FreedomWorks tea party group nearly falls apart in fight between old and new guard

[UCmeNdc]

The real story.......

The day after Labor Day, just as campaign season was entering its final frenzy, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based tea party organization, went into free fall.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.

The coup lasted all of six days. By Sept. 10, Armey was gone — with a promise of $8 million — and the five ousted employees were back. The force behind their return was Richard J. Stephenson, a reclusive Illinois millionaire who has exerted increasing control over one of Washington’s most influential conservative grass-roots organizations.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/freedomworks-tea-party-group-nearly-falls-apart-in-fight-between-old-and-new-guard/2012/12/25/dd095b68-4545-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html

[eShirl]

1. holy shit

“This was two weeks after there had been a shooting at the Family Research Council,” said one junior staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “So when a man with a gun who didn’t identify himself to me or other people on staff, and a woman I’d never seen before said there was an announcement, my first gut was, ‘Is FreedomWorks in danger?’ It was bizarre.’ ”

-snip-

Armey appeared out of touch and unsure of how FreedomWorks operated when he took over that Tuesday morning, according to interviews with more than a dozen employees on both sides who witnessed the takeover. Sitting in a glass-walled conference room visible to much of the staff, he placed three young female employees on administrative leave, then reversed himself when they burst into tears; his wife lamented aloud that maybe they had “jumped the gun.”

In subsequent meetings, Susan Armey passed her husband notes that several employees assumed contained suggestions on what to say. According to a recording of a staff conference call provided to The Washington Post, Armey bewildered his audience by demanding more FreedomWorks support for Todd Akin, the Missouri Republican whose Senate campaign had already cratered after his comments about “legitimate rape.”

“It was clear that under Armey’s leadership, the organization as we knew it was going to be driven into the ground,” said one junior employee.

[trumad]

2. The con artist exposed.

[_Liann_]

3. Phoney Propaganda, like the Koch-Cato fight

There's a good chance that Obama accidentally might appoint an Attorney General who enforces laws against the 1%. Cato Institute first, and now Freedomworks-CSE, has created a smokescreen of internal dissension.

Dick Armey walking away with his $8,000,000 retirement plan really cannot be feuding over Matt Kibbe's $50K book deal.

This crap is for the public consumption. If federal investigations ever happens they will have created a faked feud to point to how they didn't all conspire together to overthrow America for pay on orders from rich guys who paid them. It was very different from that. Yeah right.

[eShirl]

6. nothing says conspirators can't infight, too

[madrchsod]

4. he`s a really nice guy.....

http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/200908050002

[MrModerate]

5. These people aren't nuts . . .

Nope, not a bit.

Sheesh!

[Snarkoleptic]

7. Stephenson...Teabagger...cancer treatment mogul.

More from the article-
Stephenson, the founder of the for-profit Cancer Treatment Centers of America and a director on the FreedomWorks board, agreed to commit $400,000 per year over 20 years in exchange for Armey’s agreement to leave the group.

More on this suburban-Chicago shitheel.
http://www.muckety.com/Richard-J-Stephenson/29115.muckety
Cancer Treatment Centers of America - founder
FreedomWorks - director
International Capital & Mangement Company - owner
Tudor Oaks Farm - founder

[Sheepshank]

8. Hope Stephenson takes out bankrupcy and shuts down those $400K/year payments

It's norm now-a-days