Tea Party fragmented, but still a force

As one faction welcomes Romney, another recoils

September 03, 2011|By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff

Supporters attended a Tea Party Express rally in Iowa Thursday. A conservative… (Jim Young/reuters )

DES MOINES - Its tandem of colorful buses was greeted by minuscule crowds this week in Iowa. But no matter. A triumphant mood prevailed among the merry band aboard the Tea Party Express, from Sharron Angle, a former Senate candidate from Nevada, down to the Tea Party rapper in baggy jeans.

The organizers of the rally are excited about their cosponsorship of a GOP primary debate this month, which will be hosted by “lamestream media’’ powerhouse CNN. They have drawn considerable media to the cross-country trip, which will tour through New England before heading to the debate site in Tampa. And Mitt Romney is scheduled to rendezvous with the Tea Party Express tomorrow in New Hampshire. It will mark the first appearance at a Tea Party rally of the candidate who has fashioned himself more as an establishment Republican, a former businessman who knows what ails the economy.

Yet even while racking up political successes, the Tea Party’s fractured leadership and increasingly negative public image are stunting its maturation as a cohesive political force within the GOP. News coverage this week focused less on the Tea Party’s goals of shrinking government and cutting taxes and more on internal squabbling.

FreedomWorks, another like-minded advocacy group, pulled its blogger off the Tea Party Express bus to protest the tour organizers’ decision to allow Romney to speak at the New Hampshire event. FreedomWorks plans to publicly protest Romney’s appearance.

In another move that roiled Tea Party blogs, a group calling itself Tea Party of America - which public records show incorporated just a month ago - fumbled its first big moment. It said Sarah Palin would attend a rally near Des Moines planned for today, then scrambled to manage the story as it appeared she would back out. Now the former Alaska governor is on board and expected to headline the rally, but Christine O’Donnell, a failed Senate candidate from Delaware, is off the roster.

The quest for attention and money by competing groups is angering some Tea Party grassroots organizers.

“I think these national groups are the ones giving the Tea Party a bad name,’’ said Jeff Leucke, a leader of the Dubuque Tea Party. “They are taking the corporate money. They are shills for the Republican Party.’’

A poll taken after this summer’s credit-ceiling debate in Congress showed that Americans have an increasingly negative view of the Tea Party. About 40 percent of Americans said they had an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, compared with 18 percent in April 2010, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published in August.