Tea Party Convention Unravels

Can the average tea partier afford the upcoming convention's $549 ticket price on top of hotel and airfare? A growing number of sponsors and participants don't think so. Various groups are pulling out of the Tea Party convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, to protest the hefty pricetag. Those involved in Tea Party Nation, the convention organizer, are now trading accusations. “We are very concerned about the appearance of T.P.N. profiteering and exploitation of the grassroots movement,” said the national director of the National Precinct Alliance, which will no longer participate, in a statement. “We were under the impression that T.P.N. was a nonprofit organization like N.P.A., interested only in uniting and educating Tea Party activists on how to make a real difference in the political arena.” News reports have estimated Sarah Palin's speaking fee at $100,000, a figure that organizers will neither confirm nor deny.