Tea bag leadership development

It was inevitable that this tea bag thing would get caught up in some sort of leadership development scandal. Gather up the tea bags, form a circle, and prepare yourself for the tea bag attack. There’s really nothing quite as amusing as watching those who are afraid of their own shadows, especially when the shadow and the fright factor come from across the aisle.

In the Republican’s ongoing futile efforts to develop a viable leadership program, they’ve somehow managed yet another brilliant show of intelligence. In fine form, they now argue over tea bags funding their own tea bags, who are in turn transporting those same tea bags.

The Tea Party Express (TPE) - which should not be confused with the rival Tea Party Patriots (so many tea bags, but more on them shortly) - has within its structural support system a political action committee known as Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB). TPE and OCDB now find themselves in the middle of a circle of confusion, if not questionable financial endeavors.

At the center of this is Howard Kaloogian, chair of OCDB, and a former 2006 Republican House candidate. Then there’s his friend, Sal Russo, of the GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, who ran Kaloogian’s failed congressional campaign. Yes, you may remember these two from their efforts in 2005‘s Moving America Forward campaign, a conservative attempt at justifying Operation Iraqi Freedom. As the saying goes, it has to be true, no one could make this up.

From July through November, according to FEC filings just made public, OCDB spent $1.33 million in an effort to further its cause.  Sort of.  Of that amount, $832,403 went back to Russo, Marsh, and Associates, based in Sacramento.  Key there is associates, as in people associated with Russo, Marsh. Russo himself received an additional $8,500 and Russo employee Joe Wierzbicki received an additional $16,219.  It should be noted that services offered by and paid to Russo, Marsh appear to be legitimate expenses necessary to keeping tea bags moving in the right direction.   

Of course, part of that is bus driver payments totaling $24,490, routed through, naturally, Russo Marsh, and Associates. That averages out to $4,898.00 per month for bus driving. Sounds like a great paying job until reality sets in. You’ve got to ask yourself, who would want to drive around a bus tub full of Republicans?

Separate from the bus driver amounts included as part of the $832,403 is an amount of $30,201 going toward bus rental costs to Coast To Coast Coach of Agua Dulce, California. Not to be outdone, Premiere Transportation of Franklin, Texas received $39,000 for “Bus rental and wrap” services. Other bus wraps, fuel, travel costs, airfare, meals, restaurants, and lodging are listed as additional costs.

At $320, San Antonio led the city permit fee brigade, proof that you’ve got to pay to play on the opponent’s home turf.

On clear display is the single most obvious problem: a lack of leadership skills. Some within the conservative activist group Tea Party Patriots (TPP) have denounced TPE, labeling it a “Republican front organization.” That, however is child’s play when compared to TPP’s own internal storm.

Even on the grassroots level, Republicans cannot dodge charges of corruption and financial mismanagement. This time, however, the charges are being hurled against one another. Amy Kremer, a former TPP leader, fell from its good graces when she befriended TPE. Naturally, alaw suit has followed. This is just the beginning.

Blue collar tea bags (if there’s such a concept) are wondering where their money is going. Matt Perdue, president of the San Antonio Tea Party group, asks “Where has all this money gone?” He suggests there has been a “mass redirection campaign” regarding Tea Party donations; in other words, more than just recent Christmas stockings have been stuffed. "If there is nothing wrong going on, why has there not been one single piece of paper produced to back up why people got checks, some for $3,000, $7,400+, $4,000, $10,400+??? Where is the documentation? Why isn't the cash deposited like it should be? Why did it take more than two weeks to deposit cash from the meetings?" So asks Perdue.

Then there is the Patriotic Resistance group, a far-right effort currently in scramble mode to distance itself from the pending implosion of TPP. Ditto for Tax Day Tea Party. It’s founder, Eric Odom, sent out a message that the current hot water that all tea bags currently find themselves in “presents a dangerous situation for the movement as a whole.”

While the level of amusement continues to increase, one can only wonder what might have happened had the bus driver’s tea shop destination instead been to a leadership development program. Fortunately, we get to watch tea bags squirming in hot water.  One can only hope.