Operation Steele/Armey: GOP, Tea Party Movement Co-Opt Each Other

Originally published in the Huffington Post

Today Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Dick Armey, head of tea party support groupFreedomWorks, held a joint conference call expressing their willingness to work together.

The call was held at 11am and included various members of the right-wing media. According to Politico:

The call is the first joint effort between Steele and the tea party movement -- which Republican candidates have been trying to court since the widespread anti-tax rallies in April that launched the populist uprising. "The two have connected on the matters of this health care bill," said an RNC source.

According to live-Tweeting from Dana Mozie of RockStarPolitics, the two spoke of how Congress had "flipped the bird" at the American people. Michael Steele also mentioned that"the fix is in" as far as health care is concerned. There was also talk about this morning's 1 am 60-40 vote for cloture on the bill being a cowardly move by Democrats. Armey ultimately said that no one can claim to be the leader of the Tea Party movement.

The implicit connection between the two groups is a new and distinctive development that stands in stark contrast to the Tea Party movement's prior aversion to the GOP. Eric Odom is a self-proclaimed founder of the modern Tea Party movement and an organizer of the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party, at which Michael Steele attempted to speak on tax day.

When Steele requested to address the event, however, Odom rebuffed him publicly, going so far as to post his response online. In regards to Steele, Odom wrote:

[I]t appears that he has only just decided to reach out after realizing how big the movement has gotten and how much media is now involved.

During the October ruckus surrounding the special election in NY-23, the GOP endorsed moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava while the Tea Party movement ran its own candidate, Doug Hoffman. Odom flew out to help coordinate the offensive, and even accused the GOP ofopen war against the Tea Party movement:

Not only is the NRCC going to waste donor dollars on a failed candidate with no hope of winning the race,they're also going to attack the actual conservative in the race! At this point, the only logical conclusion is that the NRCC (a huge hub of establishment consultants who leech off of donor money) and the rest of the old guard will arm itself for battle and wage war against the grassroots base rather than give it control.

Dick Armey himself stepped into the race, throwing the support of FreedomWorks behind Hoffman to such a degree that when Hoffman was interviewed by a local newspaper editorial board, Armey was seated right next to him. In fact Armey did Hoffman harm when, after Hoffman was asked about local issues, Armey dismissed the question, referring to such issues as "parochial" claiming this was an election about a national movement.

Scozzafava ended up dropping out of the race and supporting the Democrat, who was able to take a seat held by Republicans since Reconstruction thanks to the GOP and the Tea Party splitting the conservative vote.

Within two weeks of his movement's embarrassing loss, Odom's aggression was tempered. In a November 10 blog post entitled "It's Time to Take Over the GOP" Odom switched his strategy from something out of Rambo to something out of Aliens, seeing the GOP as a host to invade.

I know many of my fellow Tea Party activists are going to hate me for this, but it's time to face reality. The Republican Party must be our vessel in 2010...As a libertarian who voted for Bob Barr in 2008, I find it very difficult to state this in a public manner, but I will now be joining the Republican Party... I'm in no way advocating that we as a movement stand behind the existing Republican establishment. I am, rather, suggesting that we become the establishment... I know many of us in the movement have different goals. Some are to weaken the two party stronghold. This is understandable and a good long term goal... Love or hate the Republican Party... it's our only vessel in the short term. We either unify through it and make a stand strong enough to stop this madness in government, or we fracture over third party efforts and meet uncertain political demise.

Through his organization, American Liberty Alliance, Odom has worked with Armey and FreedomWorks since the spring, and has known Armey since at least 2007, when Odom organized a Conservative Leadership Conference at which Armey spoke. Both groups worked hand-in-glove to support Tax Day Tea Party rallies as well as town hall protests and marches on Washington. Now both organizations are working together to help plan the Tax Day 2010 protests, as well as a conference called the Patriot Caucus to follow immediately after tax day.

Eight months ago, Odom was chiding the GOP as johnny-come-lately tea-party crashers, calling out Steele specifically. Then Odom and Armey worked together against the GOP and Steele in trying to elect Doug Hoffman. Now Odom has capitulated and rejoined the GOP, while Armey and Steele are holding joint conference calls. As one snake bites into the tail of the other and vice-versa, it remains to be seen who will consume who.

Tea Party Movement Plans 2010 Caucus

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE HUFFINGTON POST


This story was produced by HuffPost'sEyes&Ears Citizen Journalism Unit.

The Tea Party movement hopes to calm dissension in its ranks in time for an April meeting of what is being called the Patriot Caucus. The conference will take place the weekend of April 16 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania -- a site chosen to invoke the essence of George Washington, whose army held Valley Forge through the desolate winter of 1777-1778. Over that winter Washington lost over 2,000 men to such maladies as typhoid, jaundice, dysentery, pneumonia, and simple malnutrition. The Tea Party movement hopes for a more successful winter.

This is very possible. The Tea Party movement will use the next few months to develop and strengthen the bonds between its sometimes-warring factions, and, in fact, they have already begun. Four major groups have joined forces and pooled their resources, as evidenced by the top of the TaxDayTeaParty.com website. The result is the Patriot Caucus, a joint effort ofAmerican Liberty Alliance, FreedomWorks, the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition and Tea Party Patriots, the same groups working to plan a 2010 Tax Day Tea Party on April 15 -- one day before the Caucus. All four groups worked together this summer to support the Tax Day Tea Parties and the town hall protests but not in such a tight-knit coalition.

The Caucus identifies itself as not just another Tea Party organization but an "unbiased infrastructure" which will exist only to identify and facilitate communications between like-minded Tea Party groups. The Patriot Caucus Facebook group already boasts over 2,000 members. The group's oldest wall entry was posted December 4, but the Caucus itself did not "go live" for another four days, when their planning wiki went online. The founding conference will include "intense training, debate panels and general session special guests" as well as the first election of "the 155 delegation of the national Patriot Caucus." There's a [sic] in there somewhere.

Why start a non-organization to organize other organizations? Messaging, apparently. According to the overview published on the Caucus wiki,

"We believe a part of the problem is the fact that those who advocate in favor of one idea over another, or one effort over another, do so because of partisanship or bias for the group he/she is involved in. This, of course, is natural and expected. But it does us little good in the end.

As an example, there are constant emails floating around within the movement that say, "why is your group doing that when our group is doing the same thing?" These are perfectly legitimate emails and great questions. But the more important question is, why did the two groups not conference with each other before the plans were made? We can't fault a group for making plans. We can, however, fault the movement for not properly communicating about potential plans as they're brewing."

Another way to put this is that the Caucus is designed to keep all the various Tea Party groups marching to the beat of just one drum, with Eric Odom as the little drummer boy.
Odom is Executive Director of American Liberty Alliance, the logo of which sits atop ThePatriotCaucus.net, a website registered to Odom. As well as being a member of theTemporary Patriot Caucus Development Committee, Odom is a self-proclaimed founder of the Tea Party movement (though the Libertarian Party of Illinois and Ron Paul devotees would beg to differ). American Liberty Alliance worked hand-in-hand with FreedomWorks this summer to utilize the Tea Party Movement as a weapon against health care reform.

FreedomWorks is run by Dick Armey, former Republican House Majority Leader and the very epitome of partisanship. Armey was recently forced to resign his lobbying position at the firm DLA Piper when journalists pointed out that FreedomWorks tended to support causes which happened to intersect with the interests of certain DLA clients. On December 15, Armey was among the few who addressed the crowd at a woefully under-attended "Die In" organized by the Tea Party Patriots, in which protesters were supposed to flood Congressional offices in Washington en masse, then pretend to die as a result of government-run health care. Did it work out? Not so much. Dave Weigel of the Washington Independentcalled the die-in "very gentle" and estimated the crowd at upwards of "a few dozen." No dying-in is reported to have occurred. The event was organized by Caucus coalition partner Tea Party Patriots.

The Patriot Caucus wiki offers visitors a series of campaign resources, including a link to asample press release that happens to be on dtv.gov - a project of the Federal Communications Commission. This, despite the Tea Party movement's antipathy towards the government. The campaign page also encourages potential candidates to start a blog at "blogovists.com", a twice-misspelled link which takes you to Blogivists, another Eric Odom operation which functions as a hub for conservative bloggers.

The event is advertised as taking place at the Valley Forge Convention Center. However, despite the event's heavy promotion on through Tax Day Tea Party, 73Wire.com and American Liberty Alliance, it appears that the Convention Center has no such event on their books. Megan Tomlinson, National Sales Manager, told the Huffington Post, "there was a group with a name similar to [Patriot Caucus] who called, and the matter was discussed, but nothing has been planned as of yet." Despite Odom hyping up the Caucus on 73Wire.com and TaxDayTeaParty.com and AmericanLibertyAlliance.com, and despite the support of Tea Party Patriots, Nationwide Tea Party Coalition and FreedomWorks, no one person or organization has yet to make reservations.

According to a post on 73Wire.com -- yet another Odom project, which purports to be the right wing's answer to the Huffington Post -- planners wanted the conference to be free. However, they felt required to impose a five dollar fee "because we had to expand the size of the venue and we wanted to try and minimize the risk of registrations that do not actually attend."

In a December 13 email to ALA's listserv, Odom wrote that "anyone can run for delegate of the Patriot Caucus." On December 4 Odom posted on TaxDayTeaParty.com that "There will be no charge for attending the three day event, but there will be a credentialing process." However, the Caucus registration page itself advises you to "not even bother" registering if you are "considering attending, but you're not quite sure yet." Other disqualifiers:

• You believe government has the ability to solve our economic problems


• You believe bailouts, either by Bush or Obama, are justifiable under certain circumstances


• You believe an incumbent who voted for the stimulus, healthcare and cap-and-trade legislation should be given a pass


• You're considering attending, but you're not quite sure yet (You need to be certain and we may ask for travel plans in February to ensure it)


• You believe the Twin Towers fell as a result of government involvement on 9/11 (ok this one is not real, but come on... let's not go there. Deal?)


• You are not willing to campaign like your life depends on it in 2010 and 2012


• You believe that taxes in place to support government expansion are ok


• You think we're all nutty

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 4: Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement (The Media)

Originally Published in the Huffington Post

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

Some conservative American media personalities have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Tea Party movement. Right-leaning political commentators promote the Tea Parties, generating more anger and passion among their listeners, which in turn generates more fans and listeners, boosting ratings.

The Tea Party concept first gained widespread notice on February 19 after Rick Santelli's infamous rant live on CNBC. Within a few hours,Eric Odom had rolled out a professional website to coordinate Tea Party protests -- with a week's notice -- on February 27 in cities across the country.

Just days later, with the help of major conservative media figures and well-funded "activist" organizations, Odom posted specific logistical information for dozens of Tea Party rallies to take place the following week. The day after the initial February Tea Parties, Odom was ready with TaxDayTeaParty.com to coordinate the nationwide protests on April 15. He and other like-minded Tea Partiers launched full swing into a mass media campaign to promote the Tax Day Tea Parties. Odom appeared on a FOX News panel on April 14.

Long after the rallies died down, the Tea Party phenomenon surfaced in the headlines again during the NY-23 fiasco in which moderate Republican Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava was forced to drop out of the race after far-right Tea Party activists descended on the sleepy upstate New York district. The Tea Partiers demanded that Scozzafava (deemed a RINO, Republican In Name Only) be scuttled in favor of more conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, a Tea Party favorite. Hoffman was even dubbed the "Tea Party Candidate,"especially by FOX Nation, a website launched in March "where all Americans are encouraged to share, discuss, and debate" what they watch on FOX News. The story has earned so much media coverage that "Scozzafava" has become a verb (as in, will other candidates be Scozzafava'd in 2010?), and NY23 has gone from a little-noticed congressional district to become one of the most-recognizable political arenas in the country.

Prominent bloggers Michelle Malkin, RedState and SmartGirlPolitics have been forthright about their involvement with the Tea Party movement, openly promoting and participating in Tea Party events. SmartGirlPolitics was an original sponsor of the Tax Day Tea Parties. Michelle Malkin was openly promoting Tea Party protests before they were named Tea Parties. Erick Erickson of RedState has been an advocate for and speaker at Tea Party events.

Eric Odom, the political strategist who set up websites to organize anti-bailout Tax Day Tea Parties in February, again in April, and throughout the summer, is a self-described political web strategist who runs at least a half-dozen conservative blog sites. In September, Odomlaunched what he calls a "movement-minded news portal" and "a Huffington Post of our own." In his own words, Odom aims to turn 73wire.com into "the gathering spot for all the news" for their "side" of the issues. Odom was also a key organizer of RootsHQ2009, the conservative political new media conference (the right-side version of NetRootsNation).

Of the three major cable news networks, FOX provided some of the heaviest coverage of Tea Party events. From the early events on, FOX News lionized Tea Party organizers and protesters as "patriots" and "real Americans" who were "standing up" to "big brother."

Coverage of the Tea Party Express bus tour was especially intense. Griff Jenkins, who was embedded by FOX on the Tea Party Express bus tour, literally acted as a cheerleader at Tea Party events. His involvement in and enthusiasm for the Tea Parties was such that Greta Van Susteren felt the need to clarify his role for viewers:

Let me get this straight, Griff, so that the viewers understand. You aren't on this bus; you're following and reporting on what's going on, right? Am I right on that? You're not on this bus?

Jenkins responded that he was not on the bus -- yet. Sean Hannity probably put it best:

Griff Jenkins is having way too much fun.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

• Tea Party Patriots
• FreedomWorks
• Tea Party Express
• Americans for Prosperity
• American Liberty Alliance
• Sam Adams Alliance
• American Future Fund
• RecessRally.com
• The Media

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Reading Tea Leaves - Part 4: Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement (RecessRally.com)

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

Tea Partiers are famous for their raucous protests during the August Congressional recess. They screamed, yelled, stomped and railed against health care reform via town hall meetings and protests across the country.

Most of the August Tea Party activity was coordinated on RecessRally.com, a website started by Eric Odom in July. Odom previously administeredOfficialChicagoTeaParty.com (February 27 protests) and TaxDayTeaParty.com (April 15 protests). In 2008, long before Odom's tea parties, while he was still a Sam Adams Alliance employee, he founded the #DontGomovement, in support of offshore drilling. In March Odom rebranded #DontGo into theAmerican Liberty Alliance.

One of the hallmarks of astroturfing is the coordinated creation of many small, interdependent groups who publicly support each other. RecessRally.com, which was the driving force behind the organization of the August anti-health care reform rallies, used to tout the grassroots nature of the protests, listing its 15 sponsors: American Liberty Alliance; American Liberty Tour; American Majority; Americans for Limited Government; Americans for Prosperity; Let Freedom Ring; Michelle Malkin; Nationwide Tea Party Coalition; NetRightNation; Patients First; RedState blog, Sam Adams Alliance, Smart Girl Politics, andTea Party Patriots. In reality, the groups were tightly coordinated and fewer than half of those 15 'sponsors' are independent from one another.

Each individual group appears to be an offshoot, partner or affiliate of at least one other project under the RecessRally.com umbrella. American Majority and American Liberty Alliance (Odom's organization) are both derivatives of Sam Adams Alliance. The American Liberty Tour advertised itself as "a collaborative project of the American Liberty Alliance, Americans for Limited Government, and the Sam Adams Alliance." NetRightNation is also a project of Americans for Limited Government. The national Tea Party Coalition site is registered to Michael Patrick Leahy of #TCOT, part of the "original organizing crew" of TaxDayTeaParty.com along with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Amy Kremer. Patients First is a project of Americans for Prosperity.

Patients First, which shares the same street address as Americans for Prosperity, was responsible for the summer's "Hands Off My Health Care" bus tours featuring buses with a giant bloody hand on the side. Its tour events have played host to some of the infamous rallies where official speakers compared Obama to Hitler. At an August tour rally in Pueblo, Colorado, speaker Mark Harrison addressed the crowd:

"Part of end-of-life counseling can be an end-of-life order... What does that mean? End of life. Another word for that is 'death'. Order. What's another word for that? A sentence. Now, you folks review with me a little bit; as I recall, Stalin in the 1920s issued about 20 million end-of-life orders for his fellow Russians. Pol Pot did it during the Vietnam War - he issued about two million end-of-life orders. It's being done in Africa today; Mugabe is doing it every day. Adolf Hitler issued six million end-of-life orders. He called his program the Final Solution. I kind of wonder what we're going to call ours."

Various members of the RecessRally.com coalition also belong to the upper echelons of politics and industry.

FreedomWorks is helmed by Dick Armey, former Republican House Majority Leader, and traces its routes back to Citizens for a Sound Economy, a group founded by David Koch of Koch Industries. Koch is the 9th-richest man in America and Koch Industries is the largest privately-held oil company in America. Americans for Prosperity, once part of Citizens for a Sound Economy, was also founded by David Koch who also serves as chairman of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Together the two groups (FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have been the most active supporters of the Tea Party movement.

Howard Rich, a New York real estate mogul who has funneled millions of dollars into anti-big-government efforts (and now also anti-ACORN), is chairman of Americans for Limited Government. He also sits on the boards of the Cato Institute (along with Koch) and the Club for Growth.

Rich has been one of the primary financial backers of libertarian efforts such as Proposition 90 in California, which would have severely limited the ability of the state government to collect new taxes. One of Rich's associates, former executive director of the National Libertarian Party Eric O'Keefe, has served on the boards of Americans for Limited Government, the Club for Growth, and the Institute for Humane Studies. He also worked for Citizens for Congressional Reform, (pdf) a project of Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy. He also happens to be chairman and CEO of the Sam Adams Alliance.

John Tillman serves on Sam Adams Alliance's board of directors along with O'Keefe. Tillman also served as president and COO of Sam Adams Alliance during its "start-up phase". Before working at Sam Adams Alliance, Tillman served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government, also during its start-up phase.

Some of the organizations affiliated with RecessRally.com also have a history of media-driven campaigns for conservative causes.

Let Freedom Ring, for instance, is helmed by Colin Hanna, a Philadelphia-based former commissioner. According to its website:

Let Freedom Ring was formed to counter the attacks of anti-conservative groups on patriotic candidates as well as attacks on the important issues of our day - those that affect the core of our society: the family, marriage, the economy, energy, abortion, health care and foreign policy, to name just a few. We also work to keep our constituents and the media informed about what our founding fathers' intentions were and how history shapes laws and our culture today.

Hanna is the man behind a grisly ad featuring planes hitting the World Trade Center in order to drum up support for the Iraq War. The group also worked on a documentary about the faith of George W. Bush, Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Zell Miller. Let Freedom Ring is supported by, among others, John Templeton Jr., the wealthy son of a famous investor. Templeton co-chaired the Faith and Values Steering Committee for Republican candidate Mitt Romney's failed presidential campaign and supported Proposition 8 in California, banning gay marriage.

The backers of these groups have known and worked with each other for years. Including many political elites from right-wing American politics, the connections behind RecessRally.com seem to demonstrate less a spontaneous groundswell of government opposition than a synchronization of populist outrage with old-school conservative campaign strategy.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

• Tea Party Patriots
• FreedomWorks
• Tea Party Express
• Americans for Prosperity
• American Liberty Alliance
• Sam Adams Alliance
• American Future Fund
• RecessRally.com
• The Media

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Follow Dawn Teo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dawnteo

Follow Alex Brant-Zawadzki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/beezling

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 4: Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement (Sam Adams Alliance)

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

Samuel Adams was the brewer and patriot who, in 1773, ginned up a mob of Bostonians dressed as Native Americans which conductedhistory's original Tea Party. The president of Sam Adams Alliance is John Tsarpalas, former executive director of the Illinois State Republican party. Eric O'Keefe, SAA'schairman and CEO, is a former executive director of the National Libertarian Party. He once worked for Citizens for Congressional Reform (pdf), a project of David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy. Along with noted Libertarian financier Howard Rich, O'Keefe sits on the board of directors of Americans for Limited Government.

Shortly before online activist Eric Odom helped kick-start the Tea Party movement, he was new media director for Sam Adams Alliance. This put him in charge of (among other things) setting up websites, coordinating Facebook groups, managing Twitter accounts and other social networking tasks. Odom's first known acts as a Tea Partier were to set up theOfficialChicagoTeaParty.com site and Facebook pages within hours of Rick Santelli's February rant, then spreading word through Twitter, initially utilizing #TCOT, a Twitter list and hashtag for Top Conservatives on Twitter.

Both Odom and another former Sam Adams Alliance staffer, Ken Marrero, are now leaders of American Liberty Alliance. Odom is executive director and Marrero is director of grassroots outreach and coalitions. Marrero was a regional new media specialist with Sam Adams Alliance. In July 2008 he described Sam Adams Alliance as "an outgrowth of, I think, visions and dreams from some people who started at Americans for Limited Government."

John Tillman served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government during its start-up phase as well. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Tillman grew Americans for Limited Government "from a single, part-time employee in May of 2004 to a staff of approximately 25 that had a significant impact on political activity in 13 states in 2006."

Tillman is also president and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. Within hours of Rick Santelli's rant, Kristina Rasmussen, who had just been hired as the Executive Vice President by the Illinois Policy Institute that morning, helped kick start the Chicago Tea Party by participating in a February 19 conference call to plan the event. Rasmussen, who was then the Director of Government Affairs at National Taxpayers Union, was the second speaker on the call. Tillman also serves on Sam Adams Alliance's board of directors and was president and COO of Sam Adams Alliance during its start up phase.

Odom formed American Liberty Alliance in March of this year through a combination of the gift of Sam Adams Alliance's blogivists.com, a conservative blog hosting hub, and the #DontGo movement, founded by Odom in 2008 to support offshore drilling.

American Liberty Alliance is not the only Sam Adams Alliance affiliate in this fight, however. American Majority, a self-described "political training institute", is a "concept" of Sam Adams Alliance, which in turn describes itself as AM's "sponsor". American Majority staff includes former George W Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun, regional field director for Bush/Cheney '04Lonny Leitner, former Republican state legislator Shari Weber, and former director of operations at the Oklahoma Republican Party, Matt Pinnell.

American Majority also got involved this summer on Sam Adams Alliance's American Liberty Tour, offering organizer trainings prior to each tour event. The Tour itself was billed as a project of American Liberty Alliance, Sam Adams Alliance and Americans for Limited Government.

Long before Sam Adams Alliance's recent website redesign, they altered an internship recruitment page that connected Sam Adams Alliance to Koch Industries: "Interested parties can apply for a Sam Adams Alliance internship through the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program administered by the Institute for Humane Studies and the State Policy Network." The internship is still listed on the IHS website. Charles Koch founded the IHS. The internship page existed up until the site's ongoing redesign, but recently the Koch reference was absent from the Sam Adams Alliance website. An article in Playboy Magazine, taken down almost as soon as it was posted, claimed the Koch reference was scrubbed on Feb. 16. Three days later, Santelli's supposedly-spontaneous rant kick-started the Tea Party movement, enabled by Odom's on-line assistance.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

• Tea Party Patriots
• FreedomWorks
• Tea Party Express
• Americans for Prosperity
• American Liberty Alliance
• Sam Adams Alliance
• American Future Fund
• RecessRally.com
• The Media

Get HuffPost Eyes&Ears on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Dawn Teo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dawnteo

Follow Alex Brant-Zawadzki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/beezling

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 4: Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement (American Liberty Alliance)

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

The American Liberty Alliance grew out ofTaxDayTeaParty.com, a website designed to help direct people to their local tea parties in April.

TaxDayTeaParty.com was registered on Feb 28 and AmericanLibertyAlliance.com was registered on March 23, both in 2009.RecessRally.com relied on the same format as TaxDayTeaParty to help direct volunteers to town hall protests, or "Recess Rallies." American Liberty Alliance's executive director, Eric Odom, is an online activist from Chicago by way of Nevada who has worked with leaders of groups like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks since at least 2007, when he organized what he called theConservative Leadership Conference.

Odom has been organizing via the Internet for years. Immediately before starting American Liberty Alliance, he was the new media director for the Sam Adams Alliance (SAA), a Chicago-based group that says it is dedicated to economic freedom and individual liberty. Now Odom is tapping the relationships within the alliance to orchestrate a conservative online renaissance including: blogivists.com, a network of conservative bloggers with an email list thousands strong, gifted to Odom from SAA; a retooled TaxDayTeaParty.com in preparation for Tax Day 2010; and 73Wire.com, which Odom calls "a Huffington Post of our own."

This summer, the American Liberty Alliance launched the American Liberty Tour, a coast-to-coast bus tour ferrying Joe the Plumber, among others, around the country to stimulate opposition to health care reform as well as to offer citizens "candidate training, blogger breakfast meetings, activists training and large scale Liberty Rallies." The American Liberty Tour described itself as a "collaborative project of the American Liberty Alliance, Americans for Limited Government and the Sam Adams Alliance." The tour held events in conjunction with Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project. Beck has effectively co-opted much of the energy of the movement and is seen as one of its leading figures, along with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

In a blog post now absent from TaxDayTeaParty.com, Odom claimed to have been a part of the "original crew" behind TaxDayTeaParty.com and the Tea Party movement in February 2009 with his associates Ken Marrero, Michael Patrick Leahy of #TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter), Tea Party Patriots founder Amy Kremer, and Stacey Mott of Smart Girl Politics. Odom's story is disputed by one of his fellow Chicago libertarians, who wrote on April 14th (the eve of Tax Day) that the Libertarian Party of Illinois (LP-IL) started a Tea Party group on Facebook back in 2008 and that Odom was simply a member of that original group. LP-IL Chair Dave Brady said:

This all is kind of frustrating because LP Illinois gets no credit for this project. Eric Odom, a member of LP Illinois, and our original group, created his own website and facebook group and aligned directly with Santelli. We have kept our facebook page active to reflect the initial start date of this whole movement weeks before Santelli.

The first post on the wall of the party's Boston Tea Party Chicago Facebook page (found here) is dated Feb. 11, eight days before CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's rant inspired many of the ensuing tea parties.

Despite Odom's extensive history in online and offline organizing, he described American Liberty Alliance in an October fundraising email as a "newbie grassroots organization". American Liberty Alliance used to list its leadership on its website. Along with Odom, that leadership included: David Yardley, former Michigan Republican congressional staffer; Allen Fuller, Odom's partner in the twin firms Flat Creek Management and Strategic Activism LLC; Corrine Williams, former policy analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee; Amy Hagerstrom, founder of the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity; Ken Marrero, who founded the #DontGo movement with Odom; and Ali Akbar, executive editor of HipHopRepublican.com and president of Republic Modern Media.

Akbar, who has served as the American Liberty Alliance's technology consultant, creates plenty of Republican websites. Samadamsalliance.org and Healthcarehorserace.com(another Odom/ALA venture) were both designed by Republic Modern, a communications firm that creates content for Republican activists. Currently Akbar's LinkedIn profile lists him as the chairman of American Liberty Alliance. Interestingly enough, Republic Modern'sportfolio fails to list both the Sam Adams Alliance and HealthcareHorserace as clients, though it does include other Odom projects such as #DontGo. Republic Modern also designed the old Sam Adams Alliance site.

Despite its frequent pleas for contributions, American Liberty Alliance is not a non-profit organization. According to its website:

The American Liberty Alliance is not a 501c3, 501c4 or a PAC. We are not registered as a non-profit and we do not raise funds as such. Our primary focus is on content. We publish information and sell advertising on our network of sites. We also occasional [sic] seek contributions from our readers. These contributions are seen as "gifts" to our network and are not tax deductible.

American Liberty Alliance has invited its members to contribute on at least 33 separate occasions since Aug. 10 alone. Neither those emails nor the website mention that American Liberty Alliance is a for-profit venture. On Aug. 23, however, Odom wrote,

We're currently in the process of filing for our non-profit, 501c4 status which will allow us to become even more aggressive in the political environment.

As of yet, American Liberty Alliance is not registered as a 501(c) non-profit organization.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

• Tea Party Patriots
• FreedomWorks
• Tea Party Express
• Americans for Prosperity
• American Liberty Alliance
• Sam Adams Alliance
• American Future Fund
• RecessRally.com
• The Media

Get HuffPost Eyes&Ears on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Dawn Teo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dawnteo

Follow Alex Brant-Zawadzki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/beezling

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 4: Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement (Tea Party Patriots))

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

The Tea Party Patriots is a nationwide coalition of Tea Party groups, that is the de facto face of the movement.

The local groups it represents may include grassroots activists, but the coalition's backers and organizers are among the nation's most powerful strategists, operatives and financiers. TeaPartyPatriots.org lists two major heavyweights among its partners:FreedomWorks, helmed by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, andAmerican Solutions for Winning the Future, a 527 group created by former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The American Liberty Alliance is another listed partner.

It makes sense that the American Liberty Alliance would support the Tea Party Patriots as well as American Solutions for Winning the Future. After all, the American Liberty Alliance is simply an outgrowth of the #DontGo movement, a right-wing online advocacy group that worked in conjunction with American Solutions for Winning the Future in 2008 to lobby in favor of off-shore oil drilling. Both #DontGo and American Liberty Alliance were founded by Eric Odom, an online activist and a self-proclaimed founder of the Tea Party movement. One of Odom's fellow Tea Party activists, Amy Kremer, is the founder of the Tea Party Patriots. Ironically, after involving herself in the rival Tea Party Express, Kremer was ousted from the Tea Party Patiorts, which considers the Tea Party Express to be an Astroturf group under the direction of Republican strategists.

The Tea Party Patriots' email listserv is managed by FreedomWorks staffer Tom Gaitens. This summer the listserv distributed a memo (pdf) from a group called Right Principles outlining the best practices for protesters to disrupt Congressional representatives' town hall meetings during the August recess. It included such advice as, "You need to rock the boat early in the Rep's presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell something out and challenge the Rep's statements early," as well as, "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda."

The Tea Party Patriots listserv also distributed a spreadsheet containing a list of over 100 congressional town halls from late July into September. The list was released by Conservatives for Patients' Rights, a group run by Rick Scott, the ex-CEO of Columbia/HCA, the largest private operator of health care facilities in America. Under Scott's stewardship, Columbia/HCA committed extensive Medicare fraud by overbilling state and federal health plans. When caught, the company pleaded guilty and settled the case for $1.7 billion in fines, the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.

American Solutions for Winning the Future is a 527 group that's been on the scene since 2007. Last year ASWF fought to expand offshore drilling with a campaign dubbed "Drill, Baby, Drill." The campaign was supported by members of Congress and Eric Odom, a Sam Adams Alliance staffer who publicized the movement on Twitter via the #DontGo hashtag as well as through a now-defunct website. Last year Gingrich and ASWF lobbied on behalf of the coal industry, advocating for tax breaks for coal companies. Such acts directly benefited Peabody Coal, the world's largest private-sector coal company, which has donated at least $500,000 to ASWF in 2008 and 2009.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

• Tea Party Patriots
• FreedomWorks
• Tea Party Express
• Americans for Prosperity
• American Liberty Alliance
• Sam Adams Alliance
• American Future Fund
• RecessRally.com
• The Media

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Reading Tea Leaves - Part 3: Tea Parties Organizing, Training For 2010 Under The Radar

By Dawn Teo and Alex Brant-Zawadzki

(originally published in the Huffington Post)

The current consensus among pundits and politicos is that the Tea Party movement will fail in 2010 unless a national leader or organizational structure emerges. These predictions are based on fierce infighting andturf wars that have broken out recently among Tea Party leaders who are grappling for control within the fledgling movement. However, while fights between Tea Party leaders have been highly visible, their efforts to organize and prepare for 2010 have gone largely unnoticed.

So far, the Tea Party movement has been organized in opposition to issues: the stimulus package, cap and trade, and health care reform. However, electoral campaigns and issue-advocacy campaigns are two different animals. In issue-advocacy campaigns, like-minded groups work alongside each other, often at odds, advocating for variations on the same policy. In electoral campaigns, disparate groups (many of whom may be at odds on legislative and policy agendas) come together for a finite period of time for the singular purpose of electing the best available (not the ideal) candidate.

For some, including important figures in the conservative power structure, Tea Parties are a reaction against a floundering Republican Party. For others, Tea Parties are a Republican Renaissance. For the many libertarians in the Tea Party movement, they are a means to bucking the two-party system. Regardless, Tea Partiers of all stripes want the same thing in 2010: electoral victory.

In 2006 when Democrats swept elections and gained a majority in Congress, they did not have a clear leader or singular progressive agenda. Even during the primaries of 2008, politicos fretted and wrung their hands over divisions between Obama supporters and Hillary supporters. Similarly, although some Tea Partiers and their supporting groups are skirmishing over turf, they aren't necessarily working at cross purposes. Disparate Tea Party groups share libertarian ideals, and their work continues in parallel with one another.

Many local Tea Party groups are taking the initiative to prepare for 2010 elections on their own. In at least 21 states, local homegrown Tea Party groups are already recruiting precinct leaders and providing them with formal training. Many are also hosting candidate recruitment and training seminars. Some are hosting multi-day "boot camps" for activists and candidates. In Texas, Tennessee, Illinois, Nevada, Utah, Michigan, Arizona, and New Mexico, local Tea Party groups have set goals of gaining control of enough local offices to control city and county budgets.

Fox News commentators and conservative talk radio hosts are already actively promoting Tea Party preparations for 2010. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mike Huckabee, Michelle Malkin, and others have already begun encouraging their audiences to begin working toward a 2010 Republican victory. They are promoting the Tea Parties and encouraging the "not conservative enough" meme against Republican incumbents engendered by the Tea Party movement.

On Saturday, Glenn Beck announced an ambitious plan to turn his media megaphone into a community organizing pulpit. He already had a list of "912 candidates" and an "In or Out in 2010" challenge. Now Beck promises to step up efforts to elect like-minded politicians in 2010 by sponsoring voter registration drives and several day-long educational seminars culminating with the release of his upcoming book The Plan, which he will launch on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in August 2010 on the National Mall. The Plan will detail Beck's 100-year plan for America. Beck's educational "conventions" will include policy-specific education, community organizer training, and Beck's personal take on history and economics (god help us).

From day one, well-funded libertarian groups have been commandeering the Tea Party movement for electoral gain. American Majority, along with their sponsoring organization, Sam Adams Alliance, and several other like-minded groups, are sponsoring a National Tea Party Convention. Local Tea Party leaders attending the convention will participate in workshops, seminars, and organizing training. Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker.

American Majority is also co-sponsoring PrecinctProject.com, along with RedState.com, to provide online training to Tea Partiers to "take back the Republican Party."

The American Future Fund, one of the well-funded organizations that organized Tea Parties over the August recess, is already hard at work trying to get robocall restrictions lifted to make it easier and cheaper to conduct robocalling operations during the 2010 elections.

Eric Odom, who is most often characterized as the Tea Party founder, is organizing week-long 2010 Tax Day Tea Parties across the country through his new organization American Liberty Alliance (and his former employer Sam Adams Alliance). In each city, the week will kick off with a full day of activist training on Saturday, April 10. Tax Day Tea Party protests will be held on Thursday, April 15, and the week will culminate with door-to-door voter canvassing on Saturday, April 17.

Odom announced recently that he is re-joining the GOP, but he qualified his support for the GOP by saying his new Liberty PAC (1) will not support any incumbent Republican, (2) will help libertarian candidates defeat Republican incumbents that are not conservative enough, and (3) will educate the electorate on why it makes sense for Republican candidates to be Scozzafava'd. Odom explained his plan, "Love or hate the Republican Party, it's our only vessel in the short term."

The same Tea Party leaders (like Odom) who made NY-23 a lively battle will likely make 2010 Republican primaries just as contentious. But after the primaries end, Tea Partiers will likely fall in line. After all, far-right activists who refuse to vote for moderate Republicans in primary elections are even less likely to vote for a Democrat in the general election.

This article is the third in our series, Reading Tea Leaves. Read them all:

• Part 1: Tempest in a Teabag: Tea Party Founder (Re)Joins the GOP
• Part 2: Making Tea for 2010: Tea Partiers Fight for Their Right to Robocall
• Part 3: Tea Parties Organizing, Training for 2010 Under the Radar
• Part 4: The Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 2: Tea Partiers Fight for the Right to Robocall

By Alex Brant-Zawadzki and Dawn Teo

(originally published in the Huffington Post)

If you thought the Tea Partiers screaming on your television set over the summer were obnoxious, wait until they're screaming into your phone in 2010 via robocalls -- that is, if the Federal Election Commission sides with Tea Partiers' bigwig beltway lawyers. Conservative operatives who helped organize the summertime protests want to change the way elections are fought nationwide in perhaps the most irksome way possible -- by strong-arming the FEC to overrule state-level restrictions on political robocalls.

Political nonprofit American Future Fund and its associated PAC, led largely by former GOP staffers and operatives, made news this year primarily for its role in facilitating summertime anti-health care reform town hall protests. But the Fund has also been working largely under the radar to lay the groundwork for 2010 elections by discreetly helping Tea Partiers fight for the right to robocall.

Political robocalls are mostly exempt from federal regulations. Federal law requires only that they identify the party responsible for making the calls along with a phone number or snail mail address where the responsible party can be reached. There are no requirements for an expensive live operator, which is a boon to smaller, scrappier organizations with little money. But states often have stricter regulations that keep robocallers in check. For instance, Minnesota has one of the toughest anti-robocalling laws in the country. It requires that calls playing an automated recording either be accepted by the voter to indicate consent (good luck with that) or be preceded by a live operator who must get verbal consent before playing the recording.

The Fund's PAC is asking the FEC to override portions of the Minnesota law, the loss of which would ease requirements significantly for political robocalls. The Fund's lawyers are arguing that the Minnesota law unduly expands campaign finance restrictions (normally the domain of the FEC) by requiring political robocalls to incur the expense of a live operator. While the cost of a robocall averages only five to 15 cents, depending on the state, a live operator can cost anywhere from one dollar to more than two dollars.

A favorable FEC ruling would give federal law precedence over not only Minnesota law, but those of all states whose state-level robocalling restrictions are currently stronger than federal regulations.

A legal document filed last year by the Minnesota Democratic-Farm-Labor Party alleged that the Fund violated election law; the document describes the Fund as "a shadowy nonprofit organization" that "purports to be exempt from tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. But its notion of 'promoting the social welfare' is to send valentines to electorally troubled Republican Senate candidates." Indeed, "shadowy" may be an apt description. When the media began asking the Fund questions last year about who was in charge, the Fund was not forthcoming with answers.

Most observers have speculated that Jill Holtzman Vogel is behind the group, a charge difficult to prove, since 501(c)(4) nonprofits aren't required to disclose information to the public. A reporter at TPM investigated the Fund last year, tracing an address of the organization to the address of Holtzman Vogel's law firm, Holtzman Vogel PLLC. A TPM blogger called the Holtzman Vogel firm and asked if they were behind the Fund, but a representative refused to comment. At the very least, Holtzman Vogel's law firm provides legal representation to the Fund.

Jill Holtzman Vogel is a Virginia State Senator with a distinctive legal repertoire: She is the former Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee, and acted as counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in the Florida presidential recount. Her law firm has been accused ofbacking other groups, like the American Center for Voting Rights, which ironicallydisenfranchised poor and minority voters. The firm's address is listed in some of the Fund's corporate documents, but it is unclear whether the firm does more than represent the Fund as a client.

Nicole Schlinger is listed as the President of the Fund in the Iowa Secretary of State database(view image). According to Schlinger's LinkedIn profile, she's also the former Finance Director of the Republican Party of Iowa and now President of a political telemarketing firm. She describes herself as "Iowa's most prolific Republican fundraiser." Clients of Schlinger's telemarketing firm include Mitt Romney, Senator Charles Grassley, and former Congressman Jim Nussle.

However, the Fund's website lists Sandra Greiner as President. Greiner has a less prominent role in the Iowa Republican Party as a local farmer, activist, local party officer, and former state legislator. Other officers currently listed on the website include a retired teacher, a former Congressional aide, and a recent college graduate.

Although Eric Odom is credited with starting the Tea Party movement ,developing online organizing tools and beginning to recruit protesters on the day of CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's on-air rant, Odom was not alone that day. The Fund put up a petition just hours after Santelli's tirade inviting members to sign up if they planned to support or attend the Chicago Tea Party.

Over the summer, the Fund worked hand-in-hand with anti-health care groups likeFreedomWorks, which is headed by former U.S. House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey. The Fund provided town hall protesters with logistical information on local town halls, along with pre-prepared questions and talking points. The Fund also emailed their "tens of thousands" of members a tool that helped locate legislative town hall meetings.

In a September 14th blog posting on the Fund's website, former Communications Director Tim Albrecht wrote, "AFF Political Action will continue to educate the American public. The tea parties and town halls were no fluke -- those also took work and did not magically appear. We can and must continue our efforts. Thanks for your support of American Future Fund Political Action."

The Fund's plans for the Tea Parties goes far beyond rallies and protests, though, and they are no strangers to sleazy campaign tactics. The Fund's media strategist, Larry McCarthy, produced the infamous Willie Horton ad that is credited for helping sink the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1998. McCarthy, then a senior vice president of Ailes Communications (as in Roger Ailes, president of FOX News Channel), first cleared the Willie Horton ad with television stations, then allegedly changed it after the fact, adding a frightening-looking mug shot of murderer Willie Horton, an African-American. McCarthy reportedly called the shocking image "every mother's greatest fear."

Ben Ginsberg, the Fund's 2008 legal counsel, is remembered not for serving as legal counsel to the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign (alongside Hotzman Vogel), but for resigning that position when it came out that he had been advising the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that perpetuated a ruthless smear campaign designed to denigrate then-presidential candidate John Kerry's wartime military service. After leaving the Bush campaign, Ginsberg stayed on as counsel to the Swift Boaters.

Clearly some next-level political operatives are hard at work readying themselves for 2010. At the front door, the Fund is busy rousing up support through Tea Parties and town halls. At the back door, they are quietly fighting to kill restrictions on campaign robocalling in preparation for the next round of elections. Regardless of the situation on the ground, the people running the Tea Parties know how to win elections and have been remarkably successful in the past. Progressives would be wise to stop laughing at the crazies that jump in front of the cameras and start paying attention to the men and women lurking behind the curtain.

NOTE: Throughout this article, we used "the Fund" to denote both AFF (a 501(c)(4) nonprofit) and its affiliate, AFFPAC (a political action committee), interchangeably.

This article is the second in our series, Reading Tea Leaves. Read them all:

• Part 1: Tempest in a Teabag: Tea Party Founder (Re)Joins the GOP
• Part 2: Making Tea for 2010: Tea Partiers Fight for Their Right to Robocall
• Part 3: Tea Parties Organizing, Training for 2010 Under the Radar
• Part 4: The Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement

Reading Tea Leaves - Part 1: Tea Party "Founder" (Re)Joins GOP

By Alex Brant-Zawadzki and Dawn Teo

(originally published in the Huffington Post)

After years of a love-hate relationship with the Republican Party, the man most often regarded as the founder of the Tea Parties, Eric Odom, announced Tuesday that he is re-joining the Republican Party. This after he posted an open letter to the Republican Party in July in which he said he would be willing to re-join, "if and only if" certain conditions would be met. (His conditions have not been met.) Odom's road to re-joining the Republican Party has been long and full of Tea Party theatrics.

Because Odom acted fast (or had forewarning, you decide) in the hours after Rick Santelli'sCNBC rant, he rose to infamy by building (and controlling) much of the online infrastructure through which the hundreds of Tea Parties were organized across the country throughout 2009. While Odom self-identifies as a "newbie" grassroots leader and has been characterized in the media as rebelling against the Republican establishment, his connections to well-known conservative heavyweights are undeniable and years old.

As a key organizer of the 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference, Odom put together an impressive assemblage of speakers, including former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, then Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee Jo-Ann Davidson, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, and the infamous lobbyist Rick "Astroturf Kingpin" Berman. Last year, Odom organized Roots HQ 2009 (the equivalent of NetRoots Nation for conservatives). In November of 2007, shortly after Rightoberfest, Odom picked up a job as New Media Coordinator for the Sam Adams Alliance, where he worked until just days before Santelli's rant.

Odom has consistently taken controversial public stances against Republican candidates. In 2007 he was in the center of a debate with a Nevada assemblyman who Odom accused of pork barrel spending when he proposed spending money to help pay for housing for veterans while they are seeking medical treatment. Odom used a now-familiar tactic against Ty Cobb -- he accused him of not being a "real" Republican, just not being conservative enough. Odom was later accused of being behind an anonymous website that made vicious attacks of a truly personal nature (most of which were later proven to be untrue) against that same Nevada assemblyman.

At 6:11 AM on February 19, Rick Santelli told the world via CNBC, "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party," in what he later claimed was a spontaneous, "half serious" outburst of anger against the bailouts. In what can only be described as an incredible feat of web programming skills, by 11:36 AM, Odom had rolled out OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com, a professionally designed website where Santelli's rant fans could sign up to organize or attend Tea Parties. Just four days later, Odom posted specific details and locations for Tea Parties that would take place just a week later on February 27.

According to the Libertarian Party of Illinois (LP-IL) Chair Dave Brady, his group created a Tea Party group on Facebook in late 2008, and Odom was a member. According to Brady, when Odom (who was an active member of LP-IL) launched his Tea Party efforts, he effectively hijacked their Facebook page and their tea party idea: "This all is kind of frustrating because LP Illinois gets no credit for this project. Eric Odom, a member of LP Illinois, and our original group, created his own website and Facebook group and aligned directly with Santelli."

At the time, Odom gave Santelli all of the credit, describing the CNBC rant as authentic and spontaneous. Months later, in May, Odom would take the credit, saying in a blog posting, "I'm the guy who developed both the site and concept for the February 27th Chicago Tea Party."

Most website creators are excited when a new website goes live, especially if it is related to a cause that they are passionate about, but Odom didn't post his new website to his Twitter feeduntil 10:35 PM. He was coy with his followers, imploring them to "wait for Santelli" three times, saying his people were in discussions with Santelli, before posting, "#Dontgo Movement is putting together a Chicago Tea Party Planning Committee http://officialchicagoteaparty.com #optwtp."

Odom did make sure to promote the new Tea Party Facebook page, "Make sure you join this Facebook group. It has the RIGHT orgs running it." Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity(an organization funded, at least in part, by the infamous Koch family of Koch Industries) is listed as the Creator.

Nine days after registering OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com, Odom registered TaxDayTeaParty.com, designed to help protesters register to organize or attend Tea Parties across the country, complete with a substantial list of partner organizations and a state-by-state list of protests being planned for April 15. In March, he created the American Liberty Alliance, which would later become one of the driving forces of the August Congressional recess rallies.

In fact, when Odom created RecessRally.com to (once again) coordinate nationwide rallies on a single day (August 22), Odom reused his TaxDayTeaParty.com formula. Unlike earlier Tea Parties, however, August recess rallies focused on health care reform. They were also much louder, meaner, and promoted by Fox News.

Odom currently manages more than 200 web domains either directly or through his consulting agencies (which include Flat Creek Management and Fresh Vision Media) and his organization (American Liberty Alliance--which, oddly, seems like a nonprofit but is not registered as a nonprofit). He was one of the Tea Party leaders who traveled to NY-23 to stump for the Tea Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, against the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava. Once again, she just wasn't Republican enough.

According to Odom, when John McCain became its presidential nominee, Odom left the Republican Party for the Libertarian Party and supported Bob Barr's presidential bid saying, "I might have taken a different approach if I wasn't voting in Illinois where it didn't really matter." Once Sarah Palin came onto the scene, though, Odom became (and remains) a stalwart Palin supporter. He even registered the website ThanksToPalin.com

In July Odom said he would re-join the Republican Party if and only if the Republican Party leadership (paraphrasing):

1. Gives Odom their blessing.
2. Expels from any future party support or praise any Republican Congressperson who votes for health care reform.
3. Stops being camera whores.
4. Stops asking for money.
5. Promotes (Odom's) Tea Party websites on the GOP website.
6. Stops paying professionals, and hires real activists.
7. Stops holding "idea camps"; stops asking for ideas; and stops co-opting activists' ideas.
8. Starts really attacking Democrats.

Nevertheless, Odom wrote in his blog Tuesday, "I know many of my fellow Tea Party activists are going to hate me for this, but it's time to face reality. The Republican Party must be our vessel in 2010," adding later, "As a libertarian who voted for Bob Barr in 2008, I find it very difficult to state this in a public manner, but I will now be joining the Republican Party."

Just a couple of weeks ago, Odom declared war on the GOP, saying in a blog post about the GOP establishment, "Wake up. The machine is waging war against you."

Odom is also unhappy with the current conservative news outlets. In late September heannounced what he calls a movement-minded news portal and his answer to the Huffington Post.

Earlier this week, Odom announced the formation of a new PAC, telling TPM that Tea Partiers have "lacked the initiative to get involved in the campaign side of politics." Odom vowed, in his PAC-announcement email, that his Liberty First PAC has an initial goal of raising $1 million and will do three things: (1) "refuse to help any incumbents," (2) help "Patriot Candidates" defeat "power hungry politicians," and (3) "build a national educational media campaign to help the general electorate understand what our government is attempting to do to us."

Though Odom has no intention of supporting the current crop of Republicans (and proudly asserts that he will work to defeat many of them), he is making his 2010 stand from within the Republican Party, "Love or hate the Republican Party, it's our only vessel in the short term. We either unify through it and make a stand strong enough to stop this madness in government, or we fracture over third party efforts and meet uncertain political demise."

This article is the first in our series, Reading Tea Leaves. Read them all:

• Part 1: Tempest in a Teabag: Tea Party Founder (Re)Joins the GOP
• Part 2: Making Tea for 2010: Tea Partiers Fight for Their Right to Robocall
• Part 3: Tea Parties Organizing, Training for 2010 Under the Radar
• Part 4: The Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement

What's wrong with American Liberty Alliance?

The real, down-to-Earth grassroots Americans behind American Liberty Alliance, which itself is behind RecessRally.com and numerous other astroturf sites. Because they're not all just a bunch of former Republican congressional staffers, Republican operatives, noted conservative pundits as well as Republican PR/Marketing gurus. Really. I mean it. Not all of them. The administrative assistant seems totally genuine. Okay, that's one...

No one is suggesting that these groups are paying people to attend town hall meetings. And no one is saying it's bad when conservatives organize. The difference: Organizing for America and Health Care Action Now do not stand to profit from the maintenance of the status quo. The insurance companies, health care providers and drug manufacturers who fund groups like ALA, American Majority, Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives for Patients' Rights etc. DO stand to profit from the maintenance of the status quo. Thus, when they spend money to bus people around the country, not to mention disseminating material designed to ELIMINATE debate, not foster it, then all their arguments seem disingenuous.

We all have a right to free speech. That means you can shout whatever you want, but the moment you start shouting over someone else and depriving them of their right to free speech, that's when activism becomes Un-American. If two or more people act to deprive a third party of their constitutional rights, that is known as a Civil Conspiracy and is a legitimate cause of action in a court of law.


AMERICAN LIBERTY ALLIANCE

American Liberty Alliance
25 E Washington Ste 1927
Chicago, IL 69618

American Liberty Alliance
4636 Lebanon Road
#355
Hermitage, TN 37076


CORE NATIONAL STRUCTURE

-John McJunkin, West Regional Field Director
john@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://www.rfcradio.com/shows/john-mcjunkin/

* Conservative radio talk show host on RFC Radio
* "The JunkMan is a life-long conservative with a strong libertarian streak. He engaged in student congress with his high school speech team and served as a legislative intern in the Wyoming state legislature during high school as well. He was an outspoken activist in College Republicans during college, and has become extremely active in conservative politics, particularly from the new media angle, in his home state of Arizona."


-David Yardley, Midwest Regional Field Director
david@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://www.linkedin.com/ppl/webprofile?action=vmi&id=4108514&pvs=pp&authToken=ClPJ&authType=name&trk=ppro_viewmore&lnk=vw_pprofile

* Political past includes working as Special Events and Projects Manager - Republican Caucus
* former Chief of Staff - Rep. Mike Nofs Republican in MI house of reps



-Truman Bean, Southeast Regional Field Director
truman@americanlibertyalliance.com

http://trumanstake.blogspot.com/

* Conservative blogger - As Tennessee’s 2006 senatorial GOP Primary contest began, he joined the blogging community as the primary contributor for Conservatives for Corker.

* Beginning in December of 2008, he became the Tennessee News Platoon State Editor.


-Bill Murphy, Director of Strategic Initiatives
bill@americanlibertyalliance.com

* Also worked at Leadership Institute, "the premier training ground for tomorrow's conservative leaders; Strategic Advocacy
* Was affiliated with ThanksToPalin.com


- Sarah Desprat, Administrative Assistant
sarah@americanlibertyalliance.com

* Recipient of the Girl Scout Gold Award



-Ali Akbar, Technology Consultant
ali@americanlibertyalliance.com

* Republican web/graphic designer, blogger
* Founder of zine eConservative (http://econservative.org/)
* "There's no denying it, Ali Akbar says. When you're half black and half Arab and at the Republican National Convention, "you stand out like a sore thumb."" http://hiphoprepublican.blogspot.com/2008/09/hey-folks-ali-akbar-made-dallas-morning.html



-Corrine Williams, Communications
corrine@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://www.linkedin.com/pub/corrine-williams/9/27b/b71

* former Policy Analyst at House Republican Policy Committee
* former Senior Policy Analyst at the American Medical Association
* Former legislative asst. for Congressman Adam Putnam


-Amy Hagerstrom, Director of Operations
amy@americanlibertyalliance.com

* PR Manager, Azure Strategies
* founder of the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity
* Worked for Ron Paul campaign


-Allen Fuller, Web Strategy Consultant
allen@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://www.fcreek.com
* Republican political strategist, blogger, owns Flat Creek
* Designed Tennessee Republican Party page for free (http://www.tngop.org/wordpress/?page_id=1326)


-Ken Marrero, Director of Grassroots Outreach & Coalitions
ken@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dontgomovement
* Helped found Don't Go movement (Drill, baby, drill) w/ Odom
* Host of the Don't Go Show at BlogTalkRadio
* Staff Writer, New Media Alliance
* Tea Party organizer


-Eric Odom, Executive Director
eric@americanlibertyalliance.com

* http://ericjodom.com/blog/2009/04/who-am-i/
* Former Republican political activist, now calls himself independent
* Former employee of Sam Adams Alliance
* Helped found Don't Go movement w/ Marrero
* "One of the three key individuals who worked on the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party effort and I built most of the online infrastructure that made mass collaboration possible for the campaign." (http://ericjodom.com/blog/2009/07/my-letter-to-republicans/)