Apparently Oil and Tea Mix With One Another

Within days of President Obama's inauguration, being on the wrong side of the President's election mandate, the right wing mobilized to block any of his initiatives. As their icon Pills Limpballs said over and over, they wanted him to fail. The so-called "Tea Party" movement was whipped up by Rethuglican and right-wing corporate activists, among them an "astroturf" front for corporate interests calling themselves FreedomWorks. They provided buses, obtained permits, provided printed signs and conducted public relations for the assorted birthers, militia, taxophobes and racists that form the far right core of the "conservative" movement. Of course, the Fux Channel promoted the hell of of them as if they were a populist cause.

After BP's oil gusher erupted, the wingers were caught fumbling for a spin on their "drill, baby, drill" mantra, trying not to call for more government intervention while laughably blaming the mess on "environmentalists." Now, FreedomWorks' President is calling the oil gusher a "natural disaster," which should please his sponsors at BP. According to Think Progress,

"FreedomWorks worked with BP to build grassroots support for opening up large sections of both the East and West coasts to new oil drilling. BP listed the group as part its 'significant grassroots supporters' on a PowerPoint slide at a presentation by the BP-funded front group 'Consumer Energy Alliance' at a conference in 2007."

First it was the insurance industry fighting health care reform; now BP used the same astroturf organization to make it appear as though they had public support for offshore drilling. That's what the teabagger movement is in a nutshell: powerful interests using gullible and ill-informed wingnuts to serve as their shock troops to undermine what's in the interest of the public -- including teabaggers themselves.