Two Michigan Democrats were arraigned Wednesday on election corruption charges for allegedly propping up of fake tea party candidates in 2010, the Detroit News reports.

Former Democratic Party Chairman Michael McGuinness (right) and ex-operations director Jason Bauer have been charged with forgery, putting people up for office without their knowledge and other charges. The two party leaders allegedly conspired to field phony tea party candidates in an apparent bid to siphon off GOP votes and boost Democrats in two Michigan County Commission races and a state Senate race last year, according to the newspaper. Several of the charges are felonies, some of which carry penalties of up to 14 years in prison.

McGuinnes and Bauer resigned their positions in August. News reports indicate they have not commented on this week's charges.

Last year, as tea party power grew across the country, tea partiers began accusing Democrats and others of using their party label to run fake candidates and skew elections. A lawsuit was filed in Florida last year where Democrats, including then-Rep. Alan Grayson, were accused of creating a Florida Tea Party.

By Mark Davis


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Josh D. Weiss, Special Jenny Beth Martin welcomes attendees to a rally at the Capitol in Atlanta.

It was the most unexpected thing. Jenny Beth Martin was visiting members of Congress in Washington last November when someone called her name.

“Could I have your autograph?” she was asked.

Flustered and a little flattered, Martin scrawled her name across a protest placard her admirer held. Then, to be sure her newfound friend remembered why they were in the nation’s capital, she added words that have become synonymous with political discontent: “Tea Party Patriots.”

Others approached with the same request. Some knew she was to be featured in “Tea Party: The Documentary Film.” Others said they remembered her fiery stand earlier that year outside Congress. Still others said they had heard about her.

It’s a safe bet many more have heard of her now. Time magazine recently named Martin one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The April 29 issue listed the 39-year Woodstock resident among a group including household names from President Barack Obama to Lady Gaga.

In introducing Martin, Time wrote, “Every revolution needs icons.”

Icon? For Martin, the term is like a new pair of dress shoes: shiny, but not comfortable just yet. Three years ago, she was a mom caring for twins while her husband ran a temp agency. Then the business went bust and the Martins lost their home. Jenny Beth Martin found her voice, and has given it to a movement profoundly unhappy with Congress, the president and the general direction of life in the United States.

In the past year, her celebrity has taken her to Washington, New York, Philadelphia and other places where people want to see one of the few luminaries of a movement that prides itself on its lack of stars. So she books her flights, a surprised traveler.

“I never intended this,” she said recently. “I guess I just raise my hand too often and volunteer constantly.”

Becoming a believer

Martin may owe CNBC commentator Rick Santelli a big thank you. On Feb. 19, 2009, he stood on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and blasted Obama’s mortgage bailout plan. “The government,” he yelled, “is promoting bad behavior!” Then, with a nod to U.S. history, Santelli said he should host a “Chicago tea party.”

Tea party. In suburban Atlanta, Martin heard that phrase and felt something stir. She got busy the next day, organizing Atlanta’s first tea party protest. On Feb. 27, Martin and others stood in the rain outside the Georgia Capitol with signs reading “Repeal or Retire,” a message to Congress to drop the economic stimulus plan.

Martin stepped up her e-mails and phone calls, sharing her belief. She and others planned a protest for April 15, the national deadline for filing income taxes. Someone, Martin isn’t sure who, coined the name “Tea Party Patriots.” In June she incorporated the group as a nonprofit political action organization. She is its CEO.

Its principles, she said, are simple. It wants the government to embrace fiscal responsibility, calls for a constitutionally limited government and urges free-market economics. An umbrella organization, it now claims 1,800 chapters with 15 million members.

The April 15 protests, held across the country last year, made a splash. And Martin, who coordinated speakers’ appearances at the Atlanta protest, made a discovery.

“I enjoyed it,” said Martin, who’d tasted politics a few years earlier working with the Georgia GOP. She wanted more.

Staying on meassage

On Sept. 12, 2009, about a half-million people descended on Washington for a “9/12” tax protest organized by Fox News personality Glenn Beck. They turned eyes to the stage, where a youngish woman addressed them in a Southern drawl.

“We were not loud enough in February, in April, in July,” said Martin. She turned to the alabaster buildings where lawmakers gather. “Can you hear us now?!”

Martin thinks her life changed at that moment. The Tea Party Patriots became a wave of believers, with Martin riding its crest.

And while the movement she helped start has caught fire, it has also drawn fire. Some extremists, including white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, have sprung up in and around it. Opponents of gay marriage and abortion have tried to ally themselves. Martin is emphatic: These folks weren’t invited to the party.

“We do not discriminate,” she said. The movement, she said, includes Democrats as well as Republicans, blacks as well as whites. “We all love this country passionately.”

There’s also the assertion that the organization has a disproportionate number of “birthers” who claim Obama was not born a U.S. citizen so is in the Oval Office illegally.

Martin sighed. “The governor of Hawaii said he [Obama] was born in Hawaii. That’s good enough for me.

“This is not about President Obama,” she said. “This is about the issues.”

Personal boom and bust

The daughter of a Methodist minister, Martin graduated from East Rome High School and attended Reinhardt College, where she met the handsome president of a fraternity. She went on to UGA, and he did, too. Lee and Jenny Beth Martin wed in 1992.

She got a job programming computers with Home Depot. Lee founded Indwell Corp., specializing in supplying temporary workers. They bought a five-bedroom house in a Woodstock subdivision. They had twin Lincoln Navigator SUVs, a yard service, a club membership. She quit her job and in 2003, gave birth to a boy and girl. Things looked good.

Then Indwell failed, prey to a faltering economy and what Martin described as her husband’s unscrupulous former business partner. Lee Martin took out loans and used credit cards to try to keep Indwell operating, she said. In 2008, he filed for bankruptcy, with tax debts alone of more than $680,000.

By filing for bankruptcy, the Martins avoided paying debts to some creditors. They still owe the IRS and state.

“We’ll have to pay them,” said Martin, who has not shied from talking about the family’s financial misfortunes.

These days, her husband repairs computers. As head of the Tea Party Patriots, Martin draws a monthly salary of about $6,000. “I didn’t start this to get a job,” she said.

The house is gone; so are the Navigators. The Martins bought a $2,100 heap, which recently broke down. Last week, they started getting around in a $27-a-day rental car.

“One of the most influential people in the world?” she asked. “We can’t even afford to buy a car.”

‘A sort of everywoman’

Martin does not have a posse, does not court the limelight. Her ordinariness, supporters say, is part of her appeal.

“She’s a sort of everywoman,” said California lawyer Mark Meckler, the Tea Party’s national coordinator.

Meckler thinks Martin’s appearances across the nation, as well her role in “Tea Party: The Documentary Film,” caught the attention of Time’s editors.

She was a perfect choice for the movie, said Luke Livingston, executive producer of the 105-minute film. “She’s a real hero of the movement,” said Livingston, also of Woodstock. He compares her to a “shepherd, making sure everybody has a place [in the movement] and can get activated.”

Julianne Thompson of Suwanee, a coordinator of the Georgia Tea Party Patriots, recalls the 9/12 rally in Washington, and watching Martin electrify the listeners, she said.

Martin, for her part, seems a little embarrassed by such uproar.

“This,” she said, “is a grass-roots movement. We’re all leaders.”

Yes, but some people stand apart from others. Someone has to be the most influential.

For the Tea Party movement, for the moment, that someone is Jenny Beth Martin.

--------------------

How influential?

Can the Tea Party Patriots change the face of American politics? Jenny Beth Martin believes they can.

Some experts, though, aren’t convinced they will. Other such movements, they say, have flowered briefly, only to wither without making much of a difference.

“Ultimately, they will fade out,” predicted Steve Anthony, a lecturer at Georgia State University and the former director of the state Democratic Party.

The organization, said Anthony, may see its ideals co-opted by a larger party — in this case, the GOP — and fizzle out. “If they are any good at all ... one of the two major parties will take their issues over,” he said.

Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia since 1968, noted that other leaders have reached out to disgruntled voters in the past. In 1964, presidential candidate Barry Goldwater appealed to unhappy conservatives; eight years later, George McGovern turned to discontented liberals in his bid for the White House. Each failed.

The tea party movement’s test, he said, will come in the elections this November. Its grade will be posted the next day, when political watchers tally the win-loss record of candidates the Tea Party Patriots endorse.

“A year later, we may look back and say, ‘The tea party was much ado about nothing.’ ” he said. “Or we may not.”

Mark Davis

The conservative "tea party" movement appeals almost exclusively to supporters of the Republican Party, bolstering the view that the tea party divides the GOP even as it has energized its base.

That conclusion, backed by numbers from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, also suggests that the tea party may have little room for growth. Most Americans -- including large majorities of those who don't already count themselves as supporters -- say they're not interested in learning more about the movement. A sizable share of those not already sympathetic to the tea party also say that the more they hear, the less they like the movement.

Overall, the tea party remains divisive, with 27 percent of those polled saying they're supportive but about as many, 24 percent, opposed. Supporters overwhelmingly identify themselves as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents; opponents are even more heavily Democratic. The new movement is also relatively small, with 8 percent of supporters claiming to be "active participants" -- about 2 percent of the total population.

But from a political standpoint, the most important cleavage is within the Republican Party.

The percentage of people who say the Democratic Party represents their personal values and is in tune with the problems of people like themselves hasn't changed since November. The percentage siding with the GOP, however, has dropped by almost precisely the numbers now siding with the tea party.

Some 14 percent of Americans say the tea party is most in sync with their values, nearly matching the 15 percentage-point drop-off for the GOP over the past five months.

The data speak to the challenge facing Republicans during this year's primaries and midterm elections, as they try to harness the energy of the tea party movement and weld its activists to Republican causes and campaigns. About one in five Americans say the tea party is more in tune with the economic problems people are now facing, a figure that jumps to 31 percent among conservative Republicans.

Elizabeth Smith, 28, an educator and Republican from Columbia, Ga., said she was drawn to the tea party not because her support for Republicans has waned but because the tea party gave her an outlet to express her unhappiness with government.

"It doesn't divide the party," said Smith, who is most upset about the bailouts of the financial and auto industries. "It's the only way people can raise their opinions. As a group, Republicans aren't protesting. But the tea party is protesting."

Anti-government sentiment runs high in the poll, with about seven in 10 saying they are "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the way the federal government works, the most to say so since just after the government shutdown ended in early 1996. Nearly half of all those angry with how Washington works say they support the tea-party movement. Nevertheless, most voters say they won't be swayed by a candidate's association with the tea party, and more say that would drive them away from such a candidate than to support him or her.

But the potential impact in GOP primaries may be another matter.

More than a quarter of all Republicans and 36 percent of conservative Republicans say they're more likely to back a tea party-affiliated candidate as are 39 percent of those who consider themselves to be "very conservative."

Staff writer Krissah Thompson and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Published: April 16, 2010

Okla. tea parties and lawmakers envision militia

AP – Al Gerhart, co-founder of the Sooner Tea Party and founder of Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance, is shown …

By SEAN MURPHY and TIM TALLEY, Associated Press Writers Sean Murphy And Tim Talley, Associated Press Writers – Mon Apr 12, 7:09 pm ET

OKLAHOMA CITY – Frustrated by recent political setbacks, tea party leaders and some conservative members of the Oklahoma Legislature say they would like to create a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.

Tea party movement leaders say they've discussed the idea with several supportive lawmakers and hope to get legislation next year to recognize a new volunteer force. They say the unit would not resemble militia groups that have been raided for allegedly plotting attacks on law enforcement officers.

"Is it scary? It sure is," said tea party leader Al Gerhart of Oklahoma City, who heads an umbrella group of tea party factions called the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance. "But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?"

Thus far, the discussions have been exploratory. Even the proponents say they don't know how an armed force would be organized nor how a state-based militia could block federal mandates. Critics also asserted that the force could inflame extremism, and that the National Guard already provides for the state's military needs.

"Have they heard of the Oklahoma City bombing?" said Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma. The state observes the 15th anniversary of the anti-government attack on Monday. Such actions could "throw fuel in the fire of radicals," he said.

But the militia talks reflect the frustration of some grass roots groups seeking new ways of fighting recent federal initiatives, such as the health reform plan, which requires all citizens to have health insurance. Over the last year, tea party groups across the country have staged rallies and pressured politicians to protest big government and demand reduced public spending.

In strongly conservative states like Oklahoma, some legislators have also discussed further action to fight federal policies, such as state legislation and lawsuits.

State Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, a Republican candidate for governor who has appealed for tea party support, said supporters of a state militia have talked to him, and that he believes the citizen unit would be authorized under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

The founding fathers "were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren't even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other," Brogdon said. "The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government."

Another lawmaker, state Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, said he believes there's a good chance of introducing legislation for a state-authorized militia next year.

Tea party leader J.W. Berry of the Tulsa-based OKforTea began soliciting interest in a state militia through his newsletter under the subject "Buy more guns, more bullets."

"It's not a far-right crazy plan or anything like that," Berry said. "This would be done with the full cooperation of the state Legislature."

State militias clearly are constitutionally authorized, but have not been used in recent times, said Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and an expert on the Second Amendment. "Whether someone should get a militia to go toe-to-toe with the federal government ... now, that strikes me as kind of silly," he said.

Some conservative legislators in Oklahoma say talk of a militia, which would be privately recruited, armed and trained, goes too far.

"If the intent is to create a militia for disaster relief, we have the National Guard," said Sen. Steve Russell, R-Oklahoma City, a retired Army lieutenant colonel. "Anything beyond that purpose should be viewed with great concern and caution."

Democratic Gov. Brad Henry's communications director Paul Sund also discounted the militia discussion, saying the National Guard handles state emergencies and security.

Federal authorities say that radical militia groups have not emerged in Oklahoma, unlike many other states, in part because of the legacy of the Oklahoma City bombing. On April 19, 1995, an anti-government conspiracy led by Army veteran Tim McVeigh exploded a truckbomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.

Last month, FBI agents conducted a raid on the Hutaree militia group in southern Michigan and accused members of plotting to kill law enforcement officers.

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of building from Alfred P. Murray to Murrah.)

Updated April 05, 2010

Rep. Cohen: Tea Partiers Show 'Hardcore' Anger Without 'Robes and Hoods'

FOXNews.com

Rep. Steve Cohen is the latest public official to suggest Tea Party supporters have a racist agenda, telling an Internet radio show last week that the activists have shown a "hardcore angry side" of the country, only "without robes and hoods." 

By RON FOURNIER (AP) – April 5, 2010.

WASHINGTON — The tea party is making a lot of noise, but the angry-at-government movement has yet to establish itself as a force that can determine the outcome of November's congressional elections. The key could be forging alliances with GOP candidates, but tea partiers in nearly every state are leery of that if not downright opposed.

"The day there's an organized tea party in Wisconsin," says Mark Block, who runs tea party rallies in the state, "is the day the tea party movement dies."

The Associated Press reviewed tea party chapters across the country, interviewing dozens of local organizers as well as Democratic and Republican strategists to produce a portrait of the movement to date — and its prospects for tipping congressional elections this fall. Though it's far too early for any long-term verdict on the tea party — even defining what short-term success would be for its members can be a challenge — the AP found that:

_The embryonic movement is not as much a force that drives public opinion as a reflection of it.

_Local chapters are underfunded, loosely aligned and often at odds with one another.

_The lack of a single leader, issue or strategic goal sets them apart from most politically potent movements.

America's tea party is a hodgepodge of barely affiliated groups, a home to the politically homeless, a fast-growing swath of citizens who are frustrated with Washington, their own state capitals and both major political parties. Most describe themselves as conservatives or libertarians. They rarely identify themselves as Democrats.

Last year's rise of the tea party closely tracked polls showing declining faith in government, confidence in the nation's future and approval of President Barack Obama and Congress. Government bailouts and Obama's trillion-dollar push to overhaul the U.S. health care system proved too much for people like Ralph Sprovier, a regional coordinator for Illinois Tea.

"We're regular people who are p---ed off at our government — period, end of story," says Sprovier. "Defend us, don't spend more than we have, get the budget balanced and listen to what we say."

But listening doesn't guarantee understanding. Tea party regulars back candidates who support debt reduction. Or free markets. Or states' rights. Or civil liberties. Or tort reform. Or term limits. Or abolishing federal agencies. They champion some of these issues — but not always all of them — and sometimes many more. Generalizing the movement is a fool's errand.

This we know: Tea parties know how to produce crowds. In the footsteps of the Boston Tea Party more than two centuries ago, organizers use e-mail, social networking and other electronic tools to draw enormous numbers of disaffected Americans together. Some wear Revolutionary-era garb and carry signs bearing the language of 18th century patriots — "Don't tread on me!" is a popular one.

But rally building is no big trick in the era of Twitter and Facebook, when people with cell phones can summon crowds for events as frivolous as snowball fights and bursts of song.

Beyond rallies, the movement thins out.

Too broke to buy a copy machine, a tea party group in Alaska plucked a copier from a landfill.

A chapter in Kansas lost its only laptop, and with it the group's membership list.

Unversed in media management, two local leaders suggested in a nationally broadcast interview that they favored abolishing Social Security. Democrats quickly assigned that view to the entire movement.

The organization seems strongest in places where lobbyists and GOP party operatives like former House Majority Leader Dick Armey pull levers. Their involvement hardly squares with the anti-political sentiment that drives grass-roots activists like Bill Hennessy.

"I'm not into politics," the Missouri rally organizer says.

The tea party itself is not a political party — and there are no signs it ever will be.

"That's the beauty of it," says George Burton, a Minnesota electrician and history buff who dressed in period garb for a rally he organized in Brainerd, "We don't take any orders from anybody."

The tea party has no single issue around which people rally — taxes comes closest — and it has no clear leader who drives the organization's message, motivates followers and raises money. Indeed, the hundreds of tea party chapters and tens of thousands of its activists cannot agree on the most basic strategic goal: whether to try to influence the current political system or dismantle it.

So what does that mean for November?

With no candidates of the tea party's own, Republican strategists still hope tea party groups will align with the GOP to defeat Democrats. They want the movement to share its e-mail lists, raise money for the party and send its volunteers to the homes of likely Republican voters. That could make a difference in dozens of races.

If the tea partiers stay apart?

"The American experience is if you don't go through one of the two major parties or you don't home in on a single issue as a litmus test, it's very difficult to be impactful across the country," says Matt Schlapp, a White House political director in President George W. Bush's first term who currently advises congressional candidates.

"We know who we are against," says Justin Holland, organizer for the North Alabama Patriot Tea Party. "We don't quite know who we are for yet."

That is one of many differences between tea partiers and past movements that made a mark. In the 1990s, a period of voter disenchantment not unlike today, Ross Perot's supporters formed a third party. Perot lost, but he carried enough votes to influence two presidential races, and his positions on trade and deficit reduction remained in the political bloodstream.

Perot's former running mate, Pat Choate, says the tea party is far from establishing itself as a lasting movement.

"The real test, seems to me, is whether or not they decide to field candidates," he says.

For many, that's a tough sell.

"I've already been involved in party politics," says Gia Gallegos of Reno, Nevada, "I don't want another party."

So far, tea party groups lack the galvanizing issue that made the anti-tax movement a success in California decades ago.

"I understand what they're angry about because they're angry about some of the same things that I'm angry about," says Ken Khachigian, an aide to Republican presidents who is now a GOP consultant in California. "But it's a disparate force right now, and movements don't have an effect until they have some cohesion behind them."

It pains Republicans like Khachigian to concede that the movement is not leading directly to GOP gains.

Says Schlapp: "Republicans who assume this is a Republican effort or something playing right into the Republican playbook are making a big mistake."

Despite its potential value, the movement worries GOP candidates, particularly out-of-touch incumbents, he says. "For many Republicans and Republican strategists, this is too organic and uncontrolled, and that's a little scary for them."

The tea party gained political credibility after Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts' special Senate election. But activists were not key organizers in his race. The question is whether tea party-affiliated voters would have backed Brown anyway, given that many are conservatives.

Upcoming GOP nomination contests will offer further tests. Republican strategists are keenly watching Senate GOP races in Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida and Utah, where victories by tea party-backed candidates could tilt the party to the right.

In Arizona, former presidential candidate John McCain turned to his former running mate — tea party favorite Sarah Palin — to help stave off a primary challenge from the right.

In Florida, tea party darling Marco Rubio is making waves in his effort to upset Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary. But is that cause or effect?

Republicans wonder whether the tea party is bringing new voters, new money and new volunteers to Rubio or simply stirring his conservative base.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Justice's wife launches 'tea party' group

The nonprofit run by Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is likely to test notions of political impartiality for the court.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, she said: “I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great.” (Roger L. Wollenberg, UPI/Newscom / November 15, 2007)

 

Reporting from Washington

As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken, Midwestern cadence, the story of her involvement in the "tea party" movement is the tale of an average citizen in action.

"I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama's "hard-left agenda."

But Thomas is no ordinary activist.

She is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and she has launched a tea-party-linked group that could test the traditional notions of political impartiality for the court.

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles," she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election, although Thomas would not specify how. She said it would accept donations from various sources -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

"I adore all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country," Thomas, who goes by Ginni, said on the panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great."

The move by Virginia Thomas, 52, into the front lines of politics stands in marked contrast to the rarefied culture of the nation's highest court, which normally prizes the appearance of nonpartisanship and a distance from the fisticuffs of the politics of the day.

Justice Thomas, 61, recently expressed sensitivity to such concerns, telling law students in Florida that he doesn't attend the State of the Union because it is "so partisan." Thomas, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush, has been a reliable conservative vote since he joined the court in 1991.

Experts say Virginia Thomas' work doesn't violate ethical rules for judges. But Liberty Central could give rise to conflicts of interest for her husband, they said, as it tests the norms for judicial spouses. The couple have been married since 1987.

"I think the American public expects the justices to be out of politics," said University of Texas law school professor Lucas A. "Scot" Powe, a court historian.

He said the expectations for spouses are far less clear. "I really don't know because we've never seen it," Powe said.

Under judicial rules, judges must curb political activity, but a spouse is free to engage.

"We expect the justice to make decisions uninfluenced by the political or legal preferences of his or her spouse," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers, an expert on legal ethics.

Virginia Thomas declined to comment in detail about her plans for LibertyCentral.org, which she said would fully launch in May. In a brief phone interview, she did not directly answer questions about whether she and her husband had discussed the effects her role might have on perceptions of his impartiality.

"I don't involve myself in litigation. Are you asking that because there's a different standard for conservatives? Did you ask Ed Rendell that question?" she said, referring to the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, who is married to a federal appellate court judge.

Virginia Thomas has long been a passionate voice for conservative views. She has worked for former Republican Rep. Dick Armey of Texas and for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with strong ties to the GOP.

In 2000, while at the Heritage Foundation, she was recruiting staff for a possible George W. Bush administration as her husband was hearing the case that would decide the election. When journalists reported her work, Thomas said she saw no conflict of interest and that she rarely discussed court matters with her husband.

"We have our separate professional lives," she said at the time.

In fall 2008, when Thomas joined Hillsdale College as an administrator, she called the school's Washington campus "the safest place for me to be when it comes to conflicts." Her new endeavor could signal a return from that shelter.

Although Liberty Central is a nonpartisan group, its website shows an affinity for conservative principles. Her biography notes that Thomas is a fan of Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, author of "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America."

"She is intrigued by Glenn Beck and listening carefully," the bio says.

As in her appearance at the panel discussion, the website does not mention Clarence Thomas.

The judicial code of conduct does require judges to separate themselves from their spouses' political activity. As a result, Marjorie Rendell, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has stayed away from political events, campaign rallies and debates in Pennsylvania. Her husband discussed such issues in his first campaign for governor.

Since then, Judge Rendell has sought the opinion of the judiciary's Committee on Codes of Conduct when a case presents a possible conflict of interest involving her husband's political office, she said.

Law professor Gillers said that Justice Thomas, too, should be on alert for possible conflicts, particularly those involving donors to his wife's nonprofit.

"There is opportunity for mischief if a company with a case before the court, or which it wants the court to accept, makes a substantial contribution to Liberty Central in the interim," he said.

Justice Thomas would be required to be aware of such contributions, Gillers said, adding that he believes Thomas should then disclose those facts and allow parties in the case to argue for recusal.

But it would be up to Justice Thomas to decide whether to recuse himself. He could not be reached for comment.

As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Liberty Central can raise unlimited amounts of corporate money and largely avoid disclosing its donors.

Because of a recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, the group may also spend corporate money freely to advocate for or against candidates for office.

Justice Thomas was part of the 5-4 majority in that case.

khennessey@tribune.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Judson Berger 

 - FOXNews.com

 - January 19, 2010

Black Conservatives Take Lead Role in Tea Party Movement

Though the tea party movement has attracted criticism for its supposed lack of diversity, minority activists who are involved say the movement has little to do with race, and that it is attracting a more diverse crowd every day. 

Lloyd Marcus' conservatism started when he was 9. 

His family had just moved out of the "ghetto" to a brand-new high rise in Baltimore -- within months, he said, the "dream come true" turned into a nightmare, as the building of welfare-collecting black residents became a den of crime. 

His father moved the family out as soon as he got a job with the city fire department, but "my cousins never escaped," Marcus said. He cried as he told the story. 

Marcus, a black conservative who is now involved in the growing tea party movement, attributes the problems of his childhood neighborhood, his extended family and the black community in general to a "cradle-to-grave government dependency" that in the case of his cousins enabled an idle life of crime and drug abuse. 

To Marcus, President Obama's policies perpetuate that dependency. That's why, he says, it baffles him and other black conservatives when the tea party movement is dismissed as somehow anti-black, as a rowdy bunch of ignorant, white protesters who have it in for the nation's first black president. 

"This is the nicest angry mob I've ever seen," Marcus said. 

Marcus is one of a number of black conservatives who have joined up with, and helped lead, the conservative tea party movement since its inception. Though the movement has attracted criticism for its supposed lack of diversity -- MSNBC host Chris Matthews recently called the groups "monochromatic" and "all white" -- those minority activists who are involved say the movement has little to do with race, and that it is attracting a more diverse crowd every day. 

"I think a lot of black people are waking up from their Obama night-of-the-living-dead fog," Marcus said. "They were walking around like zombies going Obama, Obama, Obama." 

He and other black conservatives connected with one of the hundreds of tea party groups across America were largely active in conservative and Republican causes before the movement's start in early 2009. They spoke and wrote about the need for smaller government, lower spending and lower taxes and warned that Obama's candidacy would pose a threat to those values. 

But in the tea party movement they found a group that not only reflected their views but provided a platform. 

Marcus campaigned with a group against Obama in the 2008 election. But the Florida resident, who is a musician, gained a degree of fame in the tea party world a year ago when he cut a "tea party anthem" song -- in it, he belted about the dangers of wealth redistribution to a gospel-sounding backup track. 

"In less than a week, the song was national," Marcus said. He was asked to sing at an Orlando tea party rally last spring and has since performed at rallies across the country. He's traveled cross-country on both Tea Party Express tours and plans to join up for the third tour this March. 

Marcus does not advocate for the creation of a third party, but said the tea party groups should serve to pull the Republican Party back to the conservative roots from which it has strayed. 

William Owens, a black author and publisher who with his wife traveled on the Tea Party Express tours with Marcus and has spoken at just about every stop along the way, also came out strongly against Obama in 2008. He published the book, "Obama: Why Black America Should Have Doubts," before the election, in an attempt to address what he called a "misguided passion" toward the former Illinois senator in black America. 

When the tea party movement started, he said he found a way to build on what he was already doing, outside the Republican Party system which he calls out of touch. He first spoke at a rally in Las Vegas on tax day last April. 

"It was just a natural fit," Owens said. 

He said the rallies are still "mostly white," but that more blacks are getting involved. He took particular umbrage at Matthews' comment, blasting out a press release that criticized the MSNBC host for "pushing conservative black Americans to the back of the media bus." 

Owens now publishes a journal documenting the tea party cross-country tours. The Multi-Cultural Conservative Coalition is also sponsoring the next leg of the Tea Party Express. 

Despite the enthusiastic involvement of black conservatives in the tea party rallies and trips, Obama still enjoys seemingly unshakable support from the majority of black Americans. A recent poll from Gallup put Obama's approval rating among blacks at 91 percent. Among whites, that number was 42 percent. 

Tea party groups also might not be doing themselves any favors when some of their supporters are photographed holding somewhat shocking signs at rallies -- such as one last year that said, "The White House has a lyin' African." 

But such demonstrators may be the exception. 

Charles Lollar, a Maryland-based tea party supporter who is black, said there's no validity to the racism charges. 

"I've seen black faces in the crowd. I've seen Latino faces in the crowd. ... It's not a movement of color. It's not a movement of party. It's a movement of principle. It's a movement of America," Lollar said. 

Lollar started speaking at tea party events last winter and said his biggest motivation is opposition to the stimulus package -- both the $787 billion package that passed last February and the sequel that some Democrats are trying to push this year. 

Lollar has since parlayed his activism into a high-stakes campaign. The Charles County businessman is hoping win the GOP nomination to challenge House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in the congressional midterm this November. 

"When we beat him in November, it's going to send a strong message across the country," he said. 

Lollar, whose previous post was as chairman of the Charles County Republican Central Committee, has an uphill battle to unseat the nation's second most powerful House Democrat.

Hoyer has been in office nearly three decades, and his latest campaign finance report put his available cash at $1.3 million. Lollar said he's raised $40,000 -- he aims to raise $2.5 million by fall. 

Lollar is running from within the GOP apparatus. But it remains to be seen whether the party establishment will reach out to other tea party conservatives like him to ensure they stay loyal to the Republican Party and not challenge it like Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman did in New York state. Hoffman, who is white, pushed out the Republican candidate in the race for Congressional District 23, and ended up losing narrowly to Democrat Bill Owens. 

David Avella, executive director of Republican recruiter GOPAC, said his organization hasn't been actively mining the tea party movement for state and local candidates but that the groups could prove fertile ground for candidates. 

"Many in the tea party movement are Republicans who want to make sure the party gets back to its fiscal discipline days," he said, calling those activists natural "allies."

Tea partiers point to recent political coups they say demonstrate the movement's broadening influence and appeal. And they say they feel a certain freedom in the scattered leadership of the movement, as opposed to the top-down style of the GOP.

"I think it's great that we have all these different organizations and they have nobody in charge," Marcus said. 

Marcus cited Hoffman's influence in the New York race as well as Republican Scott Brown's bid for the Massachusetts Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy. Brown, while not sprouting from the tea party movement, is supported by it as he enjoys a late-in-the-game surge in the race. 

"This is a movement that has swept the country," Marcus said. "It has really been the rebirth of conservatism in America." 

Interestingly, Marcus said he used to work with one of Obama's biggest supporters, Oprah Winfrey, decades ago at a local station in Baltimore before she moved to Chicago. 

The two have since lost touch, he said.