Astroturfing for Fun and Profit

I know too many "tea party" supporters? is that the right word? Guys who go to rallies and buy most of the 'agenda' (if it has one) but don't donate or do any leg work. Guys in Texas who don't know who Dick Armey is (which isn't a good indicator of their political awareness) and think Freedom Works is a completely grass-roots created organic movement.

Unsurprisingly and inevitably, Freedom Works is having some internal trouble.

And Dick Armey gets an $8 Million payout to just go away. $400k/year for 20 years (he should live so long - he's 72). Besides being a nice payday for astroturfing (I apologize for using that term), it's a nice demonstration of an inability to negotiate and compromise. Can't come to an agreement, even when you've got a common opponent you think is creating a socialist state destroying America? Just pay them to go away instead of actually dealing with things.

Of course, it's probably all about money.

So, if true, upset that one guy is taking too much money, Armey takes $8 million. Good work if you can get it.

Worse, Armey might have been initially displaying the rare creature integrity.

It's especially interesting that Politico's doing the muckraking, given that they are effectively the mouthpiece for whatever political operative decides to give them access. Or worse. In any case, the MoJo article is par for the course, but I'm curious as to who is declaring war on Freedomworks by making this a Politico (ie Drudge-feeder) target.

I seriously doubt integrity is an accurate way to assess any of the deciding factors in this case, though, unless you mean it in an honor among thieves kind of way.

Well, there's a suggestion in the article that Armey was worried that Kibbe's deal would screw up their tax-exempt status, which sounds like something he might try the Integrity Veil on.

I didn't know Politico was suspect, I don't read it per se, not sure how I got there from the AP reporting.

That is a dumbfoundingly huge payoff.

Conservatism is big business!

Does the liberal side of the spectrum have the same degree of operatives like Armey and Rove getting enormous paydays?

If so, I'd love to know. I've never heard anything like it.

It's sort of embarassing. I'm a liberal and I don't even know who the rock-star liberal operator equivalents to Rove and Armey are. Do they even exist? They must!

Panetta's Think Progress gets a lot of PR. I know Mark Penn had a ton of influence.

No. There are a ton of bright, relatively well-off left-wing idealists who'll do equivalent work for nothing or at best for a normal wage. If you want to recruit people to do advocacy for genuinely good causes, you barely even need to advertise. On the other hand, to get people to do evil, you have to pay them something to quiet their conscience.

I had something long and involved typed up, but to snidely summarize: FreedomWorks and American Crossroads are groups that exist purely to provide a political megaphone to their leadership. That sort of thing is uncommon on the Liberal side of the house, because most of their approaches are to do a thing (low income assistance, food assistance, some form of charity or public work) and produce a political message that furthers that. It's hard to sell the message of "we'd like less regulation and more advantages for the rich" without just waging a non stop PR campaign to make it sound like something else.

TL;DR: Currently, the GOP creates groups to speak a message. The Dem groups make their points via action. It's arguable which works better, but I lean towards the version that actually works with communities rather than churns out books and TV spots. This is a bit flippant, but I really can't think of many purely political message left leaning groups. Think Progress is about it? Everything else is ACORN-ish, or Clinton Global Initiative-ish. Not purely media outlets.

edit: and I can't think of many right leaning groups that are action-oriented in community building beyond the Catholic Church.

Good point. I don't think they really get paid the kind of money though. 8 million for leaving a PAC is just nuts.

Probably this feeds into Perlstein's Baffler article you linked a while back, re: conservatism being tied up in grifting.

Not suspect per se, just the usual. (It's a bad word)

Politico is suspect in the sense that they're just going to uncritically and breathlessly pass on whatever any "insider" tells them. It makes it pretty easy for said insiders to use their patina of "journalism" to advance whatever the cause du jour is and for whatever reason the GOP seem to be a bit better at exploiting them. Politico's also got an almost singular focus on day-to-day horserace stuff that doesn't matter at all, as opposed to substantively engaging with issues, which is another huge mark against them in my book.

Politico is terribly guilty of politics as a sporting event. Spend five minutes reading their frequent Arena segment to see exactly why it's a terrible site with a terrible focus.

I don't even know who Lanny Davis is!

Apparently I was. That or he didn't make an impression. Given my biases (policy good horse race bad) probably that's not surprising.

Is that the proper plural of that or is it "Dick Morrisi"?

Kildorn, you're right. That Arena section is completely vacuous and I would have thought a bunch of the people posting there had better things to do with their time. I wonder if they're getting paid.

Dicks Morris.

Emphasizing the important part of his name. I like it.

What rank does Dick Morris have in the Dick Armey?

Rear Admiral.

Something I forgot about Dick Armey: he spoke about history in such laughably ignorant ways that even Dana Milbank made fun of him.

Dang near is the least comical thing you'll read in the rest of the statements. RIP Historian Armey.

Did Dick Armey and Dick Swett ever debate one another in Congress as such? The existence of those two people was like the 1990s version of the "Dick, Bush and Colin" joke.

Would it amuse you to know that Dick "once sparred" with Anthony...



...Anthony Weiner?

I'm guessing they rubbed one another the wrong way.

Dick Lugar shot them all down.

More on Armey and FreedomWorks - Not sure this has been linked before.

[Armey] is still leaking. Hard numbers on Glenn Beck/Rush PR.

In case people don't click on this link, just read this part:

I knew Armey was crazy. I did not know that he was fucking crazy.