bobbyw24
01-31-2010, 10:50 AM
The organizers of next month’s embattled National Tea Party Convention on Saturday lashed out at everyone from former sponsors and allies to the convention’s financial backers to House Democrats to Rep. Ron Paul’s political group, suggesting all have tried to sabotage the event.
As first reported by POLITICO, the convention came under fire from former supporters and conservative leaders for its high ticket prices, top-down structure and selling of sponsorships for as much as $50,000, as well as the for-profit status of the company running it, Tea Party Nation. Thecompany shelled out $100,000 to pay Sarah Palin’s speaking fee, while its president Judson Phillips planned to turn a profit from the convention, which he said he intended to use to seed a so-called 527 group.
As sponsors and top speakers have withdrawn and the event has struggled to sell tickets – at $350 a pop – to Palin’s keynote speech, former allies and prominent conservatives have accused Phillips of trying to use the convention to turn a buck or vault him into a leadership role in the decentralized tea party movement. Yet Phillips and his wife and co-organizer Sherry Phillips have largely left these criticisms unanswered until now.
But in an email to members of Tea Party Nation, the social network run by the company putting on the convention, Sherry Phillips launched a blistering attack against her perceived foes, and defended her motivations and her husband’s.
“We never did this to make us rich or famous,” she wrote. “Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32255.html#ixzz0eD3MnEzL
As first reported by POLITICO, the convention came under fire from former supporters and conservative leaders for its high ticket prices, top-down structure and selling of sponsorships for as much as $50,000, as well as the for-profit status of the company running it, Tea Party Nation. Thecompany shelled out $100,000 to pay Sarah Palin’s speaking fee, while its president Judson Phillips planned to turn a profit from the convention, which he said he intended to use to seed a so-called 527 group.
As sponsors and top speakers have withdrawn and the event has struggled to sell tickets – at $350 a pop – to Palin’s keynote speech, former allies and prominent conservatives have accused Phillips of trying to use the convention to turn a buck or vault him into a leadership role in the decentralized tea party movement. Yet Phillips and his wife and co-organizer Sherry Phillips have largely left these criticisms unanswered until now.
But in an email to members of Tea Party Nation, the social network run by the company putting on the convention, Sherry Phillips launched a blistering attack against her perceived foes, and defended her motivations and her husband’s.
“We never did this to make us rich or famous,” she wrote. “Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32255.html#ixzz0eD3MnEzL