Minnesota Independent

Tea party problems: Low attendance, credibility problems plague Bachmann, T-Paw

By Andy Birkey | 04.25.11 | 1:22 pm

Last weekend’s Tax Day Tea Party rallies in Iowa and South Carolina featured Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, respectively, and by all accounts, attendance at the events was off. Bachmann carries the tea party mantle, although some activists resent her de facto leadership title, while Pawlenty is having trouble garnering the support of tea partiers even at his own events.

The Koch brothers' companies span the U.S.

Report links Koch brothers to House Oversight committee

By Kyle Daly | 03.01.11 | 12:30 pm

The Watchdog Institute, a nonprofit reporting center based out of San Diego State University, has released a report showing connections between a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Koch brothers, Charles and David. The brothers — who have been bankrolling anti-union efforts in Wisconsin as well as tea party groups — have made billions through companies that make products including Georgia Pacific building materials, fabrics like Lycra, and paper products like Brawny paper towels and Dixie cups. The company’s Minnesota enterprises include Flint Hills Resources in Rosemount, and Koch’s minerals and pipeline businesses.

Third Pawlenty trailer praises tea party

By Andy Birkey | 03.01.11 | 11:39 am

In his latest Hollywood-style, highly produced YouTube video, Tim Pawlenty attempts to court the tea party movement. The former governor, whose potential campaign for the GOP nomination in 2012 has remained in the single digits in polls of Republican voters, calls the tea party “A New Birth of Freedom.” The spot concludes with a clip from Pawlenty’s weekend speech to the tea party summit in Arizona.

In Arizona, Pawlenty thanks tea party for ‘standing up to the ruling class’

By Andy Birkey | 02.28.11 | 8:42 am

Tim Pawlenty made a splash at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit on Saturday in Arizona. The former governor scored a close second in the event’s straw poll and threw plenty of red meat to tea party activists in his speech Saturday evening, including thanking the tea party for “standing up to the ruling class” which includes unions.

Bachmann headed to Jupiter for tea party meeting

By Andy Birkey | 02.25.11 | 12:49 pm

The Abacoa Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., will be host to Rep. Michele Bachmann on March 4 as she meets with local tea party groups, Florida media outlets are reporting. The trip to Florida is among many that the possible presidential contender has planned for the spring, including trips to New Hampshire, Iowa and New Orleans. Bachmann has just come off trips to Iowa, Montana and South Carolina.

Pawlenty ties for first in Beltrami County straw poll

By Andy Birkey | 02.22.11 | 8:38 am

While still a year out from Super Tuesday, Republicans in the northwoods held a straw poll over the weekend to gauge interest in the 23 Republicans rumored to be mulling a presidential bid in 2012 or a campaign against Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Beltrami County Republicans picked former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee for the GOP nomination while Rep. Michele Bachmann was the favorite to take on Klobuchar.

Pawlenty to headline tea party convention in Arizona

By Andy Birkey | 02.18.11 | 11:46 am

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty is scheduled to headline a tea party summit in Phoenix, Ariz., from Feb. 25 to 27. The “American Policy Summit-Pathways to Liberty” is being marketed as the official two-year anniversary of the tea party movement. Pawlenty will also be headed to Nashville to speak on a panel with Arianna Huffington and Bill Kristol in March.

President Clinton: Bachmann, new Republicans in political ‘parallel universe’

By Andy Birkey | 02.07.11 | 8:00 am

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, former President Bill Clinton said that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s assertion that the United States has the best health care system in the world is not true and that the new crop of Republicans in Congress are living “in a parallel universe divorced from reality with no facts.” Clinton was responding to comments Bachmann made during her Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

Bachmann adds Sekulow to list of constitution class teachers

By Andy Birkey | 02.01.11 | 3:02 pm

Rep. Michele Bachmann has added religious right attorney Jay Sekulow to her list of instructors at her Tea Party Caucus constitutional classes. Sekulow is the head of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a conservative religious law group televangelist Pat Robertson founded because he thought the American Civil Liberties Union was “hostile to traditional American values.” Sekulow joins Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and controversial history revisionist David Barton as an invitee of Bachmann to teach the courses.

Bachmann gets the Saturday Night Live treatment

By Andy Birkey | 01.31.11 | 9:00 am

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s tea party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address last week became fodder for Saturday Night Live when SNL’s Kristen Wiig lampooned Bachmann in the opening scene. She played with the fact that Bachmann used a number of charts during her response, and that she appeared not to face the camera during CNN’s live broadcast.