions rose about the high fees to attend and the treasure chest where the money will end up.

Over the past few weeks, several sponsors, speakers and volunteers have backed out of the convention, scheduled Feb. 4-6 at Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., after learning that the convention organizer, Tea Party Nation, is a for-profit company. Some activists and outsiders alike are questioning the motives of Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips.

Not our Sarah though!

“Oh, you betcha I’m going to be there,” Palin told Fox News. “I’m going to speak there because there are people traveling from many miles away to hear what that tea party movement is all about.”

And besides, how else am I gonna get the rest of my dough, goshdarnit!!

The N.Y. Times reported last week that money certainly seemed to be a primary factor in the struggling convention’s problems. From TeaBaggers balking at the $500 plus price tag (not including lodging) to disputes with orgs. and speakers NOT being paid $100k to show up.

Nevertheless organizers yesterday stated that all is hunky dory. Not only are they sold out (with a 500 person waiting list - zounds!) but it’s all gonna be broadcast on TEEVEE!!!

Sort of, anyway.

Tea Party Nation was criticized for limiting access to only those news organizations that it believes have given it “fair” coverage, a small group reported to be Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, BreitbartTV, World Net Daily and a few others, although organizers had said they were working to open up the convention to more media.

The announcement said that an internet media company, PJTV, along with Fox News, CNN and Reuters TV, would broadcast “many” of the proceedings of the convention this weekend in Nashville, as well as “special interviews of delegates and speakers.”

Here’s what you get to see. A heavily pared down schedule which has “Prayer Session” as pretty much the highlight on Thursday, a handful of fruitcake speakers and Faux News commentators on Friday and a Tea Party Discussion Panel scheduled for Sat. a.m. The Convention takes a break for the afternoon so everyone can get appropriately excited by the Great Sarah Speech that night.

I mean, regardless of what you think of CPAC 2010 and its organizers and sponsors, you can’t deny that they have their act together as far as putting on a pretty comprehensive (if crazy wing-nutty filled - oooh and GLEN BECK as the keynote speaker!!) conference. (But as far as I know it’s not on the teevees like the TeaBaggers will be!) And that’s who Sarah Failin cast her lot with.

“Must See” viewing coming to your TV screen this weekend. I can almost smell the whiffs of schadenfreude now.

* I say “choice” because apparently Sarah felt she had to choose one or the other due to the close time frame of the two events. Money had *cough* NOTHING *cough* to do with it.

Posted by marindenver on 02/02/10 at 07:24 PM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Bedwetters • Nutters • Sarah Palin • Television •

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Too bad the Tea Party “Movement” turned out to be the Amway of grassroots activism. Between the factions that are false-fronts for the big-money GOP and the ones that are in it purely for the merchandising revenue, it’s becoming obvious that only a handful of folks at the top are going to get the Winnebagos, and nobody cares if the guys at the bottom get stuck with nothing but high hopes and a trunk full of shitty carpet shampoo.

The upside of the Nashville fiasco is that—even if the convention tanks—the Opryland Hotel is still rube-heaven with room service. If you have to kill a few days on the path to dismantling Washington and restoring the Constitution, you might as well do it in a place with an indoor arboretum and an Elvis gift shop.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 02/02/10 at 08:55 PM

Like Scott Brown’s backers, Palin’s are beginning to find out the hard way that politicians as a breed can be *gasp* fickle, self-interested, and once they get what they want out of them, a law unto themselves.

Brown’s making noises like he may not turn out to be quite the Gift To Teabagging that they assumed when they bust guts cheering on and celebrating his election.

Palin’s alienated Lisa Graas, who was running Palin’s Twitter Twibe (Christ, the Twitter nomenclature is so frikkin twee), by backing Rand Son Of Paul rather than Graas’s pick, Bill Johnson (not the first time she’s done her own mavericky thing like this, and it won’t be the last). Ordure—meet whirly thing. This from Graas:

I’ve been sending almost daily communications to SarahPAC telling them about this race and begging them to call me. No one has called. I’ve been working for Sarah Palin since September of 2008 almost daily, in horrible pain, and can’t get a ten-minute phone call from a staffer? It doesn’t matter if it’s not true. I’m done. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m done. They can’t call me??? I’m done.

This Twibe has ceased to be. It is an ex-Twibe. Bereft of life ...

Comment by YAFB on 02/02/10 at 09:12 PM

I can’t wait until Palin ties not attending the Teabagg Hoedown with hating Trig.

Tea Party Nation was criticized for limiting access to only those news organizations that it believes have given it “fair” coverage, a small group reported to be Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, BreitbartTV, World Net Daily and a few others...

A pattern emerges…

Actually, it’s sad to see the WSJ lumped in with Faux Snooze & World Nut Daily.

Comment by Hunger Tallest Palin on 02/02/10 at 09:28 PM

Actually, it’s sad to see the WSJ lumped in with Faux Snooze & World Nut Daily.

Actually? Not lately. At least on its editorial side it seems to have seen the TeaBag Way.

I’ve been working for Sarah Palin since September of 2008 almost daily, in horrible pain

Yeah, there’s not enough antacids in the world to take away the pain of workin’ for Failin.

Comment by marindenver on 02/02/10 at 09:55 PM

BTW, looking at that picture of her, Sarah seems to be slathering on the makeup like a trollop these days. Not like that’s a ~~sexist~~ bad thing to say.

Comment by marindenver on 02/02/10 at 09:56 PM

Given the choice* of speaking at CPAC 2010 (for no remuneration) or at the National Tea Party Convention (for beaucoup bucks - yay!) guess which one the Frosty Grifter picked?

Mar, I expected the asterisk to lead to this: