Minnesota Independent

Tea Party Convention marks coming out for a movement

By David Weigel | 02.08.10 | 8:12 am

To the delight of attendees, the National Tea Party Convention became a coming-out party for a movement that’s always had an oppositional relationship to the press.

So why is Joseph Basel at the National Tea Party Convention?

By David Weigel | 02.05.10 | 6:14 pm

NASHVILLE — Justin Elliot picked up on my observation that Joseph Basel was here at the National Tea Party Convention and wondered how Basel was allowed to leave his home state of Minnesota before the Landrieu phone…

Campus right unbowed by O’Keefe scandal

By David Weigel | 02.03.10 | 9:01 am

Activists like James O’Keefe and Minnesota’s Joseph Basel — who were recently arrested for trying to tamper with phones at Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office — don’t represent the best of the conservative movement’s recent investment in college journalism. “For every James O’Keefe,” said the head of one network for conservative college media, “there are 50 serious journalists coming out of these programs.”

‘The Tea Party is Over’

By David Weigel | 02.02.10 | 8:43 am

Some lower-level Democratic consultants have launched what I think is the first anti-Tea Party campaign at TheTeaPartyIsOver.org. There’s not much at the website, operated by the American Public Policy Committee, except attacks on conservatives linking their extremism

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Conservatives see long-term ‘gift’ in Obama spending freeze

By David Weigel | 01.29.10 | 11:53 am

On Monday night the White House leaked the news that President Obama would propose a three-year freeze on discretionary spending. In his State of the Union speech, the president confirmed it. Now, Republicans — who’ve been pushing for such a move — are taking credit for changing the president’s mind.

Bachmann, House conservatives launch ‘Declaration of Health Care Independence’

By David Weigel | 01.27.10 | 4:11 pm

At a mid-day press conference on Capitol Hill, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) launched a “Declaration of Health Care Independence” — a statement of principles that they hoped Democrats and voters would sign onto, but not one that would be backed by legislation or one that could be posted at their websites.

Brown wins in Massachusetts

By David Weigel | 01.19.10 | 10:04 pm

BOSTON — At 9:20, the first rumors of Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race started to work around the room. A moment later, Doug Flutie turned around from a TV interview to face the crowded Park Plaza

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In Massachusetts, Brown stresses insurgency over issues

By David Weigel | 01.19.10 | 11:42 am

The candidacy of Scott Brown, the GOP candidate who may win the seat held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts today, is explicitly being compared to Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency.

Reporters (mostly) barred from Tea Party convention

By David Weigel | 01.12.10 | 9:41 am

For a while, I’ve been calling and emailing the organizers of the National Tea Party Convention with some basic logistical questions, to no avail. Star Tribune Washington reporter Kevin Diaz explains why: the convention, held in Nashville next…

Looking for Lott’s revenge, GOP aims at Reid gaffe

By David Weigel | 01.11.10 | 10:32 am

For Republicans, a revelation in Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s book “Game Change” was manna from heaven. Looking to capitalize on comments by Sen. Harry Reid that Barack Obama was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” some in the GOP are calling for Reid to step down as Senate majority leader.