Five Republicans Who Denounce Tea Parties

Posted by | July 16, 2010 16:35 | Filed under: Top Stories


Talking Points Memo has the top five Republicans hating on the tea parties.

1. Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, defeated in a GOP primary.

In an interview with the Associated Press last week, Bennett said tea partiers are actually helping Democrats, given their support of novice candidates like Sharron Angle who might blow chances at unseating the party in power.

“With the tea party creating the mischief that it is in Colorado, we may not win that seat. My sources in Nevada say with Sharon Angle there’s no way Harry Reid loses in Nevada,” Bennett said. He also said thanks to Rand Paul’s candidacy, “that’s a seat we could lose.”

2. Robert Hurt, Republican nominee in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District, a state senator challenging Democrat Tom Perriello for Congress.

Hurt spokesman Chris LaCivita criticized the tea party in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, saying: “With this group, if you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you think you can be a member of Congress.”

3. South Carlina Senator Lindsey Graham.  Graham told the New York Times he doesn’t think the tea party will last as a movement.

“The problem with the Tea Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out,” he said.

Graham also said he challenged a group of Tea Partiers in a meeting: “‘What do you want to do? You take back your country — and do what with it?’…Everybody went from being kind of hostile to just dead silent.”

4. Outgoing South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis

In an interview with the Associated Press, Inglis suggested “that tea party favorites such as former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck are the culprits” of “demagoguery” that threatens the Republican party long term.

Inglis didn’t directly name the tea party movement, but challenged one of the key talking points tea partiers picked up from Palin during the health care debate.

5. Scott Rigell, GOP candidate for Congress from Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, running against freshman Democrat Glenn Nye.

The local tea party backed the GOP primary’s other candidates over Rigell, a car dealer who donated to President Obama and other Democrats in recent years. The tea party now says they won’t get involved in the general election.

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Copyright 2010 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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