Inside the Tea Party
Sarah Palin's and Glenn Beck's tweets and teary theatrics serve as valuable spiritual fodder, but in a decentralized movement that has been compared to a starfish, here are 10 movers and shakers you should know about, some in the public eye, some in the shadows.
The couple behind Tea Party Nation, the group that organized February's inaugural National Tea Party Convention, has garnered its fair share of negative press over the past year. According to Politico, they paid $100,000 to lure Sarah Palin to speak and aimed to turn a profit from the event. Unlike many big-time political spenders, neither of them came from money, and they've also been accused of some funny financial dealings. Judson Phillips also accused a former co-worker, Kevin Smith, of having "an ax to grind" when Smith revealed that one of the Tea Party Nation merchandise accounts was linked directly to Sherry's PayPal account.
The convention was also criticized for its $549 ticket price and expensive sponsorships, but the Phillipses have defended all their decisions to the hilt.
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